3 PR Lessons We Can Learn from Bey And Jay

Recently, Beyoncé and Jay-Z dropped their first fully collaborative album, The Carters. Critics and fans alike immediately embraced the tracks and hailed the LP as a celebration of Black art, excellence and legacy.

Over the years, the Carters have managed to exert an ironclad control over their public image despite their humongous stature. The four-pronged strategy of largely staying clear of public squabbles and scandals, carefully curating their social media feeds, rarely giving interviews and not hyping their new projects before they’re released has only deepened the mystery surrounding hip hop’s foremost family. This decision is no accident – the couple is notoriously private and this strategy has infused intrigue into their reputation. Because they are rarely in the public eye, when they do pop up, it seems that the whole world sits up and takes notice of them.

From a business perspective, this type of PR strategy seems impossible to implement. But there are some lessons that can be gleaned – here’s what we can learn from the Carters:

Controlling the Narrative

When rumours of trouble in the couple’s marital paradise broke out in 2013, neither party added fuel to the fire. Unlike other celebrity couples who rush to give a statement when their relationships hit rock bottom, the Carters remained mum on the state of their marriage. They addressed the hearsay when Beyoncé released Lemonade in 2016, an entire album peppered with lyrics and visuals that suggested the possibility of marital strain. The endless speculations that ensued proved to be massively profitable for both Jay-Z and Beyoncé.

While controlling the narrative should be a basic skill for any company’s PR team, in this age of hyperconnectivity and non-stop streaming, firms will find themselves with a very small window of time to prevent crisis situations from becoming communications disasters. Whether it’s appeasing a crowd bent on obtaining answers or addressing unsavoury gossip, it’s imperative to weave a story that sets the tone for all future conversations surrounding the topic at hand. That way, your narrative will drown out all other chatter.

A Well-Oiled Social Media Machine

Both Beyoncé and Jay-Z are known to shun traditional PR paths when announcing new content. For albums Beyoncé and Lemonade, Beyoncé decided to bypass mainstream media outlets and release the albums digitally via an announcement that came from her own account. By doing this, she broke the fourth wall and gave the content directly to her fans via social media. The result? Unprecedented success for both albums. For Lemonade specifically, the release of the album was timed at a juncture when social media was rife with conversations surrounding racial tensions and feminism, and the album’s messages on both topics seemed especially poignant. The couple also demonstrates a deep understanding of curated visuals in today’s social media landscape, as reflected in the multiple music videos of Lemonade and Jay-Z’s 4:44.

It’s no secret that combining social media and highly creative visuals is a winning combination. But to ensure the success of your client’s products upon launch, you must leverage social media to reach your target audience. Follow up with a steady stream of high-quality visual content that’s shareable, accessible and most importantly, relevant.

Authenticity

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a recent Beyoncé or Jay-Z interview. Instead of relying on the media, or even social media, to give fans an inside look at their lives, both Bey and Jay prefer to pour little details of their life into their music. Beyoncé’s mastery of social media is impressive – she occasionally posts rare snapshots from her day-to-day life, puts time and effort into creating a spectacle when announcing milestones and hardly ever adds captions or hashtags, letting the images speak for themselves. As a result, fans interpret and discuss the images, and are left wanting more.

Audiences are smart and can easily discern an inauthentic brand. So cut through the clutter by staying true to your brand’s core values and identity; be honest and daring, let your voice ring true in all your communications and never be afraid to weigh in on issues that are pertinent to your business.

Though you may encounter 99 problems, PR should never be one. A good PR strategy is irreplaceable – so why not invest time and energy in creating a fail-proof communications game plan? Reach out to us if you’re in the dark about how to get started.

Need help crafting the ideal PR strategy? Drop us a message at hello@mutant.com.sg

(Cover photo source: Pinterest)

Millennial-speak: Let data do the talking

A data-led guide to marketing to millennials

They say we are prone to spending money, careless with personal data, and technology is second nature to us – well, it’s partly true. But it doesn’t mean waving your brand in front of our faces will guarantee you our attention.

