Surprisingly hard to explain clearly!? What is the difference between PR and corporate communications, and between PR and advertising/promotion?

This is a series that unpacks PR approaches and branding know-how suited to today’s world: “SSU’s PR Method.” This time, I will discuss the differences between “PR and corporate communications” and “PR and advertising,” while also incorporating some personal views.

Previous installments of SSU’s PR Method are available here.

■The biggest difference between PR and corporate communications is whether there is “two-way communication”

To get straight to it, can you clearly explain the difference between PR and corporate communications?

*For an explanation of what “PR” is in the first place, please see this article.
What is “PR” according to SUNNY SIDE UP? A thorough explanation of the PR that is considered important today!
https://blog.ssu.co.jp/pr_methods/18275/

Corporate communications means “communicating broadly,” i.e., disseminating information one-way to someone.

PR, on the other hand, is an abbreviation for “public relations,” which literally means building relationships with the public. If it is about building relationships, one-way communication is not enough—two-way communication is essential. Therefore, PR has two roles: corporate communications plus listening. In addition to disseminating information, listening to those around you is also part of PR.

In today’s world, where social media is widespread and anyone can be a sender, it is also an era in which it is easy to check what kind of reaction your messaging to the public received. For that reason, PR and social media must always be considered as a set. Even without introducing social listening measurement tools, it is essential for anyone in charge to search for the company name, product name, and campaign hashtags.

Group interviews have pros and cons: while you can ask in-depth questions about a product, it is extremely difficult unless the interviewer is highly skilled, because you may not be able to draw out people’s true feelings. On the other hand, social media is relatively full of “honest opinions.”

After distributing a press release or newsletter, or when running a campaign or event, be sure to capture and save social media reactions as well (ideally viewing them from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives). This is also one form of listening.

In addition, the targets of information dissemination (the recipients) can also be considered stakeholders—for example, employees in some cases, or governments in others. Among them, the most important are the media: even if you do not secure publicity through media promotion activities, asking “why didn’t you cover it?” and gathering that feedback is also what is known as listening.

From the client’s (advertiser/manufacturer’s) perspective, if they are not communicating directly with the media, the media’s unfiltered feedback is extremely valuable—and it is not something you can easily pick up on social media or the web. Therefore, if you have any media feedback from interviews or promotion, I would strongly encourage PR agency account managers to take notes and share it back with the client.

I digressed a bit, but the difference between PR and corporate communications is two-way communication. And in today’s corporate communications activities, PR that includes listening is required.

This is because you should not simply implement a measure and be done; you should check the response and reflect it in planning future promotional measures.

The feelings of the target audience change more rapidly the younger the demographic, and to capture insights and moments (deep-seated desires, whether consciously recognized or not, and the moments when those desires surface), it is important to properly check the response to your measures.

■The difference between PR and advertising… is the line between them disappearing?

Continuing on the theme of “differences,” I would also like to talk about the difference between PR and advertising.

Do you think there is a clear difference between PR and advertising?

Personally, I feel that the boundary between PR in the broad sense (corporate communications + listening, as mentioned at the beginning) and advertising is already disappearing. And I do not think this is a lie told by people at PR agencies simply because they want to expand their territory.

First, I will explain the difference between PR in the narrow sense (publicity) and advertising, in a way anyone can understand.

Publicity refers to being covered by various media outlets such as news organizations through PR activities, or being posted about on social media.

Publicity is not about placing information in ad space; it is about being featured within the media’s content.

Advertising is having information placed in ad space for a fee (media buying).

With publicity, the media edits the information and publishes it.
With advertising, the media publishes the information you want to communicate.

What I want to say here is not the conventional “PR (publicity) vs. advertising” argument often framed as “PR costs less” or “it is more trusted because it appears in content rather than in the media’s ad space.”

No—publicity also costs money, of course, and with publicity there are cases where what you truly want to say is published in a context that does not convey it.

What matters most is the value of the media editing the information into something that “readers and viewers want,” and then publishing it. If it ends up differing from the company’s intent, that simply means you misread what the public wants, or the facts you gathered in advance were off the mark. Because the media edits it, the information becomes easier for consumers (readers and viewers) to accept, and it reaches them properly.

Developing information with an awareness that the media will edit it is called “PR thinking.” I believe this PR thinking is also becoming widespread among advertising creators (though I am not sure whether they recognize it by the term “PR thinking”).

TV commercials, web videos, newspaper ads, and OOH are created with messages and creatives designed to go viral on social media and become a topic of conversation, aren’t they? Since buzz can come not only from the media but also from consumers’ social posts, planning is done not just to place the ad and finish, but with post-placement buzz in mind—this is exactly PR thinking.

Whether the method for planning measures with PR thinking and connecting them to results is media buying, or media promotion activities to secure earned publicity, is not that important. What matters is whether the core idea behind every method is conceived with PR thinking—and I constantly feel that this is not only PR, but also advertising.

In closing…

How important PR thinking is within PR planning is like:
the strawberry on a shortcake,
the defensive midfielder in soccer,
the center of an idol group,
a planner’s sleep time,
or a PR agency’s media promoter.

It is so important that
nothing starts without it and nothing works without it,
so next time, I will explain this properly.

This may feel like an ad, or like a teaser for the next installment,
but I thought I probably would not get in trouble for ending it this way,
so I added a bit of personal playfulness.

Please look forward to the next blog post, as well as posts by other members!
(And of course, if you have missed any past articles, please be sure to check them out!!)