Advertising vs PR
“I believe advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable.” – Russell Simmons
Ouch.
I usually always advise my small business clients to try the earned media (PR) route before succumbing to an advertising budget. It’s more effort, but it can also yield greater results. The best use of time and money would be integrating both the PR and advertising campaigns so they’re in sync with each other. That would be a better investment, in my opinion. Save the advertising for when PR can’t or won’t be an option.
Media Buying at a Glance
For the last two weeks on my commute home from work, I’ve been passing by the same transit billboard. The billboard ad is for Ad Bargains, which works as a consolidated website to provide PR and advertising folks with advertising rates for print, radio, and web from the major media players. This is a god-send for people who don’t have access to a media buyer and need to call around for rates if they are given an advertising budget to play with.I can’t believe it’s taken this long for something like this to be online. I suspect it will be best used and served by small boutique agencies and consultants who will no doubt be grateful for this time saver.
