I’ve often found myself explaining the difference between Advertising and Public Relations—primarily, what to use and when.

I also find myself defending Advertising far too often.

It’s an easy target, and its benefits are deeply misunderstood and under appreciated.

I’ve had a small tome on this subject cooking for the book and was going to distill it down into something a little more ‘bloggy’ and digestible.

Now I don’t have to.

Freddy Nager at The Cool Rules Pronto Blog wrote a post comparing the two quite nicely, then building a strong argument for discipline integration in Public Relations vs. Advertising: No Contest.

Here’s an excerpt:

So what’s my recommended approach? Integrate both publicity and advertising into your marketing campaign. They complement each others’ strengths and mitigate weaknesses, with the publicity providing the credibility while the advertising creates the buzz.

Let’s look at the case of Jack In The Box, a west-coast fast-food chain. In 1993, Jack In The Box suffered a major e. coli crisis, wherein some customers actually died. Since the chain was already struggling before this happened, the crisis could have led to bankruptcy. But a brilliant new campaign by advertising genius Dick Sittig — featuring the return of the Jack mascot with an attitude — signaled a bold renewal of the company and won over legions of new fans who happily stuck tiny Jack heads on their car antennas.

At the same time, Jack In The Box implemented an industry-leading food safety program that it actively promoted through the media. Note the separation of church and state here: Food safety? PR, since safety commercials are rarely entertaining enough to get noticed. Funny mascot? Advertising, since it’s hard to convey humor through the press. Together? A revived brand that’s now expanding nationwide… with — I must mention — some pretty good ice cream shakes.

I couldn’t agree more, and when considering the Advertising and PR academically, they are often combined anyway:

The point is, this is not an “or” statement, but an “and” statement. It’s not Advertising or PR, it’s Advertising and P.R.

On their own, these disciplines suffer weaknesses difficult to overcome. But together, your Advertising can get people talking, then your P.R. can get people believing.

So, what’s the best integrated Advertising/P.R. effort you’ve seen?

Comment below to weigh in.

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As marketers, we’re always looking for creative ways to break through.

Biker Babe Marketing is doing just that by putting babes on Harleys, then having them drive around with their client’s ads on signs attached to their bikes.

Hey, sex sells and this surely has people talking.

But since the medium is the message, it’s clear this form of advertising isn’t for every company.

But in your opinion, should it be for any company?

What types of businesses is this best suited for?

Worst suited for?

Comment below to share.

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Three or four years ago, I received a promotional insert in an Amazon shipment for ING Direct, the online bank.

The offer was simple: Open a savings account and we’ll deposit $25 in it for your trouble.

Hmm.

I did a little research and found that ING’s savings rate was among the best in the nation, better than the $10,000 CD rate at my local bank, with zero minimums required to receive the rate.

I wasn’t looking for an online savings account, but ING targeted well—people that buy books online are more apt to bank online. I opened the account and found it easy to move money between my accounts and have been an ING fan ever since.

Today, I had a similar experience.

When visiting my Yahoo Fantasy Football team page, a banner ad with the following offer caught my eye:

Free Draft Kit Bundle & StatTracker®!
Open a Revolution MoneyExchange Account and get the Draft Kit & StatTracker bundle for FREE, plus get $10 in your MoneyExchange account*

Here’s the landing page:

+ enlarge

Smart, for a few reasons:

I wasn’t looking forward to paying for StatTracker, a must-have application that provides real-time updates—and this promo made it free.

Fantasy Football winnings are often paid via Paypal, and the recipient is charged a small transaction fee plus a percentage of the transferred amount. Revolution is a direct Paypal competitor, but doesn’t charge Paypal’s traditional transaction fees.

It’s all about the network effect, and Fantasy Football is played by a group of people that talk (mostly smack) throughout the season. If one person decides to use the service instead of Paypal to save a few bucks, they might carry their message to the rest of the group.

They guessed right: I’ll tell the other players this might be a better (or at least free) option.

You’ve heard me say we want to learn where your customers go for their information and how they make their buying decisions to help guide our marketing spend.

But the problem with relying on those questions alone is that the answers apply to everyone, including your competitors.

Look at it another way, I can pretty much guarantee nobody said they’d expect to learn about an online savings bank via a nickel flyer in the bottom of their Amazon.com book order.

Nope.

These promos happened because someone did their research and actually got to know the customer—maybe even a little better than they know themselves.

And that, my friends, is Responsible Marketing.

