Public Relations and Advertising

For some time now on my blog i have tried sharing the differences between public relations and other related practices. We had PR and Journalism, PR and Marketing, PR and Propaganda. Today i bring you PR and Advertising. I hope you enjoy it.

The distinction between PR and advertising is more easily made. Advertising involves the payment of a medium (TV, radio, newspaper, etc) to put across a promotional message the content to which is controlled by the advertising. Most advertising seeks to achieve or reinforcing, bringing brands to the front of mind or calm post purchase doubts.

Public relations on the other hand try to persuade journalist to cover their product and services on the grounds of newsworthiness. The phrase ‘selling message’ as contained in the definition of advertising, distinguishes the two disciplines. PR aims not to increase sales but may be directed at any given time for instance to inform, educate, create better understanding, gain credit, encourage loyalty or provoke discussion. Sometimes understanding a product or service improves sales though PR does not claim any such causal link.

There are however many grey area between what is considered PR and what is considered advertising. With corporate advertising, an organization purchase a medium to put across a general message about itself and not its products. The content of such messages are usually PR driven and relate to the corporate strategic aims of the organization rather than its product support. Another grey area is filled with text and Images very similar to the surrounding editorial. This type of practice is usually common with magazines and it is used to make casual readers believe the text and images reflect the impartial view of the medium being used rather than the more interested view of an advertiser. Harrison (1995:5) comments on this style; “the strength of advertorial over advertisement is that their style and format gives greater credibility to the product they are advertising by explaining them in apparently objective terms through a third party.”

here are some differences between the two practices:

1. Paid Space or Free Coverage

In Advertising, the Company pays for the advertising space that you get to know exactly when that advert will be aired or published. Public Relations deals with getting a free publicity for the company. From news conferences to press releases, you are focused on getting free media exposure for the company and its products and services.

2. Creative Control Vs. No Control
Since you're paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that advert whiles Public relations have no control over how the media presents your information, if they decide to use your information at all. They are not obligated to cover your event or publish your press release just because you sent something to them.

3. Shelf Life
Advertising deals with the fact that you pay for the space, because you can run your adverts over and over for as long as your budget allows. An advert generally has a longer shelf life than one press release. Meanwhile, in Public relations, you only submit a press release about a new product once. You only submit a press release about a news conference once. The PR exposure you receive is only circulated once. An editor won't publish your same press release three or four times in their magazine. 

4. Wise Consumers

Advertising is a way of getting the attention of consumers is by knowing when they are reading an advertisement they are trying to be sold a product or service.
When someone reads a third-party article written about your product or views coverage of your event on TV, they are seeing something you didn't pay for with advert dollars and view it differently than they do paid advertising; which is public relations

5. Creativity or a Nose for News
In advertising, you get to exercise in creativity  in creating new advert campaigns and materials. In public relations, you have to have a nose for news and be able to generate buzz through that news. You exercise your creativity, to an extent, in the way you search for new news to release to the media.

6. In-House or Out on the Town

In Advertising, If you're working at an ad agency, your main contacts are your co-workers and the agency's clients. If you buy and plan advert space on behalf of the client, then you'll also interact with media sales people.

In Public Relations, You interact with the media and develop a relationship with them. Your contact is not limited to in-house communications. You are in constant touch with your contacts at the print publications and broadcast media. 

7. Target Audience or Hooked Editor
In Advertising, You're looking for your target audience and advertising accordingly. You wouldn't advertise a women's TV network in a male-oriented sports magazine. Whiles in Public relations, you must have an angle and hook editors to get them to use info for an article, to run a press release or to cover your event. 

8. Limited or Unlimited Contact

The difference between adverting and Public relations is, in Advertising, some industry pros have contact with the clients. Others like copywriters or graphic designers in the agency may not meet with the client at all but in Public relations, you are very visible to the media. PR pros aren't always called on for the good news. If there was an accident at your company, you may have to give a statement or on-camera interview to journalists. You may represent your company as a spokesperson at an event. Or you may work within community relations to show your company is actively involved in good work and is committed to the city and its citizens. 

9. Special Events

In Advertising, if your company sponsors an event, you wouldn't want to take out an advert giving yourself a pat on the back for being such a great company. This is where your PR department steps in. In Public relations, if you're sponsoring an event, you can send out a press release and the media might pick it up. They may publish the information or cover the event.

10. Writing Style

finally, Advertising deals with phrases like; Buy this product! Act now! Call today! These are all things you can say in an advertisement. You want to use those buzz words to motivate people to buy your product. However, with Public relations, You're strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any blatant commercial messages in your communications are disregarded by the media. 

I hope you enjoyed this bit and will definitely come your way with some other interesting bit in communications. Thank you