Tweet

Is Having Your Ad Agency Also Doing Your PR a Good Idea?

Guest post by: Thomas J. Madden

Article Overview: Some companies today are looking to save budget by combining advertising and PR at one agency, but while it can save money, it often doesn't work as effectively and might even backfire.

Is Having Your Ad Agency Also Doing Your PR a Good Idea?

Would you want your hair stylist to also dry cleanyour clothesand maybe repair your shoes? To me it's just as silly to have your advertising agency do your PR.

Sure it sounds good and might even make you feel shrewd to streamline and possibly save budget by combing Advertising and PR at one agency. Certainly it's possible you can save some money, but there's a downside often overlooked.

While ad agencies are certainly developing social media skills these days, and they like to say they have PR departments that will send out a news release occasionally, along with tweets and facebook pages, etc., but there's much more to PR than that. Yet often there's a reluctance to go much beyond the superficial,which often robs clients of major media breaks and exposure.

News releases are only a starting point inPR and shouldn't bethe end point. Ad agencies often are reluctantto be too assertive, resourceful or creative on the PR side, however. They would prefer to keep it tepid and safe on the PR side and concentrate instead on advertising. One reason for this is that ad agencies typically like to control messages.

It's worrisome for them to risk losing much more substantial ad billings by going too far on the editorial front, where there is far less control over the message. Hence, most ad agencies are rather timid about PR or they have not developed the close ties and relationships with reporters and broadcast producers as they have with ad sales staff and managers.

So with that inherent shortcoming, there is indeed more risk and inhibition for ad agencies, whereas with veteran publicists working at a PR firm as experienced as TransMedia Group http://www.transmediagroup.com,you have pro's who've built and cultivated close ties and long-standing relationships with reporters and producers, so there is far less risk and the likelihood of manymore positive outcomes.

Then there's another side. Stop and think of all those things that can go wrong, likethe inevitable employee blunder,occasional unethical practice,neglectful and maybe irresponsible or even criminal acts that sometimes happen. That's when you thank your lucky stars youhave a PR firm that's as effectiveat crisis managements and media training as TransMedia, which has handled crises for some of the largest companies in the world.

Sorry, I didn't mean to make this a sermon, but I just want to make sure that if you ever entertain combining advertising and PR at the same shop, you might want to consider all aspects before putting all your image eggs into one flowery basket.

You might just want to hire a PR firm to do PRusing communications that are much more powerfulthan advertising. I'm referring to the news and editorial feature stories that PR firms generate as opposed to self-serving advertising messages which are receiving less and less attention these message bombardment days.

Related Articles
  Agency
  Get the best out of your PR agency
  Selecting the Top Advertising Agency for your Business Depends on the Metrics you Measure
  Selecting The Right Advertising Agency Is Dependent On Access To A Comprehensive Agency Register
  Mistakes Clients Make When Choosing an Agency
  Recourse and Non-Recourse Nurse Staffing Accounts Receivable Factoring: What’s the Difference?
  Digital Agency: The Modern Business of Today
  Agency Workers Regulations: Do you understand?
  5 Factors to Set your Digital Agency Apart From The Rest 
  Is Home Care Funding Right For Your Private Duty Agency?
  Employers: What is a professional recruitment service?
  Becoming a Travel Agent from Home is Easy when Working with a Host Travel Agency
  Developing Agency Solutions to Increasingly Complex Marketing Requirements
  Alternative Financing Options - Home Health Care Factoring
  Employers: Taking on agency workers for the first time!
  Healthcare Staffing Factoring Works For Agency Owners
  Legal Marketing: 5 tips to help you find a marketing partner
  How Can Medical Staffing Payroll Factoring Help My Agency?
  Success principle: Treat everybody respectfully
  Public Relations Agency

Article Tags: ad agencies, advertising, Facebook, message, PR, publicists, publicity, risk, savings, tweets social media, Twitter



