Never a guy to give a Sherman-esque answer to a Solomon-esque question, I tend to equivocate when the query is posted comparing the effectiveness of advertising and public relations.
But since I am CEO of an advertising and public relations company in Eastern Europe and quite often speak before college audiences and business groups, it is a question I receive with regularity-sort of like asking a chef whether he favors the preparation of sauces or soups.
There are purists who suggest one cannot serve the two masters. They say one can't walk, chew gum and twang Hank Williams songs at the same time, and it is the same with practicing both advertising and public relations.
Hogwash.
I can do the Hank Williams thing, though perhaps out of tune. And I equally love the fields of advertising and public relations if for no other reason than they have kept my family fed for more than three decades. But, there are other reasons.
For starters, I am in PR for the same reason I am in advertising-both require an element of creativity, the exercise of which I find exhilarating whether it has to do with writing a PR communications strategy or crafting an ad.
If one isn't in public relations for the creative challenge, I question that person's reason for being in PR. It goes without saying that if one would prefer to be an account order taker, working at McDonald's could have the same thrill.
In fact, and this will really send PR professors up a wall and ad executives yelling charlatan, I think the two professions should be more closely entwined. Both the PR and the ad folks should be in the same cockpit when a new brand takes off, a critical issue addressed or a marketing plan developed.
Often, they are not in the same town, or, it seems, on the same planet.
To take this one step further-and written with the righteous certitude and self-interest of one who is immersed in both disciplines-it does no harm if the same company delivers both creative services. Having undressed my conflicts, I will try to convince a skeptical audience.
Many combined PR and advertising companies come about purely for economic reasons in small markets. However, the first public relations company I launched quickly became an advertising company as well when the first client to walk through the door needed a radio script written and produced. It was for a locally owned Holiday Inn in Charleston, West Virginia. I hung out a second shingle.
Currently, my company, headquartered in Kiev, Ukraine, is about to launch a technological product. We have worked with the client for two years, and even suggested the product. In other words, we have become passionate about its success.
At this point, I don't want an interloper joining the mix.
This has nothing to do with wanting to capture all possible revenue-which, by the way, is an admirable objective-but everything to do with not wanting Ad Agency X playing Beethoven while PR Agency Y is playing Brahms.
Whether it is advertising or public relations, the name of the game is the creditable and creative delivery of messages. When it comes down to it, this is the shared DNA of everything we do. If we had a Holy Grail, this would be it.
Too many times, I have seen advertising executives and creatives at loggerheads with PR types over a creative approach to an account because both lacked the basic understanding of each other's reason for being-what the chain gang captain in Cool Hand Luke called "a failure to communicate."
It certainly didn't help with the release of a rather shallow book called The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR a few years ago. The book gave PR -previously marginalized by the ad world-phony reasons to chest beat and shout hallelujah.
More properly, the book should have preached the rise of advertising and the rise of PR. Both professions are in flux and dramatic change, primarily due to the Internet, but neither is on the decline.
When separate ad and PR companies tackle a marketing project, it is often not dynamic tension-which can be good-but negative tension. It often results in confused messages and fundamental disagreements about the delivery of those messages.
Often, even if they are from the same giant holding company-which is the rule these days-they meet around the client table almost as if competitors than colleagues. Then, they go off and lampoon one another.
In such cases, the ad folks are on Venus while the PR folks are on Mars, or vice versa.
Being from the same company, sharing the same creative values, and passionately believing in the same messages and how to delivery them, bring both the ad and the PR people a little closer to earth.
Send mail to Mike Willard at: mike.willard@twg.com.ua
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