The Happy Marriage of Public Relations and Advertising

A lot has been made out of establishing the differences between public relations and advertising, but where do the two meet? For starters, if they aren’t meeting for you at all, you’re not making the most out of the potential relationship you could be enjoying. And when they do meet, like the old axiom goes: opposites attract. The happy marriage of the seemingly separate public relations and advertising services is the beginning of a beautiful business relationship.
While it’s important to make the most out of your advertising dollars, great public relations should pick up where advertising leaves off. Maximize your potential R.O.I (Return on Investment) by increasing the number of impressions you make on your customer, increasing the number of messaging vehicles at your disposal, and increasing your expected response rate. These are all gains that can be procured through harmonious advertising and public relations partnerships.
Where advertising space is purchased and delivered, public relations provides you with free coverage and additional promotions after your advertisements have made a splash in the community. Activate your target audiences interest and motivation with a creative ad campaign, and then give them the facts in a helpful, friendly, and courteous manner with the help of the local media coverage through a PR press release or press kit.
Like every good marriage, the relationship between public relations and advertising is a give and take relationship. Public relations and advertising both have weaknesses that are covered and supported by each other. When suspicious customers shy away from your advertisements, a great public relations endeavor can win them over through documented success stories and substantiated statistics. But, as Rick Segal, CEO of marketing communications firm HSR Business-to-Business says, “One thing PR can’t always do is be everywhere at once in the way that advertising can do.” You must address your audience in the creative methods that attract them, but secure their attention through the media vehicles they know and trust. Make the sort of impression on your community that makes everyone sit-up and take notice. The attention of awards committees and local news venues shouldn’t be a happy accident or a stroke-of-luck; it should be a goal of your over-all marketing campaign.
Not unlike actual marriage, the wellbeing of the happy, functional PR / advertising relationship is deeply rooted in financial stability. In the course of staying viable in the shaky market, many companies have helped assuage their shrinking marketing budgets by getting more mileage from their public relations promotions. As said by Nick Ludlum, VP of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, “In a recession, people who take a meek approach to marketing, they’re not going to inherit the earth. They are going to be buried six feet underground.”
But above all, the most envied of all the happiest advertising / public relations marriages are those that are the most graceful. A winning combination of advertising and public relations should dance well within the overlapping boarders of self-advertisement and self-promotion. It should know when and how to execute the high-impact advertising that will have your target audience reeling, and when to style and profile for the camera, letting your audience bask in the glow of your charismatic public relations messaging.
Taking advantage of an innovative marketing and creative services firm that is well-networked with public relations companies, like Peppershock, gives you the best possible from both worlds. For more reference information, or to book a date to come a-courtin’, please contact us here at Peppershock Media Productions.