Creativity in Public Relations: What Do Award-Winning Campaigns Tell Us?

Abstract

Creativity has become one of the most important features of communication campaigns due to the rise of new technologies. It is also targeted by the public relations sector to gain more attention of their publics. However, creativity is still a vague concept for the public relations field. Therefore, this study reports what creativity means for public relations and how creativity is achieved in the public relations sector. To do this, this study analyses public relations campaigns which are the winners of and shortlisted by PRWeek Awards and PRWeek Global Awards. Findings show that creative campaigns need to send messages that are original and adaptive, new and functional, and potentially useful. They drive consumer response, increase recall and product evaluations and also come up with new ideas, but they still focus on finding new ways to process old ideas.

Citation

Aslan, P. and Ertem-Eray, T. (2018), "Creativity in Public Relations: What Do Award-Winning Campaigns Tell Us?", Public Relations and the Power of Creativity (Advances in Public Relations and Communication Management, Vol. 3), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 185-195. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2398-391420180000003011