Blog Discussion Period 2

Our second and final individual blog case study discussion begins on Monday, Oct. 29. I would like to kick off this discussion by addressing a unique example of how one person can inspire a world-wide movement through simple yet powerful communication strategies and tactics. I hope this encourages you to think out of the box in terms of public relations and have some fun with our discussion at the same time. Remember, for our discussion to succeed (and for you to achieve the desired outcome), each of you needs to post early, comment often, and invest creativity and intellectual energy in this assignment.

Searching Shel Holtz’s public relations blog, I found a reference to a social marketing campaign called Free Hugs. I started to collect information about the public relations aspects of this campaign by watching the movement’s video on YouTube. Click on the following image to watch the video, with theme music by Sick Puppies.




Inspired by the images and music on this video, I drilled deeper. I reviewed the Free Hugs campaign official Web site and discovered that the movement was launched spontaneously in an airport in Sydney, Australia by Juan Mann (allegedly a pseudonym for one man). Juan explained how his campaign began in the airport: “Standing there … watching other passengers meeting their waiting friends and family … faces, hugging and laughing together, I wanted someone out there to be waiting for me. To be happy to see me. To smile at me. To hug me” (Mann, 2007, paragraph 6).

Thus, Juan engaged in little or no research before launching his campaign – but this is understandable, since the campaign began informally. However, I would add that Juan probably engaged in informal research. For instance, as he was “watching other passengers” (Mann, 2007, paragraph 6), he was practicing empirical observation (see the Wilson, 2000 readings). When Juan decided to make a sign that read “FREE HUGS” and stand at a busy intersection in the airport he engaged in participant observation, which is also a form of primary research. Still, he did little to identify specific audiences, instead picking public places like busy airports and city streets to interact with people at random. He was interested, however, in finding out more about people’s interest – or stake – in hugging!

Likewise, I could find little evidence that he did any formal planning for his campaign. His campaign seemed to evolve from his first spontaneous encounter in the Sydney airport. As he repeated this social experiment in other locations around Sydney, he was told that he had to stop because he did not have the required insurance and other permissions for his public demonstrations. As a result, he decided to start a petition, with the goal to enlist supporters for his actions. His overall message seemed to be clear. From Juan’s Web site, I know that he believes in the power of the human spirit to overcome social ills and give us hope. According to Juan, “In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal” (Mann, 2007, paragraph 2).

Juan Mann’s communication and evaluation activities were the most interesting aspect of his public relations campaign. First, just Google free hugs and you will see 4,450,000 results! He has his own Web site, a MySpace site, numerous videos on YouTube, a long entry in Wikipedia, appearances on major news media outlets like the Oprah Winfrey Show, and an active blog. He has executed many other communication tactics across various media channels.

While I couldn’t find evidence of Juan having established any formal goals, he seems to have achieved phenomenal success in spreading his messages about hope, the human spirit, and physical contact. You can find evidence of this in his Google returns and the way his message has spread like a virus across the Internet.

In terms of evaluation, it’s worth considering how Juan achieved this success:

1. Can we attribute this to excellent public relations, which is defined as management of communication between an organization and its publics (e.g., Grunig & Hunt, 1984)?

2. Or is the success due to an Internet-based viral marketing campaign? Public relations is often confused with marketing. The two practices are similar but have important differences. Cutlip, Center, and Broom (1999) wrote: “Marketing is the management function that identifies human needs and wants, offers products and services to satisfy those demands, and causes transactions that deliver products and services in exchange for something of value to the provider” (p. 7). Furthermore, Wilson (2000) (not the same Wilson from our readings) defined viral marketing as “any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication [and channels like the Internet] to explode the message to thousands, to millions” (paragraph 4).

Finally, thinking back to that petition that Juan planned in Sydney to allow him to continue his demonstrations, he obtained a very quantifiable 10,000 signatures, which enabled him to keep spreading his message.

Overall, I think this is a most interesting, worthwhile and successful public relations case. How about you? Also, what do you think about the public relations versus marketing aspects of this case?

Mark

P.S. If you liked the music behind the video, check out the Sick Puppies promotional music video, below. Oh, and how about a hug?