March 4, 2025
Have you ever been surfing social media and come across a post that catches your attention and makes you think? Maybe you’ve seen a post that is a collaboration between your two favorite brands. Perhaps you watched the Super Bowl this year and came away with a favorite commercial because it was memorable, made you think or elicited laughter.
All of this media is thoroughly planned, analyzed for optimization, targeted to a specific audience and perfected with a capital P. Countless hours of work have been dedicated to these campaigns, with many creative and analytical individuals working behind the scenes to make them happen.
In this post, we’ll be breaking down the basics of content creation in public relations, including content mediums, content creation software and types of collaborations in content creation. It will be an effective introduction for people interested in PR at all levels and will be useful for practitioners in the field as well.
Content Mediums
In the modern era, content is primarily published digitally instead of traditionally. Traditional media encompasses broadcast journalism and print journalism and with the intensification of the digital age, companies have adapted to raising awareness online. Digital media is all media that is displayed through technology, and it is seen most often on social media.
In doing this, brands have substituted traditional media, like news stories in totality and print advertisements, for short-form videos and colorful, engaging digital advertisements. Instead of posters on the sides of bus stops or magazine pages dedicated to a sponsored product, companies can broadcast their messages as many times per day as they desire. Advertisements in newspapers and magazines can cost $500 or up to $500,000 if on the inside of a national magazine, which is not optimal with budgeting constraints, even if the company is highly successful. In contrast to this expensive route, the optimized alternative is posting content–whether it is sponsored or not–on social media. Posting the same image on social that would have originally been used in a magazine is free and just as effective, if not more so, due to the modern shift to digital advertising Companies with conceptions in the age of traditional media have found success from adopting social media content creation, while companies born in the digital age have effectively built their brand digitally.
Adobe is well-known for its design and editing capabilities, so how do they advertise on their main Instagram account, @Adobe. Videos created with Premiere Pro, designs from Adobe users and more are featured on the account. This has proven to be effective, as users interact frequently in the account’s comment section.
Spotify is also a fantastic example of leveraging digital media to generate buzz from their audience, as well as endless user-generated content. With its annual Spotify Wrapped, Spotify provides a personalized experience for its listeners that can be shared and saved, which is a perfect opportunity to increase shared media. Every year yields a different Spotify Wrappes design with themes that engage listeners and create chatter on social channels. In addition to having the feature on the app, Spotify also posts videos of listeners and celebrities reacting to their Spotify Wrapped.
Instagram is the social media platform most widely used by companies to market their products and build brand awareness, as it provides many different ways to upload content, including videos, photo carousels, stories and highlights. Facebook, which is owned by Meta–the same company that owns Instagram–has similar features, although they target different age groups. Instagram caters to a younger audience; individuals from 16-30 are its primary users. Facebook targets a much older audience; individuals from their mid-40s to late 80s use it most often. Individuals of the ages between the two float back and forth depending on their preferences and interests: Instagram is used for entertainment and trending content, while Facebook is used for connection and familiarity.
Companies that have built a solid social media foundation on Instagram and receive engagement and support from their audiences often move to TikTok. TikTok is primarily used for creating, sharing, and discovering short-form videos, and it is known for its viral trends and challenges. Companies most often maintain a business-oriented tone on Instagram, then allow users to see their ‘fun side’ on TikTok. Some companies have found great success by posting across both of these platforms, such as Duolingo, Lionsgate and more. Posts by these accounts have found major success, with Duolingo receiving an average of 2.56 million views and 33.6k shares per post, while Lionsgate averages 83k views per post.
Content Creation Software
There are multiple softwares that communications students and practitioners use to reach their content creation goals, and they are used commonly across fields. These platforms consist primarily of Adobe Suite software, which will be broken down below.
Adobe Creative Suite is one of the most powerful and widely used tools for content creation in public relations. PR professionals use Adobe software to create eye-catching visuals, polished videos and compelling marketing materials. The suite offers a range of programs designed for different aspects of content creation, from graphic design to video production. Below are the key Adobe tools used in PR and content marketing.
Adobe InDesign: Layout & Print Design
Adobe InDesign is the industry standard for designing and formatting multi-page documents. In PR, it is commonly used for creating press and media kits, brochures, PR and marketing materials, newsletters and magazine layouts. With InDesign, PR professionals can ensure that documents have a clean, structured and visually appealing layout. The software allows for precise typography, easy integration of images and custom branding elements, making it essential for crafting professional-looking publications.
Adobe Illustrator: Logo & Vector Design
Adobe Illustrator is a vector-based design tool used to create scalable graphics without losing quality. This makes it ideal for logos, brand elements, infographics, data visualizations and illustrations. Because Illustrator creates vector graphics, PR practitioners can produce high-resolution content that looks smooth across different platforms, from websites to billboards. Infographics have also become a crucial tool for PR professionals looking to communicate complex information in an engaging and shareable format.
Adobe Photoshop: Photo Editing & Social Media Graphics
Adobe Photoshop is a powerful tool for photo editing, digital art and content design. It is often used for enhancing product images, designing promotional materials and retouching and color-correcting images. Photoshop’s ability to layer and manipulate images makes it essential for crafting eye-catching visuals that align with a brand’s identity. PR professionals often use it to edit lifestyle or product photos before sharing them on social media or including them in promotional materials.
