PR vs. Advertising

Posted by: Liz Mortek // November 14th, 2011

Any PR professional can tell you that they have struggled with trying to explain to their friends or family what it is exactly that they do.  We write articles, but are not the author, we organize interviews but are not on TV and as the Bad Pitch Blog points out, a common response to why we are doing this is “why don’t your clients just advertise in the publication because: PR and advertising are the same, right?” Wrong.

Many share these misconceptions because advertisements are familiar to them and PR is not.  As the article states, our friends and family definitely see that when a company wants people to know about a product or service they buy an ad in a magazine or piece together a TV commercial.

PR however paints a bigger picture of the product, service or issue at hand, feels more organic, and is about education.  Our job is to teach the media and the consumer about a differentiator they are not aware of. We communicate with editors and reporters and bloggers and podcasters to get them to tell our client’s story, provide knowledge so our target audience can make decisions without explicitly selling to them, versus the goal in classic advertising.

@EMortek

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Putting the personality in your marketing plan

Posted by: Meghan Blackford // July 5th, 2011

Putting the personality in your marketing plan

Walk through the front door of just about any coffee shop and you’ll likely see someone using a colorful iPod, sitting proudly behind a computer covered in stickers, or talking on a cell phone with a personalized case. You can “have it your way” at Burger King and then cruise over to the mall to pick up a Justin Bieber cell phone case for your daughter, that, by the way, perfectly coordinates with her Bieber ringtone. Countless restaurants like Chipotle and Noodles & Company give Americans the chance to customize their plates down to the last detail. Metaphorically speaking, we’ve become a nation of Sally Albrights, spending five minutes ordering a salad, because we “just want it the way we want it.”

Wisely, many brands have found ways to personalize their products and marketing campaigns with the goal of delivering more highly targeted advertising. As Pamela Seiple states in a new article for Hubspot, 1/3 of Marketers Believe Personalized Campaigns are Highly Effective, “Marketers are beginning to understand that one-size-fits-all campaigns might not be the most effective type of marketing.” Personalization allows marketers to “deliver targeted messages based on that subset’s specific interests, wants, and needs, resulting in a more rewarding return-on-investment.” For those thinking about adding personalization to their marketing campaigns Seiple recommends stringent segmentation and thorough testing of campaign elements.

@MJBlackford

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Offline Advertising Still Matters, A Lot

Posted by: Neil James // January 13th, 2011

It seems, as marketers, we spend more time than we should on the trivialities of online marketing, fighting to stay ahead of the curve. How exactly should a Tweet be composed? How can we incorporate Google ShinyNewTool into our marketing plan. But as Tac Anderson reminds us in an article for New Comm Biz, The Most Mind Blowing Internet Statistic, less than 30 percent of the world’s population is online, and 20 percent of the United States’ population does not access the Internet. Furthermore, according to Nielsen Three Screen Report in Q1 2010, TV viewership has never been higher and 96 percent of retail activity is still done in a store (thanks to the Ad Contrarian for aggregating the facts.) It’s important to remember that marketing mediums not based on pixels such as print, radio, television and guerilla still play a critical role in reaching consumers and combining multiple channels into a sum greater than its parts is a key component to extracting maximum ROI.

@NeilAndrewJames

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Price Will Bring Them In, But Will It Bring Them Back?

Posted by: Mark Palony // December 17th, 2010

Given the current state of the economy, there is a strong temptation to put your low, low price at the front of the advertising cart. After all, consumers are looking for a way to shave a few dollars off their spending and leading with price might seem the customer-friendly thing to do. But in the world of business trade-offs, emphasizing price might do more harm than good to your sales. A recent MarketingProfs article makes the case, offering five reasons price should not be the lead in your advertising story, regardless of economic circumstances.

