Operationalising Strategy: An Evaluation of Strategy in Public Relations Campaigns

In public relations planning, strategy plays a critical role in determining how organisations respond to and manage environmental relationships and demands. However, despite extensive international research into the planning elements of research, objective setting, and evaluation techniques, research into practitioner application of public relations strategy is limited. This exploratory study seeks to provide an empirical foundation for understanding practitioner use of public relations strategy by analysing 106 Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) Golden Target Award submissions from 1997 to 2001. The sample demonstrated attention to both communication and action components of strategy, however, there was little evidence for a preference between singular or multiple strategy approaches. No consensus appeared on the use or non use of message strategy, however, specific channels and combinations of channels were favoured, as was the specification of tactics within strategy statements. This study’s outcomes suggest that practitioners need a greater awareness of the key components of strategy in order to strengthen their strategy statements and differentiate their approaches, while demonstrating their effectiveness in achieving organisational outcomes. The findings are significant to marketing communication strategy development given the contribution of public relations to this area.