The PR in Purpose-Inspired Brand...

The PR in Purpose-InspiredBrand Building

Marc PritchardGlobal Marketing & Brand Building Officer

Council of PR Firms Critical Issues Forum October 27, 2010Presentation Script

Thank you to The Council for inviting me to be here with you.I see many partners here today and it’s very nice to see all of you again.

For those of you who work with me, you know that I’m a big fan of PR. In fact,

I want to let you in on a secret: My Dad was in marketing and the first thing he

taught me about marketing was about the power of PR. He took me to work

one day and said, “Come here, I want to introduce you to Maggie, the Presi-

dent of our PR firm and my right hand partner. PR is the best form of marketing

because it is the most authentic form of marketing. Remember that.”

Purpose-Inspired Brand Building

Well, I still remember that. I’ve seen the power of PR grow as an industry, and at P&G. In the early days, PR was about managing issues behind the scenes. In the late ‘80s it was more important, but still an afterthought and used mostly to announce new product launches. It was in the mid-’90s when I led our Cosmetics business that I experienced the true power of PR. I saw that PR works best when it’s fully integrated into the marketing mix. I saw how PR could build emotional connections between a brand and a consumer. I saw PR build relationships and convert people into becoming brand ambassadors.

The big eye-opener for me was seeing how other beauty companies used PR to generate word of mouth. Does anyone here remember when Chanel launched a black nail polish called Vamp? Everyone was talking about it and it was a sellout with zero advertising. It gained a bunch of industry awards with PR called out as the secret to success.

I remembered my Dad’s words.

And from that point on,

I made a commitment to fully

leverage the power of PR

in marketing.


Today, in my role as P&G’s Global Marketing and Brand Building Officer, we have pressed the “reset” button when it comes to building brands, and PR is central to that transformation.

Now, more than ever,

brands and companies need

authentic engagement with

people, and it is PR’s time

to shine.Technology is dizzying. We live with 24/7 real-time information and we’re totally connected. The reces-sion changed us. The new normal here in the U.S. is doing “less with less,” while people in India, Brazil and China are enjoying rising prosperity. People are more discerning about what they buy. The new heroes are everyday people, because the actions of once-admired icons and institutions have been exposed and have shattered trust and confidence. People demand more from companies and brands – stop the spin, fess up when you mess up, and tell the truth.

So, with technology, real-time information, a new economic reality, and transparency, people’s atti-tudes and lives have changed, and we must change.

We can’t build brands simply through the old way of marketing. People want to know what’s behind brands and companies, and what they value and care about. I believe that means the future of marketing is tied to the future of PR.

At P&G we’re changing our approach to build purpose-inspired, benefit-driven brands in order to touch and improve the lives of the world’s consum-ers. There are four key elements of how we think about building brands at P&G. I’d like to review them because I believe it’s critically important for PR people to also become experts at brand building.


It starts with a clearly defined purpose that defines how a brand uniquely touches the lives of consumers and improves their life. We consider purpose as the soul of the brand that springs from and reinforces the essence of the brand’s core benefit. People buy benefits, and purpose broadens the way in which that benefit can be delivered.

It means shifting our

mindset from marketing to

serving. That means moving

from marketing to people

to get them to do what we

want them to do – buy our

products – to serving people

with our brands to give them

what they want – making

their lives better.

It also means thinking about the consumers that we serve as people so we understand their whole lives, not just their lives as they consume our products. This mindset helps uncover deep human insights – and not narrow product or feature observations. But deep insights that reflect the truths, motivations and tensions in a person’s life that can be solved by the benefits of our brands.

And it’s from these deep human insights that we create big ideas. Ideas that cut through and touch people’s hearts and minds like never before. Ideas that lift the entire brand and make it relevant in people’s lives. Big ideas, so surprising and engaging, that they invite participation in our brand communi-ties and that are amplified by the power of PR.

These key elements of purpose-inspired, benefit-driven brand building all require the power of PR. PR gives brands an authentic voice, it brings to life insights and ideas in a refreshing and engaging way, and it opens the door to a true and meaningful dialogue with people.

I’d like to share a few of my favorite big ideas at P&G, so you can see how we’re bringing purpose-in-spired benefit-driven brand building to life, and how PR has been instrumental in each one’s success.


Let’s start with Head & Shoulders Hair Endurance for Men. The Head & Shoulders brand purpose is “living life without hesitation” because Head & Shoulders gives you confidence that comes from the benefit of dandruff-free, full and thick hair. We needed to engage guys in the world of hair and scalp care which is not an easy task since men don’t seem to care that much. But the truth – or human insight – is that guys do care about their hair and consider it a big part of their identity. And they want full and thick hair with no dandruff. The team of Marina Maher Communications and Saatchi found the perfect spokesperson.

