Finding Opportunity and Becoming a Benchmark in a Post-Pandemic World
VanMoof electric bike pictured in the rain. Photo by the blowup on Unsplash.
When thinking about influential public relations campaigns, it’s easy to ignore the work that helps contribute to the campaign’s final deliverables. These deliverables can range from large-scale special events to minute-long ads. Even as a public relations student, and quasi-practitioner, I sometimes catch myself oversimplifying these efforts at first glance.
A crucial, and often overlooked, step in planning a strategic public relations campaign is identifying an organization's situation. To accurately develop a situation analysis, PR practitioners must conduct thorough research before the fun work begins. This research allows practitioners to engage in dialogue with the organization’s publics and gain further insight into solving the problems at hand. Let’s look at a campaign that developed a practical situation analysis in the post-pandemic world.
VanMoof’s “THE FUTURE IS FORWARDS” Campaign
I recently watched a television ad from VanMoof, an electric bike company based in Amsterdam, titled “THE FUTURE IS FORWARDS.” The minute-long ad showcases the chaos and disorder that the car industry brings into our everyday lives. The chaos that has been normalized and mainly gone unnoticed – fossil fuels polluting the air, traffic jams created by car wrecks and unattractive cityscapes. Amid this chaotic city scene depicted in the film, VanMoof’s new electric bike peacefully glides through the chaos. VanMoof launched its strategic communications campaign with this advertisement to promote the release of its new electric bikes.
“Even though the whole world had to change their routines, people easily revert to old habits. But if you can change car culture; if you can change peoples’ habits – that is so powerful. Hopefully we’ve made a strong, thought-provoking piece that can spark off more conversation around this topic.”
Pascal Duval, the creative director of VanMoof, explains that the film was created to inspire individuals and cities to move forward in a post-pandemic world – to free themselves from their preconceived notions of mobility. The campaign was a timely reminder of the change individuals can enact in their communities and built off the momentum of infrastructure and mobility discussions worldwide.
VanMoof is no stranger to bold statements. In 2020, the company released an ad titled “Time to ride the future.” Similar to the “THE FUTURE IS FORWARDS” campaign, this advertisement depicted the dangerous reality of the climate crisis and how the automobile industry contributes to the issue. The ad was banned in France for “creating a climate of anxiety” according to a self-regulatory organization supported by the private sector.
VanMoof’s Situation Analysis
VanMoof’s situation, like many public relations situations, was not inherently problematic. Instead, the post-pandemic era provided a public relations opportunity for the organization to lead discussions on the future of mobility in cities worldwide. They successfully posed the question, “Why go back?”
“THE FUTURE IS FORWARDS” campaign is, what I consider to be, a benchmark for other organizations strategizing on how to communicate to their publics in this seemingly new era defined by the dusk of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations and public relations practitioners should incorporate VanMoof’s work into their research as an example of best practices when assessing organizational situations.
