Pressman PR

You may have questions about advertising vs. public relations. These two industries are very different even though they’re commonly confused as being one and the same. The following ten properties just scratch the surface of the many differences between advertising and public relations.

1. Paid Space or Free Coverage
Advertising: The company pays for ad space. You know exactly when that ad will air or be published.
Public Relations:Your job is to get free publicity for the company. From news conferences to press releases, you’re focused on getting free media exposure for the company and its products/services.
2. Creative Control Vs. No Control
Advertising: Since you’re paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that ad.
Public Relations:You have no control over how the media presents your information, if they decide to use your info at all. They’re not obligated to cover your event or publish your press release just because you sent something to them.
3. Shelf Life
Advertising: Since you pay for the space, you can run your ads over and over for as long as your budget allows. An ad generally has a longer shelf life than one press release.
Public Relations:You only submit a press release about a new product once. You only submit a press release about a news conference once. The PR exposure you receive is only circulated once. An editor won’t publish your same press release three or four times in their magazine.
4. Wise Consumers
Advertising: Consumers know when they’re reading an advertisement they’re trying to be sold a product or service.
“The consumer understands that we have paid to present our selling message to him or her, and unfortunately, the consumer often views our selling message very guardedly,” Paul Flowers, president of Dallas-based Flowers & Partners, Inc., said. “After all, they know we are trying to sell them.”
Public Relations:When someone reads a third-party article written about your product or views coverage of your event on TV, they’re seeing something you didn’t pay for with ad dollars and view it differently than they do paid advertising.
“Where we can generate some sort of third-party ‘endorsement’ by independent media sources, we can create great credibility for our clients’ products or services,” Flowers said.
5. Creativity or a Nose for News
Advertising: In advertising, you get to exercise your creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials.
Public Relations:In public relations, you have to have a nose for news and be able to generate buzz through that news. You exercise your creativity, to an extent, in the way you search for new news to release to the media.
6. In-House or Out on the Town
Advertising: If you’re working at an ad agency, your main contacts are your co-workers and the agency’s clients. If you buy and plan ad space on behalf of the client like Media Director Barry Lowenthal does, then you’ll also interact with media sales people.
Public Relations:You interact with the media and develop a relationship with them. Your contact is not limited to in-house communications. You’re in constant touch with your contacts at the print publications and broadcast media.
7. Target Audience or Hooked Editor
Advertising: You’re looking for your target audience and advertising accordingly. You wouldn’t advertise a women’s TV network in a male-oriented sports magazine.
Public Relations:You must have an angle and hook editors to get them to use info for an article, to run a press release or to cover your event.
8. Limited or Unlimited Contact
Advertising: Some industry pros such as Account Executive Trey Sullivan have contact with the clients. Others like copywriters or graphic designers in the agency may not meet with the client at all.
Public Relations:In public relations, you are very visible to the media. PR pros aren’t always called on for the good news.
If there was an accident at your company, you may have to give a statement or on-camera interview to journalists. You may represent your company as a spokesperson at an event. Or you may work within community relations to show your company is actively involved in good work and is committed to the city and its citizens.
9. Special Events
Advertising: If your company sponsors an event, you wouldn’t want to take out an ad giving yourself a pat on the back for being such a great company. This is where your PR department steps in.
Public Relations:If you’re sponsoring an event, you can send out a press release and the media might pick it up. They may publish the information or cover the event.
10. Writing Style
Advertising: Buy this product! Act now! Call today! These are all things you can say in an advertisement. You want to use those buzz words to motivate people to buy your product.
Public Relations:You’re strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any blatant commercial messages in your communications are disregarded by the media.

Pressman Seminars: If you would like to find out how to slash your advertising spend yet gain lots of great publicity for your company, how to plan your PR strategy, how to find an angle about you and your company that the press will love, and how to craft punchy press releases that journalists won’t be able to resist, then come to one of the Pressman seminars.

Seminars take place in Nottingham and run from 10am to 4pm. The cost is just £295 per person with lunch, parking and tea / coffee all included in the price. I will take you through exactly what the press need and want and help you identify what aspects of your company, products and services, are PR-able.

I will work with you on an individual basis to help you create a perfect press release to kick start your campaign. You are guaranteed a marketable release – if it isn’t finished on the day I will complete it for you later and email it to you within a couple of days. If you would like more details email me at steve@pressmanpr.co.uk with “seminar” in the subject box.

