Leveraging PR, Creative, and Digital for Better Storytelling

Consumers are not satisfied with simple ads or scattered content anymore. They want stories that evoke emotion, build connections, and stick in their minds long after launch. However, crafting a compelling brand story requires a combined effort of three key areas, such as public relations, creative strategy, and digital marketing.

Let’s explore how you can make use of these three disciplines to create an effective and meaningful narrative, especially in the Philippine setting where cultural subtleties, media dynamics, and digital behaviors are critical factors.

PR: Building Trust

At its core, public relations is about shaping perception. It influences how your brand is viewed by the public, media, and stakeholders. However, PR goes beyond just press releases or media exposure. It is about telling your story in a way that earns credibility and builds lasting trust.

In the Philippines, where word-of-mouth and community influence hold significant weight, PR professionals must know how to turn brand messages into stories that feel authentic. They should ensure your narrative is not just about selling a product, but about creating a sense of belonging, whether through thought leadership in local business platforms, impactful CSR initiatives, or on-the-ground campaigns that truly connect with people.

Think of PR as the storyline that ties everything together. Without it, your creative and digital efforts risk falling flat or feeling disconnected.

Creative Strategy: Crafting a Compelling, Memorable Story

Once PR sets the story, creatives bring it to life. Through design, copywriting, and concept development, they translate key messages into visuals, campaigns, and experiences that stick with people.

Creative storytelling makes sure your message is not just communicated but also resonates. Strong creative execution helps turn brand values into something audiences can genuinely relate to.

Examples could be a campaign video that highlights Filipino family values, conducting an event that echoes the core message of the campaign, and a social campaign, adapting local humor to make the brand familiar and relatable.

Creative strategy gives your brand its tone and personality. It ensures that the PR narrative comes up as a story people actually want to engage with.

Digital Marketing: Ensuring Reach and Engagement

Finally, there’s digital—the distribution engine. Without it, even the strongest PR story and most compelling creative might never reach the right audience.

Digital marketers make sure your narrative shows up where Filipinos actually spend their time, whether that’s TikTok, Instagram, Facebook Groups, or YouTube. But it’s not just about being present; it’s about tailoring the story to fit the unique tone, format, and user behavior of each platform.

For instance, a feature story about a local entrepreneur published on Philippine Star’s online platforms could be transformed into:

• A LinkedIn post highlighting their business journey and resilience for a professional audience
• A TikTok POV video capturing a “day in the life” of the entrepreneur, connecting with young, aspiring Filipino business owners
• A carousel post on Facebook breaking down the entrepreneur’s top tips in Taglish, perfect for MSME-focused communities and groups

Digital offers real-time feedback on which version of your story resonated most, helping you fine-tune future campaigns. In short, it is where your brand story plays out and evolves in real time.

The Integration that Delivers

PR, creative, and digital marketing approaches are strong on their own, but true integration delivers good results and outcomes. The three can make the message more consistent, meaningful, and long-lasting. It also guarantees that cultural relevance and sensitivity are maintained across all touchpoints.

Take, for example, a campaign NGP IMC worked on with TipTop Chicken, focused on supporting the launch of their Chicken Tocino SKU:

• PR kicked things off with media seeding, highlighting the company’s history of providing fresh food items for Filipinos – and now providing them with a fresh, versatile choice with chicken tocino, pushing the message that #TOCIisToBelieve!
• Creative strategy, including PR kit creation and seeding, brought the story to life. The visuals, narratives, and recipes all drove the story of fresh, versatile food home.
• Digital marketing amplified the message through influencer-led, user-generated content disseminated on socials. The angles ranged from simple recipes, healthy approaches to tocino, and more.

When these three elements work together, campaigns like TipTop’s #TOCIisToBelieve become a movement that resonate with consumers’ daily lives.

Partnering with a PR Agency

The truth is, achieving true integration across PR, creative, and digital is not that simple. PR teams may lack the creative muscle for standout visuals. Creative teams might overlook the importance of credibility and stakeholder alignment. And digital marketers can run high-performing ads, but miss the deeper brand story.

In a constantly evolving industry, NGP has fully embraced the discipline of Integrated Marketing Communications. While our expertise and services continue to grow and adapt, one key element remains at the heart of everything we do: collaborative storytelling.

We partner closely with our clients to craft personalized brand messages and deliver them to the right audiences, ensuring every campaign is thoughtfully designed and effectively executed.

This commitment to telling, sharing, and connecting your story isn’t just what we do—it’s our passion.