How an Unusual Story about a Badger Showcased the Value of Combining PR and Social Media
YOU may, or may not, have heard the story of a badger that made international news multiple times over the last year.
No? Well, for the benefit of those of you who missed it, back in February 2020, a badger fell through the roof of a Superdrug store at a Northampton shopping centre as it hid from Storm Ciara.
Thankfully, said badger was ok but unsurprisingly, she created something of a storm as news spread across international and national media like wildfire and garnered a great deal of unexpected media coverage for both Superdrug and Grosvenor Shopping Northampton.
However, what this incident truly showcased is how powerful PR can be when you combine it effectively with social media.
In the end, what started as just as an unusual event turned into a PR campaign that generated results beyond my wildest imagination, dominating the news cycle not once but twice, while the BBC’s Greg James also revealed it was his favourite story of 2020.
By the end of the year, a plaque had also been erected at the shopping centre, while a local business had also taken the opportunity to create limited edition fridge magnets — both to commemorate the event.
This is how we achieved it…
Making the most of an opportunity to have a bit of fun and engage the nation
Let’s start with a bit of context.
At this time, I was working for a Leeds-based agency, a specialist in retail marketing, and one of my clients was, you guessed it, Grosvenor Shopping Northampton.
I managed the PR and was also in charge of the social accounts at the time of the incident. On 10 February 2020, our media monitoring tools had exploded with news about a badger that had fallen through the roof.
Over 100 pieces of coverage had been recorded in less than 24 hours. The badger was safe and sound and released back into the wild. That could have been the end of the crazy matter.
Instead, with the eyes of the nation on this story, we decided to have a bit of fun and without thought and planning launched a simple, yet effective, campaign… to name the badger that fell through the roof on Grosvenor Shopping Northampton’s Facebook page.
Northampton. Badger. Update
Once it had gone live, we coupled this with a press release that not only went to local media but to all of the national journalists that had covered the story, too. The result? More coverage was secured, as well as a live radio appearance for the store manager.
Solely from a social media perspective, the post was — again unsurprisingly — the shopping centre’s best performing post of the year, achieving 194 likes, 327 comments, and 62 shares as the social community clambered to be part of this story.
Local Northampton media were all over this. We agreed with BBC Radio Northampton that the winning name would be announced live on their breakfast show. The winning name was Baffle, suggested by Kirsty Shields, much to the displeasure of Greg James, who played the reveal on his BBC 1 show during his daily ‘Northampton Badger Update’ segment.
Again, the story could have ended there. It didn’t.
Bring on the plaque!
During the live name reveal, the centre manager of Grosvenor Shopping Northampton said — tongue-in-cheek — that the next step would be to erect a plaque outside the Superdrug store and to rename the walkway to remember the day Baffle the Badger fell through the roof at the shopping centre.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, BBC Radio Northampton loved the idea… so much so that they got in their early request to officially reveal the plaque live on air when it was ready.
Ah well, we’ve started now. We might as well keep it going!
There’s no doubt that the plaque would have been revealed far sooner than it eventually was at the beginning of November. We have COVID-19 to thank for that, but once again, nine months after the story originally broke, Baffle the Badger dominated the media.
All of the above, achieved with a simple opportunistic social media post to directly engage an awaiting audience, and a couple of press releases to gently push the story along. After that, the rest was all media liaison as we sat back and watched the coverage fly in with a wave of social notifications.
All of this, and Baffle will never have a clue that she was at the centre of what is likely to be the most unusual campaigns I am ever involved with.
Question time… We’re in 2021, but is social media still undervalued in the PR industry?
I’ve sat on this blog for a while but at the end of 2020, I reached out to a couple of my fellow PR professionals to get their thoughts on the relationship between PR and social, asking them the question, whether the latter is still undervalued when it comes to PR activity.
Becky Stead, a Digital PR Specialist at 43 Clicks North, told me: “Just a few years ago it would be unusual to find PR and social media to be mentioned within the same sentence. However, the question now is not which one is better, but how can they be used together?
“Social media is often found at the bottom of the agenda for businesses as it is, at the core, a free platform. There is no barrier to entry to get your brand in front of your customers through social, so there is often that stigma that ‘anybody can do it’.
“It does take a professional to elevate your profile and build your brand through social media, however. Anybody can post content but it takes that specialist expertise to make it worthwhile.”
We’re not just talking about engagement and cover here, PR and social can specifically have an impact on ROI when done incorporated as part of a strategy.
Jamie Love, CEO at Monumental Marketing, said: “We have used press articles in social media advertising for a luxury fashion brand and saw the cost of acquisition decrease massively.
“Also, we’ve used celebrities/influencers for story creatives for Instagram advertising and saw the cost per acquisition half. Although it may not have a direct effect on ad spend, PR can make the spend work much harder and definitely increase your ROI for the same investment.”
Top tips for any business wanting to make the most of their PR and social media
It’s something I see time and again — businesses putting all their eggs in the PR basket and then neglecting to effectively use their social media channels to amplify good news stories.
It’s something I preach to our clients here at Hallam on a regular basis.
Social media is NOT just a tool for amplifying your latest offer. When used effectively, it can be a place to share good news directly to your audience and potentially your next customer, showcase your business in the best light, to communicate effectively, generate engagement, and maybe — as was achieved on a large scale for Grosvenor Shopping Northampton — create your next piece of PR.
If you’re still with me up to now and still reading, you’re the best! Here’s my list of top tips you can deploy to ensure you’re effectively combining your PR and social media:
- Be your own voice — share good news stories across your social networks to ensure your direct audience are catching wind of it
- Promote employee advocacy — the more people that are shouting positively about your business and the work you are doing, the better. Check out Gymshark on LinkedIn to get a good idea of how this can work well for business.
- Follow the conversation — by utilising social listening, you can find out what social users are saying about your brand, which might help you produce your next piece of content or PR
- Discover new opportunities — by searching for #journorequest on Twitter, you can find out what questions journalists are asking and pitch your business and views for opportunities
- Control your messaging — heaven forbid, if you find yourself in dealing with a piece of negative coverage, use your social channels to control the messaging
- Ask yourself the important question — and lastly, if you’re launching a PR campaign, ask yourself the question. How can I use social media to amplify this and engage directly with my audience?
Until next time.
