Updated June 13, 2023

Difference Between Advertising vs Publicity vs Promotions

Advertising vs Publicity vs Promotion – To begin with, we need to understand that there is a difference between the three terms. That means advertising is different, publicity is different, and promotion is different. It will be better to understand the definitions and explanations of each term to start with. This will give you a better picture and help you differentiate better.

Below infographics on Advertising vs Publicity vs Promotions throws light on the major differences between the three.

Advertising vs Publicity vs Promotion infographic

Advertising

Advertising is done in order to promote and increase the sales of the goods and services of any company products and services. This is a trick of introducing the products and services to target audiences. It is a means of drawing people’s attention toward certain products and services.

It is different for different products and services as the advertising campaigns completely depend on the products and services offered and the organization selling them. The mode of advertising can be flashing advertisements on the television, publicizing it on the radio, in newspaper prints, in magazines, billboards on the streets of the cities and the towns, highways, etc.

An advertiser’s job is to influence the audiences by influencing their identities by using stereotypes and targeting their audiences. They influence our personal identity, which is who we are, and what makes us what we are, for example, our occupation, our personality, our beliefs, our lifestyle, relationships, family and friends, and finally, our self-esteem.

They influence us by changing what we are, who we are, and what we will be when we use their products and services. It is a way of bringing in new customers and influencing the existing ones in order to increase the sales of the company’s goods and services.

Types of advertising

The following are the different types:

1. Television sets

Television sets are the most effective way of advertising a product or a service. Most people use televisions because they have a television connection, which makes advertising more effective as it reaches out to maximum audiences, which might be the company’s existing or prospective customers.

Prospect customers can be anyone interested in or needing your products and services. Television channels have ads, which might be 30 seconds to approximately a minute. Besides, there are ads that are permitted and not permitted on TV. There are different names for different types of advertisements. For example, advertising a movie on television is called promoting a movie trailer.

2. Radio ads

Radios play only the audio advertisement between their programs. Unlike TV, radios cannot access the visual and audio modes of advertising. Hence they play only the audio ads.

3. The internet

One of the most effective or modern ways of advertising today is using the internet. Most youths use and prefer using the net to do everything, from searching and surfing to shopping. Almost anything and everything is possible with the help of the internet today. Nowadays, the focus of the youth is the internet. Hence, marketers choose the Internet to market their goods and services. Online marketing has increased the sales of goods and services of any company.

4. The traditional ways

Advertising the traditional way will never be a waste of money anyways. The focus is always grabbing the attention of the audience. One way is putting billboard ads on the streets of the cities, the highways, etc. Other ways include printing advertisements in the newspapers, and magazines, covering public vehicles with advertising leaflets, or even getting them painted. Traditional ways will never be out of fashion or out of use.

Publicity

Publicizing is moving information about anything, be it a product, a service, or an event, amongst the public to create awareness. Advertising is promoting a product or a service. In contrast, publicizing is creating awareness of a subject amongst the public. Publicity can be about individuals, organizations, art and entertainment, and goods and services. Publicist carries publicity of an object or a subject in order to gain public visibility or public awareness by establishing communication and maintaining this communication with the audiences or the public. Did you know that publicizing can be done without using media?

Just like advertising, even publicity is part of a promotion. From the marketing perspective, promotion combines personal selling, direct marketing, sales promotions, advertising, and publicizing.

Some tricks for publicizing without the use of media

Media use increases the overall cost of a subject because using media is expensive. However, promoting a subject can be much cheaper with the help of publicity and publicity tricks.

When an employee joins an organization, the first way of publicizing is by announcing his appointment. Similarly, for introducing new products and services, an announcement is made.
Making someone popular is by letting that person talk. Arranging a public speech, talk, or public appearance is an easy way of publicizing.
Try out arranging testimonials to publicize.
Conducting polls and surveys is a simple way of creating awareness among the public. You also get feedback to improvise.
Sponsor events such as local cricket matches, inter-school or college competitions, etc.
Invent your own awards and present them to specific people with a certificate of recognition and a little memorable.
Give recommendations for certain people.
Issue subject reports and put them on company emails with the approvals from seniors.
Organize business and project tours and also stage debates
On controversial subjects, take a stand and participate.

