Advertising and Public Relations are merging into one business.
Everything I have seen in and out of school show me that this is true despite all the nay sayers.
I remember seeing the Ecko did a public relations campaign that was shown in my advertising classes as more guerrilla marketing. The campaign was a viral video of a guy breaking in to an air force base and tagging Air Force One. They posted this on YouTube and their website. Apparently, this viral vid got so much attention and was so accurate that Air Force One had to check the plane to make sure it wasn’t tagged.
After that background let me take you back to the first sentence. I said this was show to an ‘advertising class’ as innovative marketing. All I saw as a public relations campaign. Why? Because first off it was free. Public Relations to me has always been free advertising because it is basically getting your company into the presses with out having to pay for it.
That example at hand I believe that many campaigns are either mislabeled or the company goes to the wrong agency for a project. For instance, sometimes I read a case study about Wal-Mart where they had some advertisements go out that didn’t agree with their mission and audience. All Wal-Mart needed was a good PR plan with the executives making statements. However, I was required to make an advertising plan. It didn’t make sens to me because it was a bad Public Relations situation.
I don’t know if I have convinced anyone but I really do believe this. I think it is happening more because of the fact that businesses are just going to the wrong type of agency for a problem. Neither an advertising nor a public relation agency want to say no to a new client that is what causes them to do pr plans at an ad agency or visa versa. While it all gives us more experience it confuses the roles for people like me.
Tell me what you think of my idea.
The Social Duck 