Since we all go gaga for cats – when you Google the words “YouTube” and cat” together, you get 1.63 BILLION results – you can simply use the most famous kitty internet sensations as examples of some good, basic PR strategies.
How to position your brand
Although a unique captured moment on video (such as cat mum hugs baby kitten) will easily give a pet owner 15 minutes of Youtube fame, it takes a more peculiar pussy to stay in the viral limelight longer.
Successful internet cat owners have found their pets’ niche, unique brand if you will, and milked it. For instance, Maru has an insatiable curiosity for boxes, Tardar Sauce is always grumpy, Hamilton has a trendy hipster moustache and Colonel Meow looks like a bloodthirsty warlord.
For purrfect PR: These cats are good examples of unique brand positioning. Don’t be a copy cat in PR,
define that niche that makes your client stand out from their competitors, and let potential customers know that no one does what your client does, and no one can do it better even if they tried to.
How great content is made
The famous felines of the internet have all found their unique “voices” when it comes to content creation, which helps them to further spread the message of their brand.
Grumpy Cat hates pretty much everything, Hamilton the Hipster Cat wears ‘flasses’ (that’s fake glasses) and does #throwbackthursdays on insta while Colonel Meow plots world domination and calls his followers “minions”.
For purrfect PR: Once you’ve sparked customers’ interest in your unique brand, you need to keep their attention with compelling content. Great PR wins the customer with entertaining, helpful and engaging content – told with a unique voice that captures your brand.
How to spark engagement
There are thousands and thousands of grumpy cat memes all over the internet – but interestingly, a big percentage of them are actually created by grumpy cat fans (such as the meme at the top of this article post, made by moi), not the grumpy cat owner!
And forget planking, owling and Teebowing – Colonel Meow created an internet craze by urging his minions to post images of them doing the #catfro. Yes, that’s using your cat as an afro.
In other words, these clever kitties have their fans doing a lot of the work for them.
For purrfect PR: A successful social media PR campaign is so engaging your potential customers will do the work for you. In PR and digital marketing circles this is known as user-generated content. Get creative by encouraging people to share content, images, hashtags or videos – the more creative and ‘sticky’ your campaign is, the more engaged customers you are likely to attract. And an engaged customer is more likely to remain loyal to your brand!
These are just some basic PR strategies – we wouldn’t expect more from internet kitties! And although these pawsome pussies provide some useful insights, making a brand go viral takes a good idea and an even better strategy!
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Mira Palomäki
