There is no such thing as a fully online or offline world anymore. We’ve been used to broadcasting our offline life on our online platforms – classic examples including tweeting about public transport frustrations or adding a picture on Facebook of the amazing meal you’re having (I did say ‘classic’ examples, not necessarily the best). Now, clever ways of using technology is fast closing that gap, meaning our online life is increasingly appearing offline. Some of you might be saying ‘what is she on about?’, so, here are some examples:

Trend Watching recently wrote about how C&A in Brazil has included the number of Facebook ‘likes’ onto the clothes hangers. The brand’s Facebook store has its hangers update in real-time showing shoppers the popularity of the items on sale.

Another great example, and closer to home, was the London Eye Olympic Twitter positivity lightshow. Everyone was encouraged to tweet about the Olympics and depending on the sentiment at the time, the colours would change.

Third example, which was happening last week in fact, is Kellogg’s Tweet Shop. To promote its Special K Cracker Crisps, Kellogg’s opened a pop-up shop inviting customers to pay for the snacks with a tweet.

For these initiatives to work, of course, you need that great idea but, importantly, you need a thriving online presence to support whatever you’re doing offline. Had C&A not had a passionate online community, Real World Liking would not have been born!

For years now, we have been running PR programmes based on increasing and managing a brand’s online presence. For our client Give as you Live we have run several ‘Twitter parties’ to broaden out its Twitter following. Our newest recruit, Phil Szomszor, was telling me that PR’s are getting into the content creation and seeding game, citing the example of one of his agency’s former clients Virgin Money’s bank launch, where a high budget 3D building projection celebrating its new bank status was promoted by engaging with bloggers, filmed and seeded to achieve over 450,000 views.

Especially now the online world is going offline, digital campaigns should been deemed as important as the more ‘traditional’ PR campaign. As we say at Firefly, ‘we offer the perfect blend of online and offline PR’ – I say, get ready for some onffline PR.

This post was written by Charlotte.