Trust me, I’m a millennial and you bet we’re discerning. But I promise you that we are fiercely grounded in authenticity and self-expression. As digital natives (that’s what they call us), our cyber footprints are literally all over the internet.

But remember one thing before marketing to us: Please, get to know us first!

As we (the entitled millennials) are not all the same, you should use insights to tailor kick-ass marketing and PR campaigns to us. Here are 3 sure-fire avenues to get to know us (aka collecting data) and help your brand to zoom in on the ever so critical Gen Y:

Basic Data Analytics

Whether it’s Google Analytics, Facebook or Instagram insights, the basic level of data is easily accessible to all marketers and brands. Studying the data will reveal where online traffic originates, what posts are most popular and, more importantly, will tell you what topics drive the greatest engagement from millennial audiences. So, dive into the data and see where your target audience and millennials connect.

Social Sentiments

Social listening tools like Meltwater can help you track conversations across a variety of online and social media platforms that may not necessarily be owned by you. As the millennial world moves fast, you want to quickly pick up on online conversations and the sentiments surrounding them. Are they positive or negative? Can you use them for trend-jacking?

Third-party Research

Looking at a bigger picture, you want to get research and consultancy firms like Nielsen and Euromonitor involved. With the help of their comprehensive database, you can gain some insights into the millennial pulse.  While the free online samples may not necessarily reveal all that juicy data, they should provide you with an adequate snapshot to point you in the right direction.

Questionnaires

Scalable, easy to conduct and great for getting to know millennials questionnaires can be tailored to suit specific demographics and/or geographics. Considerable effort needs to go into asking the right questions so that collectively the responses will reveal insights that might support your campaign objectives. Using platforms such as Google Forms and SurveyMonkey make it really easy for your business to reach audiences.

Be a Millennial

If you really want to get under our skin (and into our minds), then you should behave like one of us. Get on Reddit, join Facebook and Instagram live events, and watch YouTube videos – don’t forget to read the comments. It’s the most authentic way to connect with us.  I know that millennials have gained quite the reputation for having an inflated sense of entitlement, but once you’re better acquainted with us, you will better understand our needs, concerns and priorities in life.

But just like you too – we agree that personalised treatment never goes out of style. Regardless of the generation, customising your brand’s messaging to your target audience will always be part of the right path.

You want to hear what millennials think about your campaign? Drop us a message at hello@mutant.com.sg.

Creating captivating content in a mobile world

In Asia Pacific alone, it’s estimated there are more than 1 billion mobile users – and this is expected to grow to 1.4 billion users by 2019. Over the last five years we have witnessed a massive shift to digital (after all, an estimated 87% of smartphone users regularly have their device near them), which means we have to adapt our marketing communications to fit mobile.

This doesn’t just mean having an app or mobile-friendly website (yes, those are important from a UX perspective), but also maximising the use of content in the mobile space. I’m talking about creating content fit for a small screen that makes a big impact. 

Here are three ways to help get your brand noticed:

  1. Get visual

If you’re anything like me, you get bored and lose interest when reading large paragraphs of boring text that never seem to end. Am I right? Instead, visually stimulating content – images, graphics, video – gets the message across quickly. Time is money and people like to absorb information in quick spurts, so don’t let your content get lost in the digital jungle.

Try mixing up your Facebook News Feed with some cool images or videos to capture interest. People like variety, so shake your content up!

  1. Use emotive messaging

Most purchases are driven by pure emotions. What make you choose one brand over the other? Why did you buy that particular car, or pair of shoes? There is a massive divide between our needs and wants, and most of us opt for the want. Why? Because we experience certain emotions when we own a particular product or experience something new.

To tap into this emotion, you need to create content that pulls on people’s heartstrings. Create a heart-warming video or series of graphics – anything that can ignite a sense of desire for a particular product or service.

