Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Advertising vs. Public Relations

Paid Space or Free Coverage: -
-Advertising: The company pays for ad space. You know exactly when that ad will air or be published.
-Public Relations: Your job is to get free publicity for the company. From news conferences to press releases, you're focused on getting free media exposure for the company and its products/services.

Creative Control Vs. No Control: -

-Advertising: Since you're paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that ads.
-Public Relations: You have no control over how the media presents your information, if they decide to use your info at all. They're not obligated to cover your event or publish your press release just because you sent something to them.

Shelf Life: -
-Advertising: Since you pay for the space, you can run your ads over and over for as long as your budget allows. An ad generally has a longer shelf life than one press release.
-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.

Creativity or a Nose for News: -
-Advertising: In advertising, you get to exercise your creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials.
-Public Relations: 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.

Target Audience or Hooked Editor: -
-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.
-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.

Writing Style: -

-Advertising: 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.
-Public Relations: You’re strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any blatant commercial messages in your communications are disregarded by the media.




Refernece:-
http://advertising.about.com/od/careersource/a/10advpr.htm