WEEK 4

Managing publicity

ADVANCED PUBLIC RELATIONS

KOM 5321
DR. NURUL AIN MOHD HASAN
What publicity means to PR
In the classical era of public relations in the 1800s P.T
Barnum, was a PR specialist who was legendary for his
work on publicity stunts.
Barnums aim was to use the media to manipulate the
publics minds.
Barnum was the father of modern publicity (Zoch, Supa
& Tuyl, 2013).
1900s Ivy Lee came into picture He promoted
transparency, which he termed as not operating in
secrecy; accuracy; and truthfulness (Hiebert, 1965), all
concepts with which public relations practitioners and
academics of today are familiar with (Zoch, Supa & Tuyl,
2013).
Ivy Lee was the father of modern public relations
It was the start of professionalism of PR
 What is publicity?
Refers to the free mention of an organisation in the
media either in print or electronic (Gomez, 2011).
It is used to enhance the visibility after the company
has attained a high credibility of its goods and
services.
In public relations, the use of publicity is seen in how
a certain brand or event is being promoted through
the media, publications (magazines, brochures, in-
house publications e.g. annual reports), and even
through corporate items and symbols.

HOWEVER publicity isnt always effective and could

be quite risky! Why?
Effectiveness of the use of
publicity
Managing publicity as a PR
strategy
i.Publicity through corporate publications
Brochures weaknesses and strengths of
publicising brochures depend on the audience and
graphics as first impression.
News releases A well written/well-focused news
release would gain more coverage in the media.
Annual reports
-The idea here is not to produce annual reports as
just an annual/quarterly publication of a company.
-What makes annual reports an effective publicity
tool is when an organisation manages to attract its
most valued stakeholders through annual reports.
Example of publicity used
through Annual report
 Speeches Hard work and time spent on
writing executive speeches should NOT only
be put in annual reports.
- Speeches SHOULD be circulated to internal
staff (because employees are indirectly PR
front-liners) make them aware of the facts
as image portrayal.
-Executive speeches SHOULD be sent out to
prestigious executive magazines, e.g., Tatler,
Asia Week etc. that use some of the
sentences from the speech to cite in their
magazines. FREE PUBLICITY THERE!
Special events from open houses/days to seminar
or commercial shows

- Include celebrity or renown person for easy free

publicity for your company
- Include your organisations profile/brochures/creative
and unique items representing your company as door
gifts
- Include a member of a targeted community as a way
to publicise your campaign e.g. Umar Hafizal
(autistic child) as spokesperson for an Autism
campaign done by Lite FM collaboration with NASOM.
 Managing publicity as PR
strategy (cont)
ii. Publicity through the media
Secret of success in placing publicity is to develop a
good working relationship by knowing and
anticipating the needs of the media.
According to Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg (2000),
publicity should meet three (3) criteria when ranked
by editors and TV news directors:
1. Is it important to THIS mediums audience? Must be
significant for the audience
watching/reading/listening this medium.
2. Is it timely? Is it the current interest of the audience?
3. Is it accurate, truthful and complete?
Other criteria human interest (humour,
drama, sensational news (berita sensasi)).
Know your media work schedules, is it too
short notice? Is it too soon? IF too soon, you
must do follow-up.
When writing news releases, you MUST seek
out what is news about your activity/event.
Think of yourself as the news editor. What
would they want to know or give coverage
about?
negative publicity
Positive publicity (to
create awareness)
e.g: Shell teamed with
the National Safety
Council and the
American Trauma
Society to advise
motorists how to help
at the scene of traffic
accidents & building
relationships among
motorists.
Managing Media & the Public
The critical issue with publicity is about managing
the media and an organisations publics.
At times the intention to do publicity for the
organisation may be good intention, the media and
publics may perceive it to be bad/negative publicity.
The uncertainties to gain effectiveness in
communicating your objectives of a publicity
activity is usually high.
Issues managing with good vs. bad publicity as
perceived by the publics/stakeholders.
The role of PR becomes critical to ensure publicity
remains good publicity.
Media Online
Using the internet for publicity
- Update company websites and put up news releases
online on regular basis.
- Social media: facebook; twitter; etc would be the cheapest
and fastest way to gain publicity.
- Make sure that the media is also in your group of friends in
facebook.
The use of the internet has revolutionised the way
companies act and communicate, either face to face or
with publics
In the context of organisations, weve embraced the new
capabilities indicative of the notions of McLuhans (1964)
utopian global village. I.e. The medium is the
message.
However, other worldview suggests that, the usage
of the internet sparks what Mumfords (1979) fears
of the loss of privacy, the loss of autonomy, and
estrangement from community.
The cost & time saving factors of using the internet
as the new media technology for publicity has
stretched and expanded the boundaries, roles and
relationships of public relations practitioners inside
and outside of their organisations.
E.g. we now chat with our colleagues online about a
particular project/deadlines, we now communicate
via emails to stakeholders, we now chat with our
customers on facebook and twitters for updates etc.
Implications of new
technology on PR
Productivity and efficiency Evidence
through research has shown PR messages
have increased in efficiency through the
internet (Springston, 2001).
challenges: Information overload
Research and Evaluation online survey can
be distributed to internal and external
publics
challenges- increase doubts (keraguan) of a
companys documentation online by
customers.
Implications for Public Relations Roles
ability to search a lot of information online which will assist
with issues management function (Hauss, 1995).
Information can easily be assessed, giving the PR practitioners
more power to inform to superiors and subordinates.
Effective online presence can aid crisis and risk managers. Use
media online to update information to the media around the
clock!
Challenges to incorporating new technologies
increase company sabotage e.g. keyboard warriors!
Lack of competency by PR practitioners to use the internet.
companies are exposed and easy for customers to distribute
information worldwide. Only reachable to selected few, in
the city, but a disadvantage for rural community.
THE END, THANK YOU!