  1. Create an immersive experience

No one likes feeling left out. We want to be in the know, and brands today are winning when they allow their audience to feel like they are a part of something.

Social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook enable brands to easily distribute content in a creative and engaging fashion. Take your fans on a journey – whether you are using Facebook’s 360 video feature to showcase your event, or are sharing behind the-scenes snaps of your latest clothing line on Snapchat. Think creatively and develop immersive experiences for your fans.

There are so many ways brands can present content. With our eyes fixated on the small screen, we all need to think about how we can tailor our marketing to meet the demands of our mobile audience.

Need help developing your content marketing strategy? Get in touch with us today at hello@mutant.com.sg.

 

5 steps to measure social media campaign success

So you’ve spent the past few weeks working on a social media campaign or advertisement. All the copy has been written, creatives have been approved and it finally goes live. Just as you mentally clink champagne-filled glasses in your head, the results come back and it becomes evident that your campaign just hasn’t worked the way you hoped it would – and if your target audience is not responding, something is definitely wrong.

The devil’s in the numbers and crafting great content is important, but so is making sure that there are quantifiable and measurable metrics that can help you see where you went wrong and how you can do better next time. Here’s what you should do:

1. Define your goals

Before you get too excited and start going into the creative side of things, it is vital that you first define your campaign goals. What exactly are you trying to achieve from this campaign?

To help you along, think about the kind of social actions (eg. like, react, share, comment, tag) you want your audience to take when interacting with your campaign. This can be measured in terms of impressions, shares, clicks, sessions or purchase actions.

2. Choose appropriate metrics that correspond with your goals

Most Facebook campaigns have two main goals: Driving traffic and increasing engagement & awareness.

To drive traffic, track all URLs you post on social media so you know how many clicks and conversions you’re getting. To do this, you can use Google’s URL builder to set your link’s parameters.

TIP: Google’s URL builder is linked to your Google Analytics account so it will reflect what your audience clicked on as well as other key insights. All this should give you a better understanding of what interests your audience

To measure engagement and awareness, look at the reach, number of shares, likes and comments under your posts. These are telling because it will provide you with insight into what prompts someone to take certain actions.

3. Measure

Now that you’ve got your campaign and the right metrics, the next step is to measure performance. What good is a campaign if you don’t know how or if it actually helps fulfill your goals?

Facebook’s Power Editor is a good tool for looking at different kinds of metrics that may be relevant to your campaign. However, you should also be looking at numbers from Google Analytics. Linking up your Facebook page to Google Analytics is key and it’s pretty simple.

TIP: Remember to link Facebook and Google Analytics BEFORE you launch your campaign.

4. Track and Optimise

Track your numbers over a period of time and review them weekly. You’ll have some good weeks and some bad ones so don’t stress if there are occasional dips in performance, but be alert to any trends that may be forming within your audience.

For example, if you notice that more women from your timeline tend to click into your website, while men visit via the Facebook ads on the right-hand-side column, the content that you push out can be better tailored to these specific behaviours. Knowing the small details will help you improve your content so you’ll be able to target your audience more accurately.

Next, optimise the results. Optimisation is a broad term and really depends on the situation. This might mean having to shut down posts or ads that aren’t doing well in certain placements. Instead, you can use that budget for others that are giving you good and consistent results. Try switching up your copy, your creatives or even changing your audience segments – see what works best for your business.

5. Evaluate

This is how you’ll know whether your campaign was a huge success or perhaps why it flopped. It may be a trial and error process in the beginning but dealing with analytics earlier helps you understand your audience so you can tailor your campaigns better.

When it comes to social media, the numbers don’t lie. You can have great content but it must be effective in reaching your audience, otherwise it’s like hosting an amazing party with no guests!