Related Forum Posts
Re: 15 Ways You Can Look Amazing on LinkedIn - Great Idea Trent, We can all help each other, regards, Mal.
Global Ad Agency Seeks Senior Sales Account Executive - Global Ad Agency -- We are seeking experienced advertising Senior Sales Account Executives to join our growing sales force in New York office. ICMediaDirect.com, Inc is a Full Service Online Advertising Agency driven by a united goal to provide both online as well as offline advertisers with easy and affordable ways to plan and buy media online. We are proud to present an impressive roster of over 300 satisfied clients and a wide reach of billions of visitors each month. With two great locations - N.Y. and D.C. - we know how to PLAN your media, how to BUY your media, how to TRACK your media and how to CAPITALIZE your media. Qualifications • Minimum 2 years of active ONLINE advertising sales experience • Responsible and aggressive attitude • Successful track record with ONLINE sales • Understanding Internet advertising vehicles such as pops, banners, search and lead generation is required • Excellent communication and presentation skills • Strong computer skills are required • Detail oriented and well-organized • Ability to work independently • Enthusiastic team player The Best office location in the city! Competitive salary (plus commission), bonuses and benefits. Please send your resume with salary expectations today at jobs@icmediadirect.com!
Magnetic Ads - Biz Idea - Attn Young Entrepreneurs looking for a Business Idea. This came to me while sitting in Traffic for about 1 hour while looking and laughing at ridiculous bumper stickers. Note: this idea is rough but will help get the idea-momentum going. Idea: Sell advertising on the back of cars in the form of reusable magnetic signs (about the length of 2 or 3 bumper stickers) Most people shouldn't have reservations to participating if they get a cut of the monthly fee you charge the company advertising and it doesn't hurt their car. An example of a Magnetic Ad: Geico: I saved 15% on my Car Insurance. Call 1-800-U-SAVE-15 You don't have to pay the cost associated with creating the Magnetic Ad because you will advise the company that this belongs to them and you can get them in touch with someone who created reusable magnets. So your basically managing two sides: 1. Company's that want to advertise 2. People in your neighborhood (to start) who will put the ads on their car. Bigger cars can have more than one ad. Happy Money Making!
Re: Global Ad Agency Seeks Senior Sales Account Executive - [quote="RobertGresch":1lt645d1]Global Ad Agency -- We are seeking experienced advertising Senior Sales Account Executives to join our growing sales force in New York office. ICMediaDirect.com, Inc is a Full Service Online Advertising Agency driven by a united goal to provide both online as well as offline advertisers with easy and affordable ways to plan and buy media online. We are proud to present an impressive roster of over 300 satisfied clients and a wide reach of billions of visitors each month. With two great locations - N.Y. and D.C. - we know how to PLAN your media, how to BUY your media, how to TRACK your media and how to CAPITALIZE your media. Qualifications • Minimum 2 years of active ONLINE advertising sales experience • Responsible and aggressive attitude • Successful track record with ONLINE sales • Understanding Internet advertising vehicles such as pops, banners, search and lead generation is required • Excellent communication and presentation skills • Strong computer skills are required • Detail oriented and well-organized • Ability to work independently • Enthusiastic team player The Best office location in the city! Competitive salary (plus commission), bonuses and benefits. Please send your resume with salary expectations today at jobs@icmediadirect.com![/quote:1lt645d1] Hi Robert, Welcome to our forums! Have you had any luck in your search for this job candidate and can I ask what other sites you've used to advertise this position?
Re: Free electricity generator - Yes sry about that. I am new at this and have no means to build a such device this is why I want the comunity's help with discussing desing and maybe some tweeking and as for patenting I also have no money for that either. All I have is this Idea I put together over the course of a few years. I also have a few other inventions of a less important value to dicuss. Thanks in advance for any help


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

4 Steps To Hypnotize Your Business Prospects

ROSI Return on SUNK Investment

The Biggest Domain Name Myth

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.