Public relations vs. advertising
Despite the vast amount of information that is available today, most people still have a vague idea about PR and advertising, tending to interchange them. Although sometimes a lime between PR and advertising indeed blurs, these are two different terms.
Famous Helen Woodward's words said in the distant 1938 explain this difference most properly — “advertising is what you pay for, publicity is what you pray for.” These days we still associate advertising with paid media and PR — with earned media. So let's get into the nitty-gritty.
Target audience
Advertising campaigns are targeted exclusively at current and prospective customers. On the other hand, PR experts cast their nets to catch the attention of the public at large. So when it comes to PR campaigns, their target audience includes potential customers, partners, investors, influencers, as well as employees and the community in general. Top PR firms in Philadelphia do their best to generate effective and customized messages and communicate them to the right audience.
Core objectives
Public relations firms primarily focus on brand awareness and reputation, which are indeed important as people usually put more trust in and tend to do business with companies that they know and like. On the flip side, the main purpose of advertising is to promote goods and services and generate sales.
Supervision level
It is also one of the main differences. When you invest in advertising, you make a decision on how the advertisement will look, its key message, media outlets where it will be placed, as well as when it will run and how long. Your ad exposure mainly depends on the sum of money you are ready to spend. With respect to public relations, you have less control over the situation. The journalists and editors are those people who make a final decision on the way your information will be presented and whether it will be presented at all.
Strategy
As a rule, advertising strategy has short-term goals. For instance, an advertisement is geared to push a new product line or promote some special deals to increase sales. On the contrary, PR firms always concentrate on the big picture, providing valuable information about their clients to build a sustainable and committed base of “brand advocates” that involves consumers and stakeholders.
Credibility
Nowadays, people do not take everything told in an advertisement for granted. Moreover, taking into account the vast number of ads that are displayed on the most various media outlets, advertising usually makes people annoyed. As a rule, PR experts leverage a less intrusive approach. In this case, a brand does not try to promote itself by saying how good its services or goods are, but the third party, i.e., media, highlights brand expertise and authority.