Need help getting your social media content in tip-top shape? Write to us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

Drop the mic – The structure of an inspiring speech

Speeches, as with presentations and important announcements can be a pretty daunting task. It is something that becomes unavoidable as you climb higher up the corporate ladder.

Being a good speaker is one of the common traits of a thought leader. Confidence, coherence, and finesse may sound like a piece of cake, but are a lot harder to execute in reality. Most of us tend to get caught up with stage fright and forget about the actual preparation.

Like most things, it takes a little time, patience and personality to ace the speech, so here are some tips to help you drop the mic and kill it.

Be aware of your audience

Know who you are speaking to – students at a study hall, media guests at a launch event, or corporate VIPs at a business convention. Who ever it may be, being aware of your audience will help set the tone and delivery of your speech.

Check out this great speech from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg as she discusses why fewer women reach the top of their professions. You can guess her audience is women, and Sheryl addresses her points so well.

Understand your topic

It’s easier to explain something that you are passionate about. Knowing and understanding the topic of your speech will give you the confidence to express yourself better and do a phenomenal job at delivering the message.

Watch as Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson movingly talks of growing up in ‘lower-income-housing’ and about the people she knows who still rely on the state for healthcare. Clearly she knows her topic, and can relate to it, and is using her experience and knowledge to educate others – it’s powerful:

Brainstorm

List down as many potential talking points as you can. Take a minute to review that list and pick out the relevant and important points to go into length about.

Structure

Focusing on the important points will provide some structure, maximising the delivery of your speech. Your audience will appreciate the pacing and flow, which will engage and prevent them from tuning out and getting bored.

One killer line

Put some thought into that one killer line that encapsulates your speech – it packs in a punch and makes it thoughtful and memorable.

Think about Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream”, or John F Kennedy’s “…ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can for your country” – both were delivered with passion and punch:

Repetition

Build on your intensity and impact by repeating the important points.

Martin Luther King boldly repeated, “I have a dream”, but if you find that repeating your killer line may be too much of an overkill – try instead simple repetition of brands, names or important points that you want your audience to remember.

Introduction

Grab the audience’s attention from the start – make a joke, share an interesting fact, tell a story or a personal experience. Get the message across in three points or less. This will avoid unnecessary droning.

Body 

Keep it short, simple and to the point. The key is to keep things as succinct as possible. This is easier said than done, but using the structure as a guide will help focus on the messaging.

Conclusion

There is no need to stress too much about ending with a bang. Try leaving it up to the audience. Open the floor to questions as this is one of the best ways to discover how effective your speech was. It gives you an opportunity to sense the energy of your audience – do they seem excited and eager to ask more questions? Or are they slumped in their seats, eyes glazed and lifeless?

There is always something to take away from the end of your speech so use this as a lesson for your next one.

Practice makes perfect

Read your speech out loud alone, practice in front your friends and record yourself. Listen to constructive criticism and feedback, and take everything onboard.

Do you need help writing your next speech? Our team is ready to make your words work for you. Get in touch at hello@mutant.com.sg.

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3 easy steps to speaking fluent Instagram

The subtle difference between a double tap and a scroll-through could lie in the caption. Instagram is full of well-lit, pretty images, but it’s the caption that anchors the image to your audience’s life

Using the right voice

The voice is the personality behind the account. The trick to achieving the right pitch is by establishing who your target audience is and mixing that with the nature of your business. You need to establish your own voice and Instagram is a social platform, so be social!

Consistency in format (both photos and choice of language)

Look at big companies like @generalelectric, you’d notice that there is a strong consistency in how the photos are all professionally shot. More importantly, there is consistency in how the captions are crafted. In the case of GE, their Instagram is all about inspiring people and sharing their research work to the world.

Ask the right questions

Look at @Sharpie’s instagram. There is a lot of art, which is great because it shows what the product can do – but the captions are conversational and show a personality behind both the brand and the images.
Here’s an example:

The picture is not great, and well that filter should be reserved for a Lana Del Ray music video, but the caption opens up the creativity of the reader and it follows the most important branding lesson we learned this year: advertising is about your audience not you.

