PR News Recap— March 2021
The end of March is upon us and so is our March PR News Recap. Members of the Publications Subcommittee are here to recap some of our top news stories of the month in the world of public relations and communications. This time around we have Harry Styles, brackets galore, and a new initiative from Instagram regarding COVID-19 vaccinations. See more below:
Harry styles at the Grammys — Christina Billie
On March 14, 2021, Harry Styles opened for the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, performing one of his hit songs, Watermelon Sugar. His fans were going wild on social media, as this was his first time getting nominated for and performing at the Grammys. Fans were saying on TikTok that they were only going to watch the Grammys to see if Harry Styles won and to see his opening performance.
After his performance, videos of him were circulating around the internet with his leather outfit and feather boa. In the coming days, there would be videos of people reacting to his performance, his acceptance speech for Pop Solo Performance, and him leaving his Grammy on stage after walking off. This has been all people are talking about on social media apps like TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram.
Overall, this performance and outfit choice was great public relations for Harry Styles. All of this got his fans attention, but it also got the attention of people who may not be his fans.
March Brackets — Zach Ferenchak
A huge part of American culture in March is the hype and social conversation around March Madness, the NCAA collegiate basketball tournament featuring 64 teams.
Similar to the Super Bowl, this sporting event has generated a ton of brand engagement. PRSSA even got in on the action with our March Membership Mania campaign (see the winners here). It almost seems like every brand or organization in the U.S. was participating in some kind of bracket-related campaign this month. At this point, what we really need is a bracket of brackets.
Here are some of my favorite brackets not related to March Madness:
- IGN’s “Super Movie Madness” bracket
- Morning Brew’s “Greatest Product of All Time” bracket
- This local restaurants bracket I made for my campus newspaper
Instagram announces plans to help people stay safe and informed about COVID-19 vaccines — Dieter Tirado Núñez
Instagram announced that within a few days a new Stories sticker will be available to their users that will aim to stop misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine. This action was announced by the social platform on its blog where it provides more details about its commitment to share truthful and authoritative information in the midst of the pandemic.
Likewise, Instagram launched its COVID-19 Information Center on March 15th, which can be accessed from the aforementioned stickers, and which will offer various data such as vaccination centers, infection, and immunization figures, as well as news about the pandemic from health authorities, similar to how Facebook already does.
In the case of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, India and Chile, this new function will allow people to access reliable information from experts in a geolocated way, such as who can get vaccinated, preventive information from trusted health organizations and content to deny myths about vaccines.
As an additional measure, Instagram will remove posts that contain claims that violate community policies. This is a great step taken by the social network and that contributes to our day-to-day work in order to provide reliable and secure information for everyone.
Christina Billie is a junior public relations major at Temple University. She serves as her Chapter’s vice president and is also an account associate for PRowl Public Relations, Temple’s student-run public relations firm. She is currently interning at Breslow Partners, where she serves as a public relations intern.
Zach Ferenchak, 2020–2021 vice president of brand engagement, is a senior at Capital University, a private university in Columbus, Ohio. He is majoring in emerging media with an emphasis in public relations and minors in journalism and marketing. In his free time, Ferenchak can be found obsessing over the latest gadget or video game, exploring a coffee shop with friends, or going on a trail run. He hopes to elevate the voices of all PRSSA members through the organization’s various brand platforms. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Dieter Tirado is a junior student at Universidad de San Martín de Porres (USMP) in Lima, Peru. He is pursuing a major in PR with a minor in Advertisement. He has served as a PRSSA National Publications Subcommittee member since 2019. As PRSSA USMP’s International Ambassador and the Assistant Director of its Student-run Firm, PR USMP, Dieter takes advantage of every moment and experience in the Society. During his free time, you can find him singing, connecting with people from his city and the world, and watching any kind of videos online just for fun. Connect with Dieter on LinkedIn and Twitter.
