Publicity is widely regarded as the backbone of most public relations campaigns because favorable media coverage is exponentially more persuasive than paid advertising. That said, publicity is often misunderstood by the companies that retain public relations agencies to produce it.
Publicity is certainly not "free advertising," as we so often hear in our industry. Clients seeking publicity pay PR practitioners to conceive, write and present stories for media consumption. It's invariably less expensive than paid advertising, but unlike ad placements, publicity can never be guaranteed.
We encourage our clients to view publicity as just one slice of the marketing communications pie. The process of telling business stories begins by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the clients' offerings; then prioritizing target audiences; identifying a few markets where things might get started; honing a handful of messages; and then creating some fresh selling tools to deliver the message succinctly.
Once that ground work has been done, we might want to invite the media in for a look around, and encourage their visit.
And for the record, please, so as to clearly distinguish public relations from advertising and any other form of marketing, a dictionary definition:
Public relations serves the function of inducing the public to have a better understanding for, and goodwill toward, the persons, products and services being featured.
That said, favorable publicity is undeniably influential. That implicit "third party endorsement" a company gets from news editors when they run your story is the reason 20th century business tycoon and philanthropist Armand Hammer believed publicity was "ten times more powerful than advertising."
Maybe it is. Maybe not. But what's worth remembering is that publicity, unlike advertising, a reflection of the company you truly are.
One final word to the wise, direct from the media gatekeepers (editors and news directors): "If it's news, we'll consider it. If not, speak to our advertising department."