Using the right lingo and hashtags

No matter who your audience is, Instagram is about getting people talking. There is a ton of Instagram lingo out there, and we don’t know where it comes from (either Reddit or the Kardashians) but it goes viral quickly, with short life cycles. Here are a couple we came across just looking today:

  • #transformationtuesday: self-explanatory. Used for weightloss but you could get creative with it for companies if you have a new product update.
  • #smh: shake my head
  • #fam: your peoples, someone you would consider family member
  • #wyd?: what would you do? Hypotheticals used to create conversation
  • #squadgoals: aspirations with your crew
  • #af: as heck

By now you should be speaking Instagram perfectly. If you’re a business that needs help speaking this foreign language get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

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Stop using these words

I know, it’s hard to write good copy. You know what your product is about, you understand the ins and outs of it all, but can you actually put the right words down on paper? Remember that your readers are real people. They are not going to respond to cheesy sales talk – this will turn them off.

Overtime, content has evolved and is now one of the more popular marketing tools out there. However, with lots of content, comes a stream of overused and annoying words and phrases.

Here are some of the top words that frankly, in my opinion, should be banished.

1) The very best

  • State-of-the-art
  • Best-in-class
  • First-rate

state-of-the-art-words

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unless you have solid proof then stay far away from them as they mean nothing to your readers and cheapen your brand. I understand that your product is your baby and to you, it is the best, but sadly your customers don’t care. Look at it from another angle – no business is ever going to claim that what they are offering is rubbish, so claiming that you are “first-rate” just devalues your brand.

2) The visionary

  • Revolutionary
  • Innovative
  • Next generation

Really? Are you? Ok, if you talk about Steve Jobs and Apple – yes! But most of us are not Steve Jobs, so stop trying to amplify your product. Remove all that fluff from your content and tell people what you actually do and how you can help them. It’s that simple!

the-visionary-words

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) The vain

  • The best
  • Amazing
  • Superior

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again – really? Using words like this to describe your company or product generally don’t get you anywhere. If your product is indeed superior and the best – show us, don’t tell us! Use vanity with caution as it can really disrupt your credibility, and like I’ve already said…no one really believes or cares that you say you are amazing. Actions speak much louder than words.

The main takeaway for this is that content is a lot more than just a few words that explain your product. You need to inspire people and spark an emotional reaction from them with your words, graphics or videos. Be real and be honest, and stop using all that fluffy sales talk. We are all human, so remember to write words that you, yourself would want to read.

Need help creating compelling words? Need help with your content? Drop a message to hello@mutant.com.sg 

WORDS CTA-order

How I got schooled by a 16 year old while trying to do my job

I thought the times of me being put on the spot at meetings were over. I’ve had practice of dealing with different personalities at many different meetings before, both professional and personal. We all have that one difficult friend or client that deserves an honest piece of your advice.

But what I wasn’t prepared for, was a simple, innocent question by a 16-year-old high schooler at a business meeting. I was there to discuss about a social awareness campaign that involved charity work by students from different secondary schools. They were packing meals for the needy.

A client was sponsoring the initiative so we had to step in and help out with some PR. Our conversation went something like this:

Me, overzealous: “I think this is a great media opportunity, maybe we can discuss some great story angles and objectives about the campaign to pitch to the media.”

Student, sassy: “Well, the objective is to stop world hunger and feed hungry people, who are dying everyday from starvation.”

That, I did not expect. It was a legitimate argument, because shouldn’t world hunger be enough of a reason for media to care and write about?

I wasn’t angry, nor did I blame the student. The poor guy was sincerely puzzled and confused.

I calmly gathered my thoughts and realised that it was time to take a step back, and bring it back to the basics. As PR professionals, we need to help our clients understand what it takes for us to do our job properly, while helping to achieve their goals.