Adobe Premiere Pro: Video Editing & Digital Storytelling
With the rise of video content in PR, Adobe Premiere Pro has become an essential tool for creating professional-quality videos. It is optimally used for producing promotional videos and brand storytelling content, editing footage, cutting together b-roll, content creation and adding subtitles to motion graphics. Video is one of the most effective forms of content for engaging audiences and PR teams use Premiere Pro to craft compelling visual narratives that boost brand awareness.
Adobe After Effects: Motion Graphics & Animation
Adobe After Effects is used to create animations, motion graphics and special effects. In PR and marketing, it’s used for adding text overlays, designing engaging social media videos and creating animated infographics. After Effects is slightly more advanced than Premiere Pro, and it helps add touches of dynamic movement and immersive movement.
Adobe Acrobat: PDF Management & Document Editing
Adobe Acrobat is essential for PR professionals, enabling seamless editing, formatting, and optimization of PDFs like press releases and media kits. It also allows for digital signatures and file compression, ensuring documents are professional and easy to share. Since PR often involves sending out official documents, Acrobat ensures that files are properly formatted and professional-looking.
Overall, Adobe Creative Suite provides PR professionals with the tools needed to create polished, high-quality content across multiple formats. Whether it’s designing social media posts, editing promotional videos, or creating press materials, these programs help ensure that all content aligns with a brand’s messaging and visual identity. By mastering Adobe software, PR teams can produce professional-grade content that stands out in a crowded digital landscape.
Collaboration Types
There are multiple different collaboration types utilized in PR which help a brand reach a broader audience than it alone can achieve. Collaborations have proven to increase engagement, awareness of, and purchases from the brand that utilizes them. I will not be touching on all of the collaborations but I will highlight the most prevalent ones below.
Brand-to-brand or business-to-business (B2B) PR involves direct communication and collaboration between companies to enhance their mutual interests and create value for both parties. This form of PR focuses on building partnerships and strengthening alliances, often resulting in co-branded initiatives, joint promotions or shared resources. Successful B2B PR relies on understanding each brand’s unique needs, maintaining trust and capitalizing on each other’s strengths to amplify brand visibility and drive sales. Effective B2B campaigns often utilize targeted content, personalized outreach and data-driven strategies to engage and inform potential partners, ensuring that both brands benefit from the collaboration. A campaign titled “So yeah, we tried Slack” that follows the charm, cinematography and humor of “The Office” was very effective and informative. Audiences everywhere provided positive feedback and Slack’s engagement skyrocketed.
Celebrity partnerships consist of both famous individuals and famous cultural staples. This strategy is highly useful for brands that are looking to cater to a particular audience that associates itself with the celebrity’s identity. Perfume advertisements are notorious for using attractive celebrities as the faces of their new products, as seen with Dua Lipa for “Libre” by YSL.
Celebrity endorsements, especially in commercials, have been seen to increase engagement and consumption from audiences. Using celebrities in commercials has been popular for years, with some of the most famous being the Pepsi gladiators, Just Eat and the Taylor Swift and Drake Apple Music ads. These partnerships not only create buzz but also help brands build a stronger identity and community for themselves and their audience. Today, celebrity endorsements extend to social media collaborations, brand ambassadorships and even product co-creations. For example, Rihanna’s partnership with Puma shows how celebrity product partnerships can increase sales. Makeup companies and fashion labels also often take on ambassadors, such as Zendaya for Bvlgari, Natalie Portman for Dior and Charli XCX for Valentino. As digital platforms continue to evolve, brands are finding new ways to integrate celebrities into their marketing strategies, ensuring their campaigns remain relevant and impactful.
As aforementioned, collaborations between cultural staples are also popular, as seen often with movie-brand and food-brand partnerships. A couple of examples of this are Nio’s collaboration with “Dune Part 2" and Ben & Jerry’s partnership with Nike. Their partnerships garnered a lot of media attention and effectively communicated to their respective audiences. It also allows audiences to create user-generated content around what they’ve seen in these collaborations. Whether it’s through social media posts, unboxing videos or themed reviews, fans contribute to the promotional cycle, making these partnerships feel less synthesized and community-driven. Additionally, limited-edition products or exclusive experiences tied to these collaborations drive consumer excitement and urgency, further solidifying brand loyalty.
Influencer partnerships are incredibly useful when a brand wants its products or services to be trusted by an audience, particularly the audience following the influencer. Modern-day brands are seen senging PR packages, which usually have elements of the brand’s product or service, to these influencers. In return for these free products, the influencers are asked to make content about that product or service. Influencers are chosen based on how well they align with a brand’s identity, the size and demographics of their audience and the influencer’s beliefs and morals. Gymshark uses this system and has grown its brand extensively since its inception, with a majority of its influencers taking to TikTok to spread the word.
Overall, the basic concepts of PR are relatively easy to grasp and attainable for anyone with a budget for content creation and partnerships. A campaign’s success and reach depend on the influence of the brand or business interested in utilizing these tactics, and more often than not, campaigns have to be executed quickly and efficiently to get ahead of the news cycle and competition. That is why PR practitioners have intrinsic problem-solving skills that elevate them above the rest of the communications population, and paired with creativity, they can publish novel content routinely and generate awareness for the brand that they’re working for.
