[...] A Little PR Can Go a Long Way Towards Branding Your Business [...]

Brilliant comments. Ahh, the old ad equivalence debate. I love when it comes down to that. I can’t think of an occasion when the PR didn’t more than pay for itself infinite times over!

Glad to see people with your level of experience and expertise weighing in on this blog. Insight from professionals of your caliber only adds to the tremendous information exchange here! Thanks again for commenting!!

Best,
Kevin

Thanks for the comment. Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Best,
Kevin

I think more ad people are now recognizing the role and the power of p.r. I used to have those fights with ad agency folks, who would belittle p.r. effectiveness and treat us like we were small potatoes.

Back around 1980, when I was directing the p.r. work for L’eggs hosiery, the ad agency, Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (now Saatchi) wanted to grab our p.r. budget (under $200,000) for themselves, even as they were spending around $16 million for the client. They convinced the client to do an advertising equivalency evaluation, to see what the free time and space would have cost had it been purchjased as ads. We resisted at first, saying it’s comparing apples and oranges. But the client went ahead with the evaluation.

According to the ad agency’s calculation, our $200,000 brought more than $2 million in space and time. And that doesn’t factor in the credibility factor, of course.

Now, I find the tables have turned and I’ve had several ad agencies refer me to their clients for public relations support to complement the ad agency’s efforts.