How To Enhance Your Digital PR Campaigns With Good Design

PR and design are separate entities which require entirely different skill sets, right? Wrong! In the world of Digital PR, agencies and brands alike need to recognise how both PR and design go hand in hand, in the sense that they are both forms of communication.

Design is visual communication, and PR is a linguistic form. Both attempt to express a message or story to the audience, and, when used together, they can communicate a more powerful story. Both can capture attention, shape perceptions and build a brand. As the Digital Creative and PR Assistant at Kaizen, it’s my job to identify and nurture the crossover between these two concepts.

Design builds brand identity

Creating a successful brand identity is essential for any company that wants to build a solid customer base. Brand design should act as a business pillar, enhancing its strengths, identity and appeal.

At Kaizen, we understand the importance of cohesive branding in our campaigns. We work with our clients’ assets to tell the best stories and connect them back to the client, and we do this to reach potential customers both online and offline.

For example, we recently ran two separate campaigns for Lovehoney, one which demystified toxic traits with a handy glossary, the other highlighting the top bedroom disaster hotspots in the UK. In both cases, it was essential to include Lovehoney’s iconic purple and red colour scheme, bringing the campaigns back to the client and creating a cohesive narrative that fits with Lovehoney’s brand.

Design builds social presence

This attitude should carry over to social media design. Digital PR designs need to not only communicate the client’s campaign story effectively for journalists but also align it with the challenges of each social media platform.

Social media often has limited space and functionality for a lot of information, so reducing the campaign to its essential elements can be difficult. Simplify your campaign design for social media to score engagement and tell a story quickly.

Imagery, typography and visual hierarchy are just a few ways you can do this with your campaign. Make sure your design supports both client and campaign, communicating information in a satisfying and engaging way to the human eye. This will play an integral role in maintaining a successful PR campaign.

Design strengthens ideas

Good design should include a healthy balance of contrasting elements and, most importantly, be visually interesting. A well-balanced composition will feel stable and cohesive; an imbalanced one will feel chaotic and jarring. The correct contrast between images and text will make it easy to comprehend. 

Visual hierarchy is equally important. By drawing the viewer’s attention to particular elements such as key facts and statistics, you create a system that will guide the viewer’s eye across the composition. Make use of repetition, rhythm, and patterns to capture attention in an e-mail, press release or on-page copy. 

We channelled these principles in a recent German market campaign we ran for Betway, which communicated the most popular and most attractive Formula One drivers. Our design team combined lots of data with a clever list presentation, capturing journalists’ attention.

If these elements are used correctly, your journalist is more likely to stay engaged with your content from start to finish. So, next time you’re creating content, keep these principles in mind to take your campaigns to the next level.

Interested in working with our team of Digital PR experts who can bring your campaigns to life with beautiful design? Get in touch today.