The big idea is that the

secret to Troy Palomalu’s

full and thick hair is Head

& Shoulders Hair Endurance

for Men, and it was PR that

started the conversation

about the brand.


Instead of launching with the ad, we launched with a creative PR idea that leveraged the power of digital media and dynamic, PR-led media integrations.

Head & Shoulders

announced it was taking

out a $1 million insurance

policy on Troy’s

trademark hair. His hair is so much a part of his identity that he hasn’t cut it in over eight years.

The story was seeded with influential online media, and it took off. In less than a week, more than 1,000 stories were generated in media outlets glob-ally, accompanied by thousands of tweets, online conversations and blog comments. More than 600 million online and offline media impressions were generated in a matter of days, and shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live kept the conversation going.

The PR announcement led men and women to troyshair.com, a fun, online community where Troy’s full and thick hair is the star, and guys can explore topics such as who has the most iconic hair in NFL history, take a trivia Quiz-a-malu, win great stuff and even “Polamalocize” their own photos. Troyshair.com had hundreds of thousands of visits in the first couple of weeks alone – more than 10 times the year before. Troy and his Head & Shoulders association also quickly vaulted to the top of the most-searched lists. Thanks to the power of PR, Head & Shoulders has successfully started a conversation – making it fun and acceptable to talk about something men often don’t share: how to get fuller, thicker hair.


The next example is from COVERGIRL. This is inspired by a deep human insight and is an example of transforming a spokesperson into an authentic brand ambassador.

The choice of

Ellen DeGeneres as our

newest COVERGIRL, is an

expression of the brand’s

purpose to let women

“rock their beautiful.”

It’s a reflection of the insight that women have an aspirational – but authentic – view of beauty. As a pop culture icon in her 50s, Ellen is not the classic beauty model, and that’s exactly the point. We know that women want to look and feel beautiful at any age. By using Ellen to represent COVERGIRL and Olay Simply Ageless Foundation, we created an engaging and authentic platform to talk about the brand.

From the start, we viewed Ellen as a brand ambas-sador more than a model, and PR partner Marina Maher Communications was at the center of this discussion and program. Ellen brought COVERGIRL into the pop-culture conversation to engage con-sumers in a surprising and refreshing way.

Ellen speaks directly to

women every day, and

the PR team successfully

leveraged that to deliver

continuous COVERGIRL

beauty news.

Beyond paid integrations, Ellen has men-tioned COVERGIRL more than 40 times on her show during the first two years of our partnership, and her role as a COVERGIRL has delivered 1.5 billion impressions since 2008. And this program is driving brand participa-tion in a very important way – sales. Simply Ageless became the number one anti-aging foundation at retail.


Old Spice’s purpose is to “help guys navigate the seas of manhood.”

We see men beyond

just using deodorant and

body wash. The benefit is,

well… it makes you

“smell like a man, man.”

And the insight is that guys all want to be manly, but deep down, they are secretly afraid that they are not manly enough. So, “Ladies, look at your man, now back at me, now back at your man, now back at me, sadly he isn’t me,” brilliantly taps right into that manhood insecurity. And of course, the solution is simple: at least you can smell like a man if you stop using that lady-scented body wash and switch to Old Spice.

“Smell like a man, man”

became part of the cultural

conversation with PR as

the big megaphone to

amplify the idea and create

participation.


The first commercial was viewed on YouTube 20 million times. Then, a Twitter campaign was cre-ated where people could ask the Old Spice guy questions. The PR team helped select the right people to respond to based on Twitter followings. For example, Alyssa Milano had more than 1 million followers. Nearly 200 videos were shot over just a few days to respond to key influencers like Ellen DeGeneres, Alyssa Milano, but even people like Johannes Beals, a regular guy asking the Old Spice guy to help him propose to his girlfriend.

These one-to-one response videos generated an explosive reaction. The folks at Paine PR jumped on the excitement and made the Old Spice guy an instant celebrity, making the talk show circuit and fanning the flames. Engagement continued to skyrocket with a 2700% increase in Twitter followers, 800% increase in Facebook interaction, a 300% increase to the brand website, and 140 million YouTube views including some creative fan-generated spoofs.

In just a few short weeks, this campaign gener-ated over 2 billion PR impressions and we’re still seeing coverage today. This is a powerful example of the power of PR to give ideas a megaphone to amplify big ideas and invite participation.


The last example I’d like to share is P&G’s first Corporate campaign that debuted at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. We took this step because people want to know what’s behind the Company, what it stands for, what it cares about and what it values.

We found that when people

discover what P&G stands

for, they feel better about

the Company and better

about the brands that are

part of it.