The two most compelling arguments are embedded into a point about the danger posed to brand loyalty:

  1. New customers are not likely to become long-term customers, having bought only for the deal
  2. You may alienate established customers who’ve been buying at the not low, low price and risk the chance they will not do so again

Striking the proper balance of price versus benefit and customer acquisition versus retention is difficult in good times, exacerbated in bad, and, ultimately, necessary at all times. There is no correct, or static formula to achieve this balance. Rather, they are just two more considerations, continually revisited and revised as necessary.

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So You Want to Be a Social Media Marketing Star?

Posted by: Mark Palony // December 2nd, 2010

To say there’s been an explosion in the use of social media is a gargantuan understatement. In the past few years we’ve seen social tactics – blogging, podcasting, online video – adopted by individuals and companies alike.  While some have been wildly successful, most have struggled to find the magic bullet that will make them required reading by the audience they seek.

There are several reasons some make it to the top of the social media mountain while others wander the foothills, and Mashable has done us the favor of identifying 5 of the most important through profiling the business leaders who excel at practicing them, including:

  1. Understand your own expertise: We communicate best when we know the subject matter. Straying too far from your core can lead your audience to lose faith in your credibility.
  2. Know what your audience wants: Even if you are the leading expert in your chosen field, if there’s no audience for the message you’ll be shouting into a black hole.
  3. Success requires involvement: Reaching the top comes through active participation. It doesn’t have to be full time, but timely and insightful content, or comments on the content of others, will help you grow credibility and audience.
  4. Use multiple channels: Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn groups – there are so many channels you can access to spread your knowledge and expertise. Don’t be stingy, use more than one, but use them wisely.
  5. Be human: When engaging in social media on behalf of your company, be sure to let your own personality come through. People want to engage with other people, not a digital sales brochure. If you come off as corporate, you’ll bleed any audience you were fortunate enough to build.

While there are other reasons some are successful, but if keep an eye on these five you will dramatically increase your chances of reaching the top of the social media mountain.

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Relevance Radio #2 – Why Should Marketers Take Risks?

Posted by: Neil James // September 7th, 2010

With great budget comes great responsibility. Is it any wonder that the brazen nerves of marketers often wilt once entrusted with the keys to budgetary dollars? In this episode of Relevance Radio, the Russell Herder marketing podcast, we discuss why marketers need to embrace risk-taking, with executive creative director, Brian Herder. Herder discusses what differentiates responsible and calculated gambles from reckless decision-making and how, paradoxically, an aversion to risk-taking can often be the riskier allocation of one’s marketing dollars.

@NeilAndrewJames

 
 Relevance Radio #2 – Social Media’s Role in Advertising [6:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (105)

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Key Elements of a Social Media Policy

Posted by: Neil James // August 11th, 2009

Should employees be encouraged to use social networking to enhance marketing outreach? Or will such activity impede productivity in an already tight economy? And what about reputational risk? These and other questions are clearly on the minds of every C-suite executive.

Recent research we undertook with our friends at Ethos Business Law found eight in ten businesses have concerns about the potential liabilities of social media. Yet, only one third have a policy in place to govern social media use, and just nine percent said they have conducted relevant employee training.

Instead of ignoring the need for responsible guidelines, organizations of all sizes should begin to define their strategy regarding social media, and most importantly, the rules for employee engagement. By doing so, management can take advantage of the benefits offered by these new communication channels while mitigating undue risk. But remember, social media is a far different animal than traditional technology. A company’s current policies on IT matters are usually not sufficient.

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Companies Remain Uncertain – And Do Little – About Potential Risks of Social Media

Posted by: Neil James // August 6th, 2009

Social media has become a fixture on communication agendas across the country, fueled by the fact that Americans’ spent 73 percent more time on such social networking sites in the past year alone. But according to a new survey, social media use is also generating its share of corporate heartburn.

Recent research we conducted along with Ethos Business Law confirms that confidence exists in social networking as viable communication outreach, but so do worries about the potential liabilities involved. Concerns regarding social media use were acknowledged by some eight in 10 businesses participating in the national study, which was conducted over the month of July. Fifty-one percent fear social media could be detrimental to employee productivity, while almost half (49%) assert that using social media could damage company reputation.

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