People would agree that advertising is a very important component of business. Well, not even with business. Even in interpersonal relationships, advertisement is still very important. It’s not uncommon to hear a guy’s friend tell a girl how good the guy is, and how they’ll end up very well together. That’s advertising. Friends will always tell a girl that their friend is best for him.

There are many ways to advertise a business. One of them is through print media. One of the most common ways of advertising through print media is to make use of existing publications. In the old ways, businesses relied on newspapers, radio stations and television channels for their advertising needs. These are media that are able to send the message across to a wide audience… at a given time.

You see, the effectiveness of television advertisements depend on the number of seconds or minutes that it has for airtime. It totally depends on the right timing, if the right people are watching at the ideal time. Radio advertisements do the same thing. Newspaper advertisements, on the other hand, rely on the size and placement of the ad to determine its effectiveness. It also depends on what day the ad was displayed on the classifieds section of the newspaper.

You can see now that there is a need for an ad that is constantly being pushed at the attention of its intended viewers. There should be an ad that can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and it should be something everyone sees. That is where outdoor advertising comes in.

Outdoor advertising deals with ads such as banners, and billboards. Recently also there has been a development of a new form of outdoor advertising such as building wraps. However, they all do the same thing: they attract the attention of people. It is different from the traditional advertisements because outdoor advertising can be seen by people all the time. Billboards and building wraps, for example, just sit there without even having someone say anything. The ads are just displayed there all the time.

What makes outdoor advertising advantageous is that they are guaranteed to catch the attention of its audience. Who can resist the charm and attraction that the billboards offer? Whether or not you’re interested in the product, you can still see the outdoor advertisement when you pass by it while you drive your kids to school or on your way to work. Most of the times, this results to a curiosity that can end up having the person buy the product and becoming a customer for the business.

Contrary to what my mom believes, public relations is not serving food at the neighborhood bar, working retail at the mall or being a stripper (no joke, a local men’s club once advertised topless dancing jobs as public relations). According to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) website, “public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” Marketing focuses more on the product and services itself, while public relations works to establish a solid reputation for an organization and influence opinion through truthful education (not manipulation and lies).

Not really apples and oranges, but enough of a difference to need a strategic PR plan for your business. My favorite definition of public relations comes from my first college PR class: public relations is managed communications between an organization and its publics. You control the message and format of the content released. The message is consistent with your business story and presents your business in a positive, proactive, authentic and truthful light. There are numerous forms of communication, from press releases, brochures, websites, advertising and sales letters to speeches, social media, events and everything in between. Anything that can be used to connect with someone else can be considered a form of communication.

Repeat after me- there is no such thing as the general public. You are not trying to reach the whole world. Really. Your public’s are those groups you need to reach; those clusters of likeminded people who you are trying to influence. It could be potential clients, current customers, media, elected officials, school teachers, union groups or any other target group. Your public’s will be different from your markets, which will be different from your audiences in advertising.