Public Relations vs. Publicity
Tomato, tomatoe?
During SuiteWorld 2013, I had an interesting conversation with a colleague. We were discussing the difference between public relations and publicity, which might seem like useless chatter to folks who are not in the PR game. But for us PR agents, it sparked a very educational conversation. Is there a significant difference between the two? During our 5 minute scramble from one meeting room to the next, we came to a quick decision that it pretty much means the same thing - but I was not satisfied.
I started to think about the connotations when I hear the two: Public Relations sounds more like an on-going effort - relationship building over a long period of time. Publicity is more like a quick fix to gain attention from a mid to large group of people. For example, pretend a new café wants to get their name out to the public. A PR effort would be to build a network of regular customers who are faithful patrons to the café. A publicity effort could entail frequent buyer coupons to the folks that live in a two block radius to the café. These residents will then become the network that the café maintains close relationships with. Another publicity effort can be a radio commercial or a billboard; an effort that involves a large group of people and is meant to get the word out to a mass population. The people involved in the publicity effort might gain curiosity and visit the café, which allows the café to build a stronger relationship with these walk - ins, i.e. public relations.
Publicity is a marketing effort, and PR can utilize publicity to build the network in which PR will target certain people or groups of people to build stronger relationships with.
Thoughts?
During SuiteWorld 2013, I had an interesting conversation with a colleague. We were discussing the difference between public relations and publicity, which might seem like useless chatter to folks who are not in the PR game. But for us PR agents, it sparked a very educational conversation. Is there a significant difference between the two? During our 5 minute scramble from one meeting room to the next, we came to a quick decision that it pretty much means the same thing - but I was not satisfied.
I started to think about the connotations when I hear the two: Public Relations sounds more like an on-going effort - relationship building over a long period of time. Publicity is more like a quick fix to gain attention from a mid to large group of people. For example, pretend a new café wants to get their name out to the public. A PR effort would be to build a network of regular customers who are faithful patrons to the café. A publicity effort could entail frequent buyer coupons to the folks that live in a two block radius to the café. These residents will then become the network that the café maintains close relationships with. Another publicity effort can be a radio commercial or a billboard; an effort that involves a large group of people and is meant to get the word out to a mass population. The people involved in the publicity effort might gain curiosity and visit the café, which allows the café to build a stronger relationship with these walk - ins, i.e. public relations.
Publicity is a marketing effort, and PR can utilize publicity to build the network in which PR will target certain people or groups of people to build stronger relationships with.
Thoughts?
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