Watching Wimbledon the other week I was interested to hear a commentator remark: “Tennis champions are not born, they’re made, and Richard Williams made two.” It struck me as a rather odd thing to say. For starters, didn’t Mrs Williams have a pretty big role to play in the creation of Venus and Serena? And how much of the sisters’ incredible success should be credited to their parents in any case? After all, I don’t see Richard wowing the crowds at centre court with his backhand.

But apparently parental influence is everything when it comes to building champions and it is essential to start them young. Age five seems to be about right. That explains why I never made it to SW19 as I didn’t lift a racket until I saw Borg and McEnroe on the telly in the late 70s. By then I was ten and obviously past it. Also I never had access to a court and just hit the ball around the school playground with my mates using a line of classroom chairs for a net. My racket came free when a parent filled the car with petrol.

But now, at last, I have a shot at glory, albeit of the vicarious variety. I have the chance to follow in Richard Williams’ footsteps and create a couple of tennis champions of my own. My children are three and one – young enough surely to mould into the Wimbledon winners of tomorrow?

So it was that filled with hope and expectation I took my three year old son Matthew down to the Nottingham Tennis Centre last week to get started. Dressed in our best Wimbledon whites we joined one of the Notts Tots tennis classes and I walked in proudly alongside my little protege. Sadly ten minutes later we were walking out again. Matthew had decided it was more fun to climb the nets than play tennis and I had to remove him for his own safety.

Evidently he’s not quite ready just yet to challenge Nadal and Federer, or even Andy Murray for that matter. But with fifteen years intense training and several hours daily practice to the exclusion of any other interest or pastime and who knows?

The question is would he thank me for it? If he turns out to be anything like me he’ll prefer to spend his teenage years sitting in dark rooms playing video games and listening to moody music. I wonder how Richard Williams dealt with such difficulties?

Press Release Surgery: If you would like me to give an opinion on your press release email me at steve@pressmanpr.co.uk.

Squidoo: I now have a Squidoo page where I describe ten steps to create a snappy press release. Click here to visit and please rate it.

What I’m Reading: I am currently reading Purple Cow by Seth Godin. The book has the strap line - Transform your business by being remarkable. Seth’s a very wise man who has recognised that conventional advertising is dead. It’s all about PR now. If your company is still spending a fortune on ineffective advertising stop right now and hire yourself someone who can create a buzz about you in the media instead. It is cheaper and much more effective.

Free Money: Ei42 is a great new shopping portal which lets you earn cashback on all your internet shopping - even eBay! Click here for details.

Inspiring Entrepreneurs: I now have my own bookshop - in association with Amazon. It is stocked with all my favourite business books and all the books which have inspired me over the years. Click here to visit the Pressman Bookshop.

SEO Tips: My top two tips for search engine optimisation are so simple - if you haven’t done them yet what is stopping you? Tip 1: Google Maps - creating a Google Map listing for your business is free and takes about five minutes. You’ll instantly leap up the results page.
Tip 2: Use the link at the top or bottom of this page to join Touch Local. You can join for free to create a simple listing - which will help - but I recommend creating a full listing which will allow you to include your website url. You’ll find the phone calls and emails soon start flooding in with new inquires. There are some great SEO books in my bookshop.

Pressman Seminars: If you would like to find out how to slash your advertising spend yet gain lots of great publicity for your company, how to plan your PR strategy, how to find an angle about you and your company that the press will love, and how to craft punchy press releases that journalists won’t be able to resist, then come to one of the Pressman seminars.

Seminars take place in Nottingham and run from 10am to 4pm. The cost is just £295 per person with lunch, parking and tea / coffee all included in the price. I will take you through exactly what the press need and want and help you identify what aspects of your company, products and services, are PR-able.

I will work with you on an individual basis to help you create a perfect press release to kick start your campaign. You are guaranteed a marketable release – if it isn’t finished on the day I will complete it for you later and email it to you within a couple of days. If you would like more details email me at steve@pressmanpr.co.uk with “seminar” in the subject box.

Firstly, sorry for the lack of updates during the past week. I have been incredibly busy devloping the business and am pleased to be able to tell you that Pressman PR is now registered as a limited company.