We created an idea that unites the purpose of P&G, which is to touch and improve lives, with the purpose of the Olympics, which is to make life better through sport. At first glance, P&G and its brands have little to do with the Olympics, except this: ev-ery Olympic athlete has a mom, and moms are with their children every step of the way, nurturing and encouraging them, and helping them realize their dreams. P&G is in the business of helping moms. We help her care for her family every step of the way – from diapers, to laundry to brushing their teeth. Mom is the unsung hero of the Olympic Games and of life itself, so we simply took the time to recognize her and thank her.

This commercial “Kids” ran during the Open-ing Ceremonies right before the United States Olympic Team entered. This ad really got me. It taps into the universal human insight that to moms, their children will always be viewed as kids. P&G wants moms to know that we recognize this emotional point, and celebrate it with her.


Many of you may have heard the ad story, but what you may not know is the PR story. I was thrilled to have a big idea with P&G as the “Proud Sponsor of Moms” but I knew that an advertising campaign was not enough. PR would be essential so we challenged ourselves and our partners Taylor PR and DeVries PR to create some acts of generosity. We discovered that many athletes’ moms can’t attend the Olympic Games because of financial hard-ships. It just seemed unacceptable to us to know that families couldn’t make the trip to the games after all the hard work and sacrifice to get their children to the Olympics stage. So we provided a “Thank you mom” gift to offset travel costs and we made sure that all 270 moms of Team USA athletes made it to Vancouver. It is hard to describe how meaning-ful this was to these moms. One family had to shut down their family business during the games. Another family lost their rental prop-erty in Vancouver due to a real estate scam and this rescued them. The Thank You Mom Gift truly served moms.

We also discovered that once the families made it to Vancouver, they weren’t allowed in the Olympic Village so they often never saw their children. So we built the P&G Family Home, where they could relax and get together with their children, friends and families and enjoy such services as the Pampers Playroom Village, the Pringles Game Room Lounge, the Crest Smiles Center, the Tide Laundry Service and the Beauty Spa. This Family Home became the PR center for our entire Olympics program, generating story after story about the authen-tic engagement between P&G people and the athletes, moms and their families. We had a medal ceremony for Hannah Kearney, a couple got engaged, and snowboard gold medalist Seth Wescott gave his mom a birthday cake – the first time they celebrated her birthday together in 12 years.

I know this audience will be proud to hear the PR impressions exceeded those from TV ads. We generated 6 billion impressions and 1/3 of them were from PR. 2,800 stories were generated, including coverage in The New York Times, USA Today, and People Magazine, CNBC, Entertainment Tonight, Good Morning America and The Today Show. On the digital and social media front, 1 billion impressions came from traffic on our website, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Even better, P&G’s favorability rose by +10 full points and we generated over $100 million in extra sales in just a 17-day period.

So, the Olympics were an example of purpose-inspired brand building at the corporate level, and PR was central to bringing depth, authen-ticity, and engagement to make P&G’s Olympic program part of the national conversation.

From these examples, I trust you can see the impact PR is having on P&G’s purpose-inspired brand building today. And I truly believe that PR will continue to grow its impact in the future.

Here’s why:

• PRisthegreatamplifiertomakebigideasevenbigger.

• PRstartsandbuildsmeaningfulconversationsand humaninteractionsaboutabrandanditsbenefit.

• PRhelpstoshapedeeperbrandrelationships.

• PRinherentlyinvitesparticipationbecauseitinvolves word-of-mouth advocacy. I believe that PR and social media are inseparable – or at least close cousins – and that opens up new possibilities for engagement on a one-to-one and one-to-many basis.

• AndasmyDadtoldme,PRisauthentic.Itplaysa central role in building a brand’s credibility, and in today’s transparent world, the advocates for a brand must truly believe in the brand and the company – whether that is a celebrity, influencer or a consumer.

I believe that this is one of the most exciting times for the future of brand building, and a big reason is the power of PR. And to help transform brand building, I would ask PR professionals to consider a few actions:

•Getexpertiseinallformsofmarketingand brand building. Brand building is a team sport, and you don’t need to play all positions, but you need to know enough to make sure the team operates as an integrated and powerful force.

•Stakeyourclaimindigital.Makedigital and social media absolutely integral to how you operate. It is a critical communications capability to listen, engage and create conversations with people and get them to participate in our brand communities.

•Createbigideas.PRcanbothstart conversations and amplify ideas, so your role is critical in driving big ideas that build our brands and invite participation.

I’m looking forward to working with PR to help transform brand building into one of the most im-portant positive forces in the world for doing well, but also for making change for the good. I believe it’s PR’s time to shine.

Thank you for having me to your meeting.

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