Comments on: Public Relations vs. Advertising: No Contest

By: nkelly0623

nkelly0623 — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:22:43 +0000

Great post! I just wrote a blog on integration as well. And like you I enjoy a little Good Humor, ice cream and laughs! http://is.gd/vFca

Amazing how so many create a line in the sand, hindering true effectiveness.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:09:30 +0000

I feel you have used a bad PR agency as your example here, no PR in their right mind would ask you to review something and then leave evevrything up to you. Good PR is about knowing the journalist you are dealing with and who their readers are and so if your product isn’t relevant or is something the journalist could form a negative opinion about then you target your pitch specifically to them. I don’t agree with the ‘icecream’ idea because again I believe you have based it on a fairly run of the mill ‘tick the boxes’ PR agency. An excellent PR would know you very well and know their product very well and would tell you why you would think the book was good and indirectly they have influenced your opinion before you have read it. It’s all about doing your homework and preparing, also informing the client that perhaps there could be negative coverage off the back of their book launch is essential!! you can’t promise a client 100% positive coverage for a book launch because that is impossible!!

I think I might be rambling but you see where I’m going with this.

great blog though.

By: Julia

Julia — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 21:31:32 +0000

The combination of PR and Advertising is absolutely key in today’s market. To break through clutter, PR professionals have to break down the walls between the disciplines and integrate themselves into the entire marketing process. But we also have to evolve beyond media relations and publicity and include direct-to-consumer activities in PR campaigns. We can not solely rely on media to tell our story and reach our target markets.

By: Cassie

Cassie — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:15:56 +0000

This is exactly right! When combined correctly, advertising and PR yield great results and the Jack in the Box example is perfect! I’m a senior in college and I just got an internship at a great marketing firm that uses advertising and PR simultaneously when dealing with their clients and they couldn’t be more pleased. I never really thought about the two that way until I started this internship and now i believe it is a great tool that marketers should take advantage of as often as possible.

By: werigz

werigz — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:37:35 +0000

I agreed with them all, it adds the icing on the cake for PR practioners like me.

Thanks mate.

By: sarsen56

sarsen56 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:27:32 +0000

Useful observations – thanks, the full color ad costing $70,000 is a revelation, I could give much better lomg term value via sponsorship!

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:26:27 +0000

I agree with other posters…spot on…however, Patrick, i do prefer the screwdriver to the wrench, less knuckle busting.
FYI: best ice cream in the world is Graeter’s of Cincinnati

By: Jaime

Jaime — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:59:55 +0000

Brilliant post. I shall be sharing.

I think you hit the mark on what PR can’t do although I would put some caveats in there. In ‘hitting the target’ you mention that perhaps a lot of horror fans don’t read the NYT and therefore you should choose your targets carefully. True, but not sure why this implies that PR falls short. You have to choose your targets carefully in advertising too. The difference is that, as you say, PR doesn’t provide guarantees.

Also, your point about creativity in PR. I would argue that actually there’s a huge amount of creativity required in PR – and that goes beyond flashy stunts. It’s rare that a brilliant news story just lands on your desk. You have to MAKE the story based on timely events, the news agenda, shaping quirky facts and statistics etc. and fit that within your clients’ wider marketing context. Its a different kind of creativity than in advertising, but creativity nevertheless.

And one last point! PR firms increasingly have viral and social networking strings to their bows too. There’s more than media relations to PR.

By: Patrick Byers

Patrick Byers — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:34:02 +0000

Freddy,

I liked your post so much, I had to write a whole new post on the topic myself with a huge quote block from your post and appropriate props.

It’s here:
http://responsiblemarketing.com/blog/?p=562

Happy marketing,

Patrick

By: Advertising and PR work better together | The Responsible Marketing Blog

Advertising and PR work better together | The Responsible Marketing Blog — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:32:10 +0000

[...] Freddy Nager at The Cool Rules Pronto Blog wrote a post comparing the two quite nicely, then building a strong argument for discipline integration in Public Relations vs. Advertising: No Contest. [...]