So what is it that we do exactly? Here is a simple break down:

  1. Angles (Gathering of information)

We need as much information as possible. With this information, we will pick out the most important angles we can use for the press release. Tell us about the who, the why, the what, the when and the how – we’re all ears.

Stopping world hunger is a legit reason, but what sets Stop Hunger Now apart from Oxfam, Red Cross, or The Salvation Army, who are all sharing the objective of feeding the needy?

  1. Press release (Storytelling)

We help tell the story about your brand, and why it is worth writing about in the media. Yeah sure, we’ll add a bit of fluff in there – but most importantly we only write about the facts, nothing in there is made up or a lie.

  1. Media pitching (Persuasion)

Journalists are very busy people, they get tons of emails and sometimes our emails get buried under piles of other releases. This is when we pick up the phone, and have some one-on-one time with a specific journalist.

It can get quite nerve wracking, speaking to someone unfamiliar on the phone and trying to pitch an idea to them. This, thankfully, only gets better with practice. Once you know the journalists, their style and personality, you’ll gain confidence in persuading and become more eloquent in trying to deliver your message.    

     4. Media coverage (Public opinion)

This is what it’s all about! Getting your story published and hearing people talk about your brand can be a great feeling. People read the news, and we always aim for a positive story. This plays an important part in informing and swaying public opinion, about the good and bad of your company.

We help educate about your brand and to support it. Media coverage is one of the best and foolproof ways to do this.

If you need help with your PR campaign, please get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg

 

3 steps to creating targeted content that sells

Understanding your consumer, their journey and purchase process is and should be the backbone of any content marketing strategy. The material we produce needs to help a buyer with their purchase decisions and address certain pain points.

It should educate and inspire as well as provide helpful tools to steer the buyer’s decision toward a specific product or service that you are offering. If it doesn’t, then the content serves absolutely no purpose and becomes a huge waste of your time and resources.

As well as to educate, your content needs to generate a sense of trust and show the reader that you understand what they need and know how to solve their problems. It should never be a sales pitch.

To understand your consumer means to follow their journey from the awareness stage right through to purchase (and beyond), and a content marketing strategy helps to attract those prospects and convert them to customers. It’s about producing targeted content, always keeping the buyer’s interests in mind, and with so much consumer and industry information available to us online, there is simply no excuse for poor content.

The move to digital has made content marketing one of the most effective marketing tools out there. The most important and fail-proof factor is to thoroughly understand your target audience and address something they cannot solve or are struggling with. This is the key to success.

If you have appeal, gain their trust, satisfy a need and delight them in the process, you could be on your way to converting a prospect to a customer and producing targeted content doesn’t have to be hard. Here’s a simple guide to get you thinking:

1 – Start with market research

Thoroughly research your industry, your audience and their behaviour patterns. What do people need and what are they struggling with? How do they buy?

Consider the buyer journey and start thinking about the sort of information they would require. This is the first step to developing great content that is targeted with purpose.

2 – Develop a buyer persona

Once you’ve done the research, you should by now be able to identify who your prospects are. Now it’s time to develop a few buyer personas.

According to Hubspot a buyer persona represents a semi-fictional version of your ideal customer. Consider their demographic information (i.e job title, role, responsibilities company, industry and budget) and their behavioural traits, such as their concerns, goals and motivating factors. Write it all down with as much detail as possible.

Developing these personas will immensely help with creating engaging content ideas and will help you structure a great content campaign.

3 – Your prospects matter…all the time

The buyer journey should not stop at the market research stage. Combine the buyer journey with the buyer personas that you have created. Always think about the prospect when producing any sort of content. You should ideally create a content series that covers topics relevant to their purchase journey – it’s not supposed to be a direct sales pitch.

For example, if you have started a fitness business focusing on body transformations, your content needs to work through all the elements that prospects should consider on their health and wellness journey. Talk about diet changes, foods that promote weight loss, what to eat/not to eat before and after a workout, simple lifestyle changes and include some success case studies. In a non-intrusive way you want to educate your customer and show how your services can help them achieve their fitness goals.