Publicity is not a competing message. It is much more than that. However, the entire language is only used for making the same old proposal in different ways and mediums. It is also critically said that publicity proposes the public transform themselves and their lives to buy publicity that does not pay additional charges.

Publicit: Advantages and Disadvantages

Publicity is possible without using media effectively.
It has a low cost involved and high credibility.
New technology changes the cost structure and is beneficial to the company
Lack of control over the publicity releases coz you never know how it will be used.
The percentage of releases is low because most of it is taken up by the media.
Publicity can also be used as stunts in order to promote only.

Promotions

Simply, promotion is raising or increasing the awareness of a product and a service amongst the public or existing and prospective customers. Promotion is one of the most important ingredients of the marketing mix as it is one of the 4 P’s: Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. Besides creating brand awareness, the promotion generates and increases sales and increases and improves brand loyalty. The promotion itself has 5 parts. Let’s just know these parts by their names

Personal selling
Direct marketing
Advertising
Publicity
Sales promotion

Promotions have objectives, and these three main objectives are

To make information available to customers and prospective customers very presentable and effective.
To increase the demand for goods and services of an organization in order to increase the sales and profit turnover.
The promotion also differentiates a product and service from other mostly competitors’ products and services.

Types of promotions

The following are the different types:

1. Promotion physically

Instead of traditional modes, promotions are possible through concerts, festivals for promoting special products, and trade shows. Most importantly, promoting products in departmental stores, grocery stores, malls, etc. When customers see the performance of the brand, they are interested in using it, or else they would want to stick with their products.

2. Media or traditional media

Traditional media includes advertising mediums such as advertising in newspapers, magazines, television ads, radio promotions, leaflets, banners, billboard banners, etc. These are known as traditional mediums. Nowadays, most organizations use online systems for promoting their products and services. There is nothing better than promoting online these days, as no other medium is more effective for the most active online, especially the youth of every nation. Digitalization has changed the face of business.

3. Digital or the new media

The newest form of promoting a product or a service is promoting online and going digital. Use of content, visual, audio, or hardcore text content. Consumers get access to relevant information with the help of blogs, websites, and search engines. This helps companies to sell and promote their products and services using digitalization.

Digitalization is the latest and the most modern mode of promotion. It has no geographical borders and helps promote products and services in and outside national borders. It gives access to maximum audiences because more than 40% of the global population is online. And more than 67% of people use the global internet these days.

Digitalization has made business easy as promoting and selling your business has become very convenient.

Let’s see the difference as we summarize Advertising vs Publicity vs Promotion

You have to pay to advertise the products and services of the organization. However, you hope you receive publicity because you can get it without paying for it. And it usually relies on the advertisement. Whereas both advertising and publicity are important parts of promoting a subject.
Companies who are new in the market or even old companies in the market with new product launches need to rely on advertisements to build a PR or credibility to create awareness in public. However, publicity is an ongoing process because you cannot start a business by opening a store, starting a website, and doing nothing to promote your business. You must keep promoting because you want your products and services to sell. Hence promotions need to continue.
It is simple words is content you pay for. That is, you pay to advertise your products and services. This can be done through a medium that is the media like the TV, radio, banners, newspapers, etc. Publicity depends on the effectiveness of the advertisements’ content, what the editor wants to convey to the public, and how effectively. And an effective promotion is a combination of the two.
Since the advertisement is supposed to be paid or sometimes heavily paid, it is viewed by customers, and hence only company-specific or product and service-specific information is displayed. Information that is beneficial to the company is advertised.
Advertisements do not contain customer feedback options. However, publicity is an unpaid promotion now. Since it is unpaid, the companies cannot control what will be released and displayed.
Since the company and the product name are mentioned in a newspaper or magazine article, the customer will take it as a positive feedback of the subject. The reason is that people believe in another talk about the subject.
Whether paid or unpaid, the motive is to promote the subject. Promotions believe in marketing the subject through various means, keeping budgets in mind. Not every paid advertisement successfully gives sales and business to the company. Like said, advertising is all about the content. Content can be in any form. However, even unpaid publicity can be important in promoting a subject.

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