Grace Francis – Ignite PR

Advertising and Public Relations (PR) professionals are constantly battling it out to prove their worth in the business world. There has always been an unspoken (or blatantly obvious?) rivalry between the two industries considering, in the past, they were often competing for a portion of a company’s budget. Although this may not be the case nowadays, it is still is a common perception that PR and Advertising are ‘much of a muchness’. This presents an issue for two reasons –

If you, as a Chief Executive Officer, engage either a PR or Advertising agency without understanding what value they can offer your company, you risk being disappointed in the end result (not to mention you will have invested time and money into achieving the wrong goal).
You may be subject to verbal abuse and hostile body language if you liken PR to Advertising in front of a PR practitioner or vice versa (this would be an awkward situation if you deal with this person regularly or if you are in a public setting – or both).

If you would prefer to avoid both of the above undesirable circumstances, I recommend you read on. I’ve listed a few points below outlining the key differences between PR and Advertising to make sure you know your apples from oranges. Keep in mind the points below are just the top of the fruit bowl!

1. Paid space vs Free coverage Advertising is paid placement. This means the company pays to put their ad in a particular space or time slot, whether this be for television, the newspaper or the radio.

PR is all about free media exposure for the company using media releases, events, social media and press conferences (to name a few). An interesting article addressing the effectiveness of PR campaigns (written by CP Communications Director Catriona Pollard) actually highlights that PR can have up to 10 times the impact of traditional, paid advertising!

2. Big Bad Advertising Wolf vs Little Red Riding Hood If we were confronted by Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf on two separate occasions, we would probably believe Little Red’s story over the Wolf’s. Well unfortunately Advertising is the Wolf in this scenario. When consumers see an advertisement, they perceive it to be biased considering the company usually just wants to sell them something. As a result, they are less likely to believe the company (or their product) are as fabulous as they say they are.

PR involves a third party (like a media outlet) albeit endorsing the topic being communicated. In the eyes of the public, this increases the credibility of the information being communicated.

3. Total vs No control Considering a company pays precious money for ad space, they are given complete control over the message. They can choose the exact content, the size of the advertisement or the time slot it appears in, the design, and all the other relevant elements.

In PR there is no control over how the media presents the message. Once they have it they can leave it as it is, cut it down, rework it or simply ignore it. They are not obligated to use the information you sent them (EVEN if your email was accompanied by a smiley face emoticon). And this is never more present than with social media and the lack of control over message dissemination.

4. Low vs High priority Don’t look for your ad on the front page of the newspaper because you won’t find it. News takes priority – which pretty much means PR (aka NEWS) trumps advertising any day!

GOT IT? Now it’s time to get out there, sort the apples from the oranges, and decide which one can offer YOUR business the most value (as a PR practitioner, you all know my answer).

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It’s likely that everyone, at some stage in their life, has had their ear talked off by someone about the value of work experience when it comes to PR. For me, it was every single one of my lecturers. Each new subject I started came with a long speech on how important it was to get work experience in the industry before we finished our degree. After a year of this my brain started to automatically switch off whenever someone even mentioned the word ‘experience’. It wasn’t until I walked in the door of one of my second year PR subjects that my perspective changed. My PR lecturer opened the first lecture by saying that if we didn’t have a solid year and a half of work experience under our belt by the time we finished, then no company would hire us. Well, that certainly caught my attention.

Although I feel the lecturer slightly over exaggerated in terms of no career prospects, I have to say getting work experience was one of the best decisions I ever made as a student. It gave me the opportunity to actually put the theory I learnt at university to use, not to mention develop vital skills in the media relations field, which you can only gain through practice. For those who are still unconvinced, here are my top five insights into the value of work experience.

1) Real world experience teaches you necessary industry skills. Real world experience includes learning how to liaise with journalists (who can be scary but this skill is vital if you want to get any results for clients), write media releases (have you heard of a successful PR practitioner who can’t do this?) and effectively communicate with actual clients (not hypothetical university clients). When I started work experience at Ignite PR last year I had no idea how to pitch a story to a journalist; this just isn’t something you can be taught in a lecture. Now I know how to pitch, I consider this a necessity if you are planning on a future in the public relations industry or really any industry that involves dealing with the media.

2) You get to work on a range of different projects. Work experience adds a whole new dimension to the term ‘popularity’. Everybody wants you on board their project for the extra support despite your lack of practical skills. This means that not only do you get moulded into the perfect PR technician but you also get to work on a variety of different client projects. This contributes even further to your knowledge base and level of expertise.

3) It offers networking opportunities. Working in a PR company (or any company for that matter) is a fantastic way to meet professionals in both your industry and other related industries. Building a basic network of contacts will certainly give you a leg up on the career ladder and this network will only grow as you advance. It’s all about who you know!

4) Looks great on the resume. The skills you can gain from doing work experience are the main motivator to go out and work for free, however an additional benefit is that it looks great on the resume from the perspective of potential employers. With thousands of other fish swimming around in the same pond, employers are likely to remember the fish that has an extra fin (or in this case, practical experience in the field) above all others. Having work experience under your belt gives you a strong advantage in the hunt for a job.

5) Possibility of permanent work. The best outcome you can hope for in doing work experience is being offered a permanent job at the end of it. Although this isn’t a guarantee, if you work your hardest and prove yourself valuable to the company they may find it hard to let you leave after your time is up. Even if there is no job offer at the end of it, be assured the company will think of you when there is a job opening in the future.

This is only a small snapshot of the benefits work experience has to offer. I hate to sound like my lecturers, but it really is important to get work experience in the industry. The only way to realise its true value is to put your name out there and get your hands dirty. Thanks Ignite PR!

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PR VS ADVERTISING: An Apple vs An Orange

The value of work experience