Similarities between public relations,advertising and publicity?

There are some similarities between public relations, advertising, and publicity. Each of these three elements is used to promote goods, services, or persons. Each type of promotion will feature initiatives that bolster a company or person's mission statement, talents, and achievements. In some cases, public relations executives work hand in hand with advertising and publicity staff, creating wide-scale marketing campaigns that target the Internet, or television and radio audiences.

Public Relations Tasks

• Write Press Releases (these formatted letters announce a new product, service, or event; each new press release also reinforces a company's brand message)
• Schedule Promotional Events - Every public relations person will work at scheduling community, national, or international events that promote a person, company, product, or service. These events may feature promotional swag, prizes, and entertainment. Product launches and non-fiction or fiction book launches are common types of promotional events organized by public relations, or PR, employees.

Advertising Tasks

• Designs Ads And Signage - Advertising sells products and services to consumers by combining engaging text, fresh images, and other media, such as video clips and testimonials. Ad executives design ads and signage, as well as other marketing gambits, to entice new and returning customers.
• Oversees Ad Campaigns - An ad executive will track results from media campaigns and make adjustments. They may also devise a budget for existing or future marketing campaigns.

Publicity Tasks

• Manages Special Publicity Events - Today, digital media tasks may be shared between a public relations expert and a publicity employee. The public relations person will manage face-to-face interactions, while the publicity specialist will plan out detailed initiatives to get the attention of a public. The role of a publicity specialist is to "create a buzz" that helps a person, company or brand name becomes more established and successful.

Although both of the communication activities have a marketing nature and both are meant for the good of the company, there is a host of differences between public relations and advertising. Firstly advertising is aimed for generating awareness about the product or service that the company is selling, which in turn, generates sales.

On the other hand, public relations aims to generate awareness about the company as a whole, not its products or services, its main rationale revolving around enhancing the goodwill of the organization. Moreover while advertising becomes the source of generating tangible benefits like sales, the bounties that public relations brings with itself are of an intangible nature and are meant for results in the long run.

Another difference between advertising and public relations is the scope of stakeholders that both of the activities cover; while advertising is only meant for the target market (the customers), pubic relations covers a much greater platform of stakeholders that includes employees, community groups, shareholders and even the media.