Advertising is a paid space, helps a brand to introduce its products and services to the target audience, attract and influence them so that they become customers. Whereas Public Relations is a practice of creative communication. The results of Public relations can be earned through pitching and providing promotional information in the form of Press Release to media.
On the question like which has more reach; Advertising or PR? The founder of PR24x7.com, Mr. Atul Malikram says that, if you put an ad in a newspaper or magazine which has 10000 subscribers, you get only 10000 impressions, and many of them forget it soon as it is just an ad. On the other hand, you can send a press release to many newspapers, portals, magazines, radio, blogs, TV stations. Target audiences won’t deny a useful story. They share it with others too if they find it worthy.
You can’t create a buzz with advertising but with PR all you want is to create a buzz. Many Advertisements fail to convince the audience. But the audience never questions a journalist. They appreciate his little words and finds it more worthy and convincing than a full-page advertisement. They often search for a journalist’s reviews about a product or service before buying it. In other words, advertising has less credibility than the news gained by the practice of PR. As the audience knows that advertisements are bought by someone to sell his products and services.
Many businesses have a misconception about advertising and PR. They believe both terms are the same. They feel advertising is not necessary if they resort to PR or vice versa. However, one needs to understand that PR and advertising have a completely different role for one’s business and should know to utilize the best of both worlds.