So, what’s the most creative promo you’ve seen lately?

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Getting a prospect’s attention is tough enough, but let’s say you are able to break through. Now that you have their attention, can you keep it?

Think your prospect will read four pages of copy to learn how you are different? Think again.

We live in a sound-bite culture where scanning—not reading—is the norm.

Sure, you can use Flash and other multimedia tools to help you get your point across, but not all users will be able to view it on all platforms.

That’s why I’m a fan of good-old-fashioned illustration.

The best example I’ve seen using illustration to describe a complex idea is for Google Chrome, a new browser Google will offer in beta today.

Google created an online comic book featuring the project’s developers.

I had no idea this was a comic book when I started reading it, but 38 pages later, I had powered through the entire thing. More importantly, I believe I now have a strong understanding of the major technical differences this browser will offer.

Notice I said “technical” differences. This was done so well, even a guy with limited technical knowledge like yours truly got it. If this is as good as it looks, Google will have another hit on its hands.

The next time you have a complex idea you want to communicate, consider illustration.

If done well, it will help you get—and keep—your audience’s attention.

Have you seen illustration used to make something complex easier to digest?

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Seems the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon has been on forever. Probably because the program first aired in 1966, the year I was born.

I remember as a teen, I’d get sucked in by the videos of the the kids my age and younger struggling with Muscular Dystrophy. My favorite part wasn’t the entertainers—it was seeing the sponsors bring out their oversize checks and watching the tote board tally the donations. On more than one occasion, I stayed up all night watching the program.

Some things never change.

Jerry Lewis is still kicking at 82, and still hosts the first and last five hours of the 21 1/2 hour show. And I still tune in every year, if only for an hour or so toward the end to see if they are going to beat the previous record.

Considering the topic of this blog, seeing corporate sponsors donate huge checks has a new meaning for me.

I realize now that social responsibility is about being good, but it’s also smart business.

Another thing that hasn’t changed is I’m still a tote board watcher, except this year, I’m watching my own tote board—for bail money for the MDA Lockup:

Can you or your company donate $50, $25, even $10 to this great cause?

Every dollar helps!

Your 100% tax-deductible donation will help MDA continue research for treatments and cures for 43 neuromuscular diseases.

Your support of the MDA Lock-Up will also help provide wheelchairs, clinic visits, support groups and summer camp for the families served by the MDA.

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You’ve heard of the network effect before, haven’t you?

It’s defined as “the phenomenon whereby a service becomes more valuable as more people use it, thereby encouraging ever-increasing numbers of adopters.”

For example, the telephone wasn’t particularly valuable until several people you knew had one. Same thing with email.

Here are a few topics relative to networking, both online and off:

Good PR karma

Peter Shankman’s HelpAReporter.com (HARO) looks a lot like PR Newswire’s Profnet—except HARO is free.

Sign up for HARO if you’d like to receive notifications from reporters and bloggers regarding stories they are working on that you might be able to contribute to. On the flip side, if you are a reporter or blogger, use HARO to gain access to great sources.

If there were only 20 sources, HARO wouldn’t be worth much. But with over 23,000 sources and countless reporters and bloggers tapping this resource, it’s getting more and more valuable everyday.

Finally, group functionality for LinkedIn Groups

If you aren’t a member of LinkedIn, you should be. LinkedIn Groups has finally released an upgrade to its group features that includes discussion forums, a new management hub and a searchable member roster.

While some features aren’t as robust as other social networking sites, LinkedIn is the de facto social network for business so they are able to roll functionality like this a little more deliberately.

Check out the LinkedIn Responsible Marketing Group, now 472 members and growing daily.

Exchanging cards, the iPhone way

In a soon-to-be-released application from Tapulous, iPhone and iPod Touch owners will soon be able to swap virtual business cards by holding their iPhones together and mimicking a handshake with an application tentatively called Friend Book.

See it in action here:

View this video on YouTube.

I hate entering business cards into my contact manager, and scanning is always clumsy.

I hope this application (and others like it) gain wide adoption and this becomes the way to share your contact info.

As a marketer, my mind can’t help thinking about marketing applications for this technology, but I’ll save that for a different post.

So, how are you leveraging the network effect to grow your organization?

Comment below to weigh in.

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Since I started Outsource Marketing in 1997, I’ve been asked countless times, “when should I outsource my marketing?”

“When it’s not a core competency,” is the simple response, but across hundreds of clients, we’ve found that in most instances, there are seven reasons why a company might want to consider marketing outsourcing.

