The triple-Oscar winner is a seasonal box of delights that once opened, reveals profound truths about public relations – and they apply today.

These address leadership, brand authenticity, mental health, employee relations, litigation support, corporate social responsibility (CSR), body image, creativity and risk, while conveying a message – believe in your own version of yourself.

As head of promotions at Macy’s, stressed single mum Doris, a stylish Maureen O’Hara, recruits a passer-by as Father Christmas for the iconic department store’s parade. The St Nick lookalike starts immediately, replacing his tipsy predecessor.

But new hire Kris believes he really is Santa and despite their mutual affection, this creates conflict with divorced Doris, who’s trying to raise her young daughter (Natalie Wood) to reject childhood fantasy for reality.

Strictly honest Kris, now full-time in his busy grotto, is a hit with the children but instead of pushing excess stock as instructed by department head Mr Shellhammer, directs parents to rival stores for unavailable items.

Shellhammer is horrified, but delighted customers reward this new-found integrity. Seeing the profits, chief executive R H Macy tells his communications team to promote the policy far and wide.

“From now on we’re the helpful store, the friendly store, the store with a heart, the store that puts public service ahead of profits – we’ll make more profits than ever before! In the meantime, you guys get together and figure out the best way to promote this thing.” This crisp instruction is a world away from today’s lengthy briefing processes.

Soon, amid talk on the sad commercialisation of Christmas, even rival stores bring cheer across the US with their honesty and transparency.

Freed from hospital, where he’s briefly committed after a run-in with a quack psychologist, Kris starts a CSR-style bidding war among retail bosses to equip his residential home with a much-needed X-ray machine.  

But the state intervenes in the form of Manhattan District Attorney Thomas Mara, who argues Kris’s beliefs prove he’s of unsound mind. Step forward defence lawyer Fred, Doris’s beau. Played by film noir stalwart John Payne, he enlists the press, unleashes a courtroom zinger involving the DA’s family and rediscovers his life’s mission. Cue happy ending.

‘Miracle’ is a modern film conveying timeless rules about communication – credibility doesn’t require normality; ‘insane’ ideas are often best, honesty pays, and be true to your dreams. It’s a PR masterclass.

*Seen a film with a PR message? Please let me know in a space below.

**Don’t miss the trailer, where movie executives in a screening room watch as cinema platitudes appear to promote the film. The studio boss strides out dismissively to quiz passing stars Rex Harrison and Anne Baxter on their reactions (decades before hippiedom, a starlet calls it ‘groovy’). Returning, he accepts the use of buzzwords for a film that’s near impossible to describe – an original pitch that explores cliché.

***Two of the stars – Edmund Gwenn (Kris Kringle) and Philip Tonge (Julian Shellhammer) were British, as was the composer, Cyril Mockridge. The 1994 remake is good too.

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Attention growth companies – want to get better known? First, start building a network – then, and only then, start addressing consumers.

But wait, what’s the difference? B2B PR – business or corporate communication, is engaging with a company’s ‘audiences’ – those groups it knows or ought to know better. B2C PR is consumer-focused and largely directed at consumers who buy products.

And note, I’m discussing growth companies – quite different from big, established enterprises with well-known brands.

A PR campaign is a significant investment – in money and management time and attention, so a communication programme must deliver. That means planning and preparation, the right actions at the right time. You wouldn’t climb a mountain with the wrong map or equipment – it’s the same with PR.

A B2B programme will have its own objectives, timeline, messages, actions, engagement opportunities and methods accurately to evaluate outcomes and measure success. Typically, a B2B programme will focus on business and financial media platforms rather than consumer; trade shows, not exhibitions targeting householders; think LinkedIn, not Facebook.

Why pique consumer interest while your key product or service is yet to go on sale, undergoing trials or in development? The last thing management wants is people demanding a brand then being told it won’t be available for 18 months.

So focus on B2B PR first, and once that’s been shown to work, do B2C as a follow-up or as an additional stream. It’s not an either/or – one follows the other.

Growing companies need to establish credibility, develop a reputation as a good employer or credit risk, position its CEO or CTO as an expert or industry spokesperson, expose partnership opportunities, present its core technology or process as new and beneficial, or create a ‘buzz’ to spur investor interest in a (further?) fundraising, or a combination thereof.

Whatever else they may be, these are all B2B objectives, and this sort of trust-building lays the foundations for a terrific B2C campaign when the time comes.

Depending on the efficacy of the B2B campaign, 18 months on, say, the company will have made progress in establishing its credentials as a successful industry participant, led by a plausible management team, with beneficial IP and a bright future.

When news and consumer journalists check their cuttings to research a story on this emerging brand, they’ll find expert trade comment that influences what they write. And when shoppers check their mobiles before buying, they’ll have the information they need to decide.

That’s why for growth companies, B2B PR comes first.

*Peter is Director of Allerton Communications.

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