Many of us are very quick to point out when PR and brands get it wrong and with the ease of sharing via twitter and facebook, you can quickly spread your annoyance. I doubt many PRs would argue with the fact that sometimes things do go wrong. But what about all those times when they get it right? Are we as quick to offer praise and shout about that or do we just write a quick blog post as they’ve asked us to do?

We thought it would be good to highlight some campaigns from brands and PRs who we think have got it right. Those who have engaged bloggers, offered great products and perhaps gone that extra mile to build a good relationship.

One company who works with bloggers regularly is Innocent. Their most recent campaign invited bloggers to plant some seeds with their children to promote the seeds they are giving away in packs of their smoothies. A previous campaign involved 26 bloggers taking a letter of the alphabet each and blogging a photograph of something beginning with that letter, to coincide with the launch of their new alphabet magnets. The PR team from Shiny Red have worked hard to build ongoing relationships with bloggers and always seem to come up with fun ideas that spark a great deal of interest.

Another recent campaign that caught our eye was from Mr Kipling, who have been spreading happiness with their cakemobile, which is currently touring the country. They also made many bloggers happy with a surprise parcel of cake and goodies, leading to lots of photos cropping up on twitter and facebook of their parcels. There was no expectation that bloggers would write about this but it goes to show if you build a good relationship then people are more inclined to share anyway.

The team behind this campaign told us, “The essence of this Mr Kipling campaign was to bring spontaneous moments of joy to the nation at a time when the cost of living is going through the roof, in light of the recent long, cold winter.  The campaign involved, amongst other things, free slices of cake appearing when you least expected it- 19 Cake-To-Go Dispensers appeared at bus stops and busy high streets across the country giving out free Mr Kipling Snap Pack cakes to lucky passers-by.

We understood how sharing happy moments is so important for families, so working with parenting bloggers was an integral component of the campaign from its outset. By working with bloggers on this, we have been able to translate the campaign messages into real life stories of shared happy moments that other mums and dads can identify with, and we see this as a great strength of the PR/blogger relationship.”

I know many parent bloggers have worked with Little Dish and as one of those bloggers myself, I know how they often go the extra mile to support bloggers they work with. My daughters and I were invited to their special birthday celebrations last year, as well as having the chance to review their meals and cook book. When they knew my book was due to be released, they made a special effort to make sure it was mentioned in their newsletter. Brands who make that extra effort to connect with bloggers will always run successful campaigns.

If you are a foodie blogger or blog reader then you can’t fail to have noticed the Hotel Chocolat campaigns – the most recent Easter one was very high profile, with some great reviews. They are another company who work closely with bloggers and foster long-lasting relationships. Melissa Shackleton, Head of Marketing for Hotel Chocolat told us, “We love interacting with our network of food bloggers – not least because they are as interested in and passionate about food in general and our chocolate in particular as we are!  They are a great source of impartial reviews, which are of great value to us, and they also allow us to reach a a whole audience of specialist foodies and informed chocolate lovers.“

Some of the best campaigns involve a little more than just reviewing a product, and challenge type campaigns are becoming more and more popular. This is a great way of engaging bloggers in something a little different. Morrisons came up with a fun challenge at the end of last year to showcase their range of British Beef, asking four bloggers to develop a recipe using their beef and ingredients. Several other supermarkets have come up with similar challenges for food bloggers.

So these are just a few that we have spotted that work well or have enjoyed working on. What have been your favourite campaigns? Which brands or PR companies do you think always get is right?