Expert: Peter Gabany - 4/9/2004

Question
Why is there a fall in advertising? Is it to do with the rise of PR?
Is advertising dead, what is the future for advertising? How does PR work with or against advertising?
Sorry a lot of questions there, i am doiung my dissertation on this please help thanks x

Answer
Why is there a fall in advertising?

There is? we don't believe there is a fall. There are however many changes. So how do we support the idea that there isn't a fall. The magazine racks are full! Superbowls still sells out at record $/30 second spot. Agencies are VERY busy. But the changes are demonstrably tremendous. #1 Spend for advertising fluctuates year to year and recently the measurement of ad spend has shown a decrease in spend, albeit only slightly. Part of the reason stems from the fact that advertising is being diverted into new media. 4 or 5 decades ago commercials ran in movie theatres and then dissapeared – today they are back with a vengence!

Internet ad sales are experiencing a resurgence again only slightly. The internet is doing some amazing things that traditional advertising has not been very effective at. That being – measurement of ROI or conversion. This has given much rise to the power of Direct Response marketing. Each campaign can be measured by the number of people that actually received, read and acted on a given offer. For every $1.00 of spend, clients can ensure that they receive $1.00+ dollar of return and throttle or control selling. This allows for many advantages.

Now enter PR. People do seem to be catching on. While advertising does and can support brands, PR is the progenitor of brands. It truly is responsible for brand development, positioning and repositioning. It can only serve to support advertising.

There is a simple analogy. If I advertise my service to you for a full 60% discount would you spend additional dollars with me? Your first response as a consumer would be a request for a definition of service. Advertising can only present (effectively) one idea. If that idea is the 60% savings it has no place to detail the value of the proposed service.

PR on the otherhand can. While it can't or shouldn't position the service for discount it can create a point of differentiation, testament of service and position the service against competitive services.

There is so much here that one could write. I do hope this helps. Look to Adage, BrandWeeek, Marketing Magazine, Strategy Magazine and others for actuals in ad spending/PR and Direct.

Stay well and write again.

Pete

Is it to do with the rise of PR?
Is advertising dead, what is the future for advertising? How does PR work with or against advertising?