What are public relations and advertising for? We’re continuing to look into this area, which we began in the previous episode. If you can’t tell one from the other, you’re not alone—even the pros sometimes get confused.
Advertising students and trainees often skim over the topic of public relations in their coursework. Since it isn’t often considered a major component, they’re only taught the basics—but it’s a powerful tool that should be part of every good marketing plan.
As we discussed in the last episode, advertising and media relations are both promotional, but they get different results:
- Nothing beats public relations for building your credibility.
- As for advertising, it creates a need and goes for the impulse buy.
As I’m writing these words, I’ve just been won over by an ad for an “Ultrasonic cleaner” for cleaning eyeglasses and jewellery. Since it’s reasonably priced ($24.98), I figured I could just get it now to try it out and, if the quality wasn’t the best, I wouldn’t have lost much.
You see how the ad seduced me. This product solves a problem: I wear glasses practically 24/7 and I’ve always wanted one of those little devices.
Longbefore I saw this ad, I’d seen lots of the little boxes in magazines and on social media. You know those quick videos where they show you that if you dunk a tarnished piece of jewellery, you instantly see a cloud of filth detach from the item and float in the liquid. When you lift out your jewellery, it’s clean as a whistle and sparkling too.
That’s right where the ad could have pressed the “want” button for me, because I was feeling a compound effect. A backlog of images and information that only PR can provide, combined here with social media.
A couple of years ago, we took advantage of the opposite effect to grab the media’s attention about a steamer for smoothing wrinkles out of clothing. The brands T-FAL and ROWENTA were selling appliances like the TOBI, whose ad was causing a stir in a small market, and the ROWENTA was more effective.
I had pitched a public relations campaign to our client, and we’d approached magazine editors as well as editorial stylists. We’d shown them our appliances and they had had a chance to use them. These approaches netted us some good press, and I remember that the SEB group, which distributes and sells its brands in North America, had named us as an example and that we had been one of their case studies at international meetings.
You see, when I talk about combining the strength of PR with social media and advertising, this is a perfect example.
So it’s up to you to take advantage of this, and include PR in your marketing plan. If you want to discuss it in person with us, get in touch now at www.natapr.com.
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