5 Ways Public Relations is Different Than Advertising

IBF Entrepreneur Online –

If you are looking for a company to promote your business and you notice the similarities between franchise public relations and advertising, then you might wonder which to go with. Why do two businesses exist that seem to do very similar things? Well, the truth is that there are many, big differences between advertising and public relations.

1. Paid vs. free- In advertising, the ad agency will buy the ad space. This means that you have control over where the advertisement is placed, when it is published, and what it says. In public relations, the promotion is done for free. This is accomplished via news conferences, press releases, PR stunts, events, etc. Your goal is to get noticed by the media and gain exposure for the company.

Does it sound like advertising is the better deal? Well, it can be. The thing is that with advertising, consumers know it is an ad and are much more reluctant to buy into it and be persuaded by it. For PR, it is more third party and so people view it more as an objective promotion, like you’d get from a friend.

1. Control vs. no control- In advertising, you have the creative control of how the ad is promoted, what it says, what it shows, etc. In public relations, you do not have as much control. The media is in control as to how you are presented nor if they cover you at all. You can manage control in other ways, though, like conferences, stunts, etc.
2. The shelf life- In advertising, you can have the ad run for however long you pay for, it is up to the ad agency. When it comes to public relations, the media determines how long you stay in the news. This can be even better than advertising because you know you are being promoted because you are popular and relevant. We all know of those ads that we wish would stop airing already.
3. The consumers are wise- In advertising, the people know they are trying to be persuaded by the company behind the ad. As humans, we have become conditioned to ignore ads a lot of the time. Think of how many times you see an ad and never do anything about it or even think about it. As we said before, the advertisements tend to be mentally blocked. For franchise PR, it’s that third-party promotion that we talked about. It seems more objective and legitimate.
4. The writing- In advertising, the writing is more “buy now!” style. For public relations, it is a no-nonsense news format.