The difference between publicity, PR and advertising
By Paul Green
Marketing: The process of promoting your products or services to your potential customers
Public relations (PR): Any communication between your business and the public
Publicity: An element of public relations, where your communication is done through the media
Advertising: When you pay to deliver your message
So you hear these terms bandied around – publicity, public relations, and advertising – but what do they all mean?
Basically they are all types of marketing, which is the process of promoting your products or services to your potential customers.
Let’s start with public relations, often known as PR. This is any communication between your business and… the public! If you write a letter to apologise to an unhappy customer, that’s public relations. If your business sends staff to support a local litter pick, that’s public relations.
Many businesses use PR to control or influence the majority of the communications out of the business. This is particularly important for big companies that can’t give the personal touch smaller businesses can.
Bigger businesses will also use PR to do something called “reputation management”. This is where they attempt to influence how people think about their business. Now that any idea can spread like a virus on the internet, this is incredibly important. Just one bad experience with a business can do damage unless it is handled properly.
Typically, when people talk about “doing some PR”, what they actually mean is getting their business featured in the media. And that’s what publicity is. It’s an element of public relations, where your communication is done through the media.
Publicity is often called free publicity because it should be just that – free. It’s only free if an impartial journalist has written about your business, without receiving any payment for it.
If you have to pay for the media coverage, then that’s advertising (even if it’s editorial you’re paying for).
The difference between advertising and publicity is the way the message is delivered, and the credibility of that delivery. When you advertise, it’s you delivering your message. When you get publicity, your message is delivered by someone else. It’s got as much credibility and power as a customer testimonial.
The other difference is the amount of control you have over your message. When you advertise you have 100% control; when it’s free publicity you have very little control over what the journalist writes. That’s another reason why messages delivered through publicity have more credibility.
