I was privileged to attend Seasons of Love last night at the Royal Albert Hall, a celebration of the love, life and times of the WI Calendar Girls. I was asked to assist them with their PR back in 1999. I knew straight away that the unique take on raising money for charity would capture the public's imagination. Classic marketing training told me so. There was a clear and unique story, an obvious audience and a good way to get the message out. Good PR practice, therefore, helped an amazing story go global. Social media has changed the landscape PR works in yet somethings remain unchanged. Whilst it is now possible to engage consumers of news directly and encourage them to contribute to stories and features, you can't get away from the basic building block of what's the story angle, who do you want to tell the story to and why should they be bothered?
