(Exclusive to PR News from the Institute for Public Relations)
Facing Facts: PR vs. Advertising Credibility
No matter how many times you've heard it - and how much you want to believe it - there is no known research to support the claim that PR-generated media coverage is worth two
or three times the coverage garnered by advertising.
The claim usually is attributed to the supposed greater credibility of news columns when compared to ads. David Michaelson, principal of David Michaelson & Company
LLC, and Don W. Stacks, a professor at the University of Miami, set out to establish some real knowledge on this subject. With funding from PRtrak, the two researchers
compared the impact of editorial coverage, print advertising, Web pages and radio advertising on factors relating to purchase decisions.
Specifically, they looked at consumer differences in message recall, credibility, product rating and interest. The experimental study involved a hypothetical product coupled
with students whose media use had been determined to be no different than that of the general population.
Overall, the researchers found no statistically significant differences between editorial and advertising on any variable. In particular, PR-generated coverage and print
advertising enjoyed equal credibility, and both scored higher than Web pages and radio advertising.
Should PR professionals be disappointed with this news? Not at all, say the researchers. First, the results suggest there is an advantage to delivering product messages
through a variety of channels. Furthermore, with PR-generated publicity being the clear equivalent of advertising, it bolsters the argument for shifting more resources to PR,
which traditionally has operated with much smaller budgets.
Michaelson and Stacks are members of the Commission on PR Measurement and Evaluation, an initiative of the Institute for Public Relations. They plan to expand their research
in this area during the coming year. Additional research by these authors is available free at http://www.instituteforpr.com.
Contacts: David Michaelson, [email protected]; Don W. Stacks, [email protected]