Advertising vs. Publicity

Both advertising and publicity are the two non-personal communication formats used by organizations.

Advertising is a form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services which is paid by a given company, organization or any other sponsor. It involves the purchase of time and space in public media.

Advertising is more interesting, informative, and comprehended more accurately than other form of promotions like for example publicity. It allows to create and place a message in public media with a high level of control and on a repeated basis.

Advertising has several drawbacks. First, it can be very costly. Second, it may be bad received by the customers or rejected by those who react negatively to persuasion attempts.

Publicity an editorial space (not necessary paid) in print and broadcast media, to promote a product, place, or person. Publicity is perceived as being more credible, persuasive, or effective than advertising. It is also less costly, more visible and thanks to the third-party endorsement also credible than advertising.

Publicity take usually a form of news. Because it is a part of media content, where people usually look for information, thus the message's ultimate source is ambiguous to the audience. In other words, in case of publicity, the sponsor, company or organisation may not be readily identified.

Publicity, in contrary to advertising, is a form of promotion, where sponsor has less control over the content, which is ultimately composed by a third-party gatekeeper.

So, in summary:

Both advertising and publicity are two marketing tools used by organizations which aim at communicating to a wider audience about a certain activity, product or service. Both differ in terms of cost, control, visibility, sponsor identification, persuasion effectiveness and perceived credibility.