Now it’s your turn. Start creating some awesome content!

If you need help creating a winning content marketing strategy, please get in-touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

 

Public Relations vs. Advertising: What’s best for your business?

Public Relations (PR) and advertising are two marketing verticals that many business professionals tend to confuse. Those who haven’t yet delved into either can struggle to understand their differences, purposes and goals. Advertising is there to immediately promote a product or service and aims for direct inquiries and sales. PR, on the other hand, is focused around communications and brand reinforcement with the media and the public. It works to benefit the brand in the long-term, ultimately helping to lead towards direct inquiries and sales.

With advertising, you’re promoting something to entice your target audience to think, act or believe a certain thing about your product or service, which can be hyped up through creative work and buzzwords. PR relies on opinions and comments from sources that have no affiliation with your company or brand. This is where strong brand awareness and trust for a product or service is created among consumers.

Understandably, every business will have different goals and good, consistent PR, coupled with a solid advertising strategy, is the true match. The two verticals complement each other and neither should be discounted from the overall marketing plan. Essentially, it’s all about a balanced mix to give your customers accurate, relevant information and the business the highest returns possible.

To help you understand the key differences, here are a few things worth knowing:

  • Paid and earned coverage – what does this actually mean?

Advertising comes under the ‘paid coverage’ banner. It is the space you buy to promote your product or service. You own it and can therefore present it in any way you wish (within legal and ethical restrictions!) Be prepared to spend some big bucks here, as while advertising can generate instant results, this does come at a price.

PR is earned coverage, which generally does not cost you money and holds valuable credibility that advertising can not match. However, how your story is published or what’s being said about your product or service is out of your hands (which should not be viewed as a bad or negative thing.)

  • Creative control

Advertising grants you full creative control over the design, content and placement – you call the shots but pay big dollars for this so naturally, it’s expected!

With PR, you can secure yourself a valuable placement with the right story angle, key messages about your product or service and positioning yourself or the business head as an expert – a thought leader – in the field. PR works by creating the initial interest, followed by trust, which ultimately leads to long-term engagement and sales.

  • Lifespan

Adverising is often mainly focused around a fixed marketing campaign, therefore limiting its lifespan. Whether a company is promoting a new product or service, this is only visible for the time that the advert is live (if we’re talking about print). Once it’s taken down, there is no record of it, but broadcast advertising often lives on online. The shelf life of an ad heavily depends on your budget, so will only run for the pre-agreed amount of time.

In PR, print articles may have a short lifespan, but in today’s digital age, the majority of coverage happens in the digital space, and almost every print story is duplicated online. All of this acts as a great reference point for future visitors.

  • Buzzwords and Content

Buzzwords are what you need to motivate people to buy. They’re typically popular words, phrases or jargon typically used in advertising to encourage consumers to act in a certain way to interact with what they are selling. In some campaigns they’re effective, in others less so, but the general sentiment of “you need this product NOW” is always at the forefront.

In PR, the coverage you receive is dependent on how well you pitch the story to the target media, but at no point does this become a sales pitch. PR starts with disseminating the message and getting your target audience talking about your company or offering.

  • Research

Market research plays a vital role in advertising. Marketers need to identify the right audience and the most effective medium through which they can best achieve their objectives and get the highest ROI by engaging with them.

Consumer demographics and market research are also a part of PR, as is knowing the target publications and key journalists who can help get your story into print or on TV. In fact, relationships and media knowledge are one of the most important aspects of public relations.

Both advertising and PR have their advantages – the approach you choose will depend on your sales objectives and the type of message you want to convey for your brand. Both are remarkable in their own way and work to complement each other, and neither should be neglected or ignored.

Feel free to get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg if you’d like to discuss the best solution for your business.