Social Media & SEO

Even if you don’t share the company’s belief in the inherent, liberating benefits to humanity of Facebook, it’s hard to deny the power of the social network to expand the reach of brands to new audiences. And when we say brands, we don’t mean just B2C brands.

Engagement and ingenuity ruled the day at PR News’ 2013 Digital PR Awards luncheon, as more than 200 agency and in-house PR executives gathered to celebrate the top digital campaigns of the past year at New York’s Grand Hyatt on Nov. 5, 2013.

The Cap’n Crunch brand, with the help of agency HUGE, was able to capitalize on a Reddit item saying Cap’n Crunch was not a real captain, using the online “controversy” to boost the brand’s online presence and garner international media coverage.

Through a 3D texting and driving simulator, AT&T, with the help of FleishmanHillard, has seen its “It Can Wait No Texting While Driving Movement” gain significant momentum among teens; for example, more than 1.6 million have taken the pledge to not text while driving at ItCanWait.com and through Facebook, Twitter, simulator events and text-to-pledge initiatives.

Cone launched The Nature Valley Trail View—a digital platform offering 300-plus miles of immersive content for three of America’s most iconic national parks—at South by Southwest Interactive 2012 with the help of Mashable, inspiring unusually positive social media chatter for a CPG company like General Mills.

The Western city of Chengdu is not high on the list of must-see destinations in China. To change that, Ogilvy & Mather took to Facebook and leveraged the iconic and lovable giant panda.

After photos surfaced of Prince Harry enjoying a night in Las Vegas that included a game of strip billiards, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reminded the world that what happens in Vegas really stays in Vegas, and drove traffic to a “Know The Code” microsite, where people could pledge to keep Las Vegas secrets secret.

To change the perception about the brand among its customers, utility company Ameren Missouri and agency partner Weber Shandwick launched a Facebook campaign designed to reward unsung heroes who instill positive change and community progress.

Havas and Ford teamed up for Ford’s Warriors in Pink: Fighting Breast Cancer with the Power of Digital Storytelling campaign, which has had two record-breaking years in a row; in fact, in that time, it has raised more than $938,000 from people who read stories, saw the documentary “Bang the Drum” or got a tweet and then felt inspired to go to fordcares.com and buy Warriors in Pink products.

After a Reddit user posted an image pointing out that U.S. Navy captains have four stripes on their uniforms, while Cap’n Crunch only has three and thus is not a real captain, the Huge team crafted a clever and customized response using the relaunched the @RealCapnCrunch Twitter account that elevated the Cap’n into national conversations.