1. Microsoft’ Imagine Cup: ”Help Us Change the World!”

Microsoft ImagineCup 2009

Cited from Imagine Cup’s website: “Now in its seventh year, the Imagine Cup is a global student technology competition focused on finding solutions to real-world issues”

Imagine Cup encourages IT students and even photography and filmmaking students to:

• Contribute their talents to tackling some of the problems the world is facing today
• Learn new technology skills and test themself against other talented students around the world
• Make friends around the world

2. Google’s Project 10 to the 100: “May Those Who Help The Most Win”

According to Project 10¹⁰⁰ website, this is “a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible”.

Well, more info on these two competitions can be found in their websites. What I want to discuss here is about the way Google and Microsoft run these competitions.

In my opinion, these are PR campaigns, definitely. 

In case you’re not familiar with what PR is, here’s my short definition: PR (Public Relations) is the practice of building a brand image via social activities that serve the public.

PR and advertising have the same purpose: building brands. However, PR and advertising work in totally different ways. Advertising works just like a broadcast radio that continuously send company’s messages to people hoping some of them will like the messages. On the other hand, PR focuses on interaction between the company and the public. By doing something useful for the public, PR builds a better image of the company.

Let’s get back to the 2 rivals’ campaigns.

Putting aside the flashy slogan, does Micro$oft really want to help the world solving our toughest issues such as poverty and spreading diseases? Then why do they ask candidates “to create real world software and services applications that use Microsoft tools and technology” ? (http://imaginecup.com/Competition/Overview.aspx ).

Stop being so evil!

On the other hand, Google is way better than that. With no stupid “Google technology requirements” or anything like that, Google is really building its image of a “good guy”. Spending 10 million dollars funding 5 winning ideas and doesn’t require anything in return, sounds like Google doesn’t get anything. But that’s the way PR works! Google gets a lot more positive feedbacks and reviews (including this one). What a wise move.

These 2 cases are good PR examples that we should learn. They prove the Google’s philosophy of “You can make money without doing evil” to be an excellent PR concept.

Well done, Google!