The Top 7 Reasons to Outsource Marketing

1. Integrate marketing better—knowledge transfer happens once
2. Improve company focus
3. Quickly fix a difficult to manage marketing function
4. Gain access to top-tier capabilities
5. Resources aren’t available internally
6. Free internal resources for other purposes
7. Share risks

For more on marketing outsourcing and how it relates to Responsible Marketing, check out Is marketing outsourcing Responsible Marketing?

So, which non-core competencies do you outsource?

Comment below to weigh in.

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My list is inspired by The Outsourcing Institute’s Top 10 Reasons Companies Outsource list.

Seems every marketing book claims to offer the silver bullet—the marketing secret that guarantees incredible success. I’ve read 100’s of marketing books—including some great ones—but there are no shortcuts, folks.

To be a Responsible Marketer, you need a strong grounding in the fundamentals.

You won’t learn them in a three-day seminar, and probably don’t have the time to return to college, so what do you do?

Read Marketing Management by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller.

Amazon’s description is spot on:

Kotler/Keller is the gold standard in the marketing management discipline because it continues to reflect the latest changes in marketing theory and practice.

Topics covered include brand equity, customer value analysis, database marketing, e-commerce, value networks, hybrid channels, supply chain management, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and integrated marketing communications.

For marketing professionals who place special emphasis to creativity and imagination in marketing management.

At 816 pages, this book is huge, but don’t let the size fool you. It’s filled with diagrams and case studies that make it an easier read than many textbooks. This book will back-fill the things you don’t know and give you a great foundation to build on.

Though it’s expensive ($120 at Amazon with a $53 discount!) I’d suggest owning a copy to use as go-to marketing reference (I do).

If you are serious about Responsible Marketing, you should read it, at least once, cover to cover.

So, if you could recommend just one good foundational marketing book, what would it be?

Please comment below to share.

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I’m innocent! Innocent I tell you!

I have no idea what I did to deserve this, but I was arrested and have been sentenced to hard-time in some gulag — I think I heard them call it “The Keg.”

Sounds scary.

I’ll be booked into jail on September 17th. I’ve been told if I can post $1,000 in bail before lockup they’ll go easy on me—they might even let me out the same day.

If not, no more Responsible Marketing Blog—there’s no Wi-Fi in the big house, ya know.

Can you donate $500? $250? $100? $50? $25? Anything will help!

To make donating easy, I’ve set up this simple widget. All credit and debit cards are accepted.

I’m really worried about this.

They keep saying, “You’re going behind bars for good!”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but that sounds like they mean forever to me.

Any and all donations appreciated.

Your 100% tax-deductible donation will help MDA continue research for treatments and cures for 43 neuromuscular diseases.

Your support of the MDA Lock-Up will also help provide wheelchairs, clinic visits, support groups and summer camp for the families served by the MDA.

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Our marketing assessments are a bit of a loss-leader but they give prospects the chance to sample us with a low-cost project—and give us the opportunity to make sure we’re a great fit.

Part of our assessment includes a review the client’s past marketing efforts including their marketing collateral, advertising, direct marketing, public relations efforts, website, and so on.

Problems often reveal themselves immediately:

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, but you get the point.

Though we’re hired to help clients identify and isolate problem areas and then fix them, some decision-makers are quick to defend their existing resources.

Here are some of the comments we’ve heard over the years:

We need to give _______ our printing—he’s been helping us for years

We like to spread it around among our local vendors

Our designer is really reasonable

We need to work with _______ because they are my [insert relationship here]

XYZ Company gives us $X of business a year—we have to use them

First, I hope the logic breakdown is self-evident: If the current vendors are responsible for mediocrity, shouldn’t they expect more of the same? Keep doing the same thing, you’ll get the same results, after all.

This is a shame, because in the name of loyalty, these hard-working business people are settling for substandard work. I’d argue their loyalty should be to delivering maximum value and results to their shareholders, employees and customers.

So the next time you find yourself saying, “but we can’t make a change because we owe it to so-and-so,”—STOP.

You owe it to yourself and everyone else that depends on your organization to be casting responsible and have the best marketing company you can possibly have.

So, where have you seen misplaced loyalties?

Comment below to weigh in.

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. . .

Note: I don’t have an axe to grind. Indeed, we do prefer to work with our carefully selected tried-and-true team of partners and vendors (it’s all about quality control and better integration). Except in limited cases, we don’t require clients to work with our resources.