Just this morning, during my 3-hour travel time going to work, the
bus’ TV was not tuned in to its usual local morning news program. Instead a
concert DVD of a homegrown band, Aegis,
is currently playing. It is way too loud for your 5am music dose. Aside from
being guilty from producing 120 decibels, their songs as we all know, are way
too high – I mean crazy high! Don’t get me wrong, they’re really good singers
and entertainers. However, I found it really stressful to listen to those high
notes, especially when it’s too loud for my sleepy ears to handle.
Oh well, I understand that I must “get over it” and
continue with my “normal bus life”. When I say my normal bus life, it
simply means sleeping. So what I did was, err, closed my eyes. I closed my
eyes. Closed, still closed.
“Ayoko sana na ikaw ay mawawala, mawawasak lamang
ang aking mundo ohhh ohhh ohhh! Ngunit ano’ng magagawa kung talagang ayaw mo
na? Sino ba naman ako para pigilan ka?”
Okay. That’s it! No way. No go. I can’t sleep. What shall I do
with my remaining 2 hours and 47 minutes travel time? The concert DVD is far from over,
since as I have counted, the band is only on their 3rd song. What shall I do? Sleep? No, not
going to happen. Listen to my own playlist? No, I can’t possibly hear it (on
top of the Aegis singers’ vocal prowess). Count the cars, buses, pedestrians?
Yeah, maybe, probably.
Then, from out of nowhere, a voice (probably from my head) shouted
at me:
“Why
don’t you just read, loser?”
Not bad! It was actually a brilliant idea. But you might be
thinking how can she possibly read amidst the sound pollution inside the bus
(now full of chatting, laughing, singing passengers)? Well I’m not sure, but I
guess it’s one of my unique “abilities” to concentrate more on what I am
reading than the noise around me. I discovered this so-called “ability” during my elementary days. But that is another story. So, yeah.
Like a hypnotized creature, I slowly brought out my book from my
sling bag. The cover read: “The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR”. Sounds and feels like quite a heavy book to read this hour in
the morning and with the Aegis band singing at the back of my head, from the
top of their lungs and diaphragms. But what do I say? Bring it on!
I turned the first 3 pages, read the introduction (yes, I have
decided to start reading this book today, at this hour, at this place, and here
in this very challenging environment). Read. Read. Still reading. Whoa! What
was that? Information overload! As an advertising graduate, this book so far,
has been very helpful to me in just a matter of what, 10 minutes?
“The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR”, the title tickles my
imagination as I picture “advertising” as Superman, and “PR” as Kryptonite.
I’ve just finished the Introduction section. The authors’ words are clear and
are very easy to digest. For the past 10 minutes, I am chewing away with words
like branding, campaign, credibility, positioning, and publicity. I strongly
agree with what they are saying. Especially today, consumers have grown more
skeptical with these advertisements.
Why, because advertisements
just lack credibility. They are too good to be true. I understand
that the advertisers feel the need to boost their brands with the help of
advertising, but it just doesn’t work as it does way back. We keep on
forgetting, deliberately or not, that there is still PR – Public Relations. We
tend to owe it all to advertising. We tend to use all of our funds in
advertising and when it comes to PR, we casually shrug our shoulders, think we
can’t afford it, we don’t need it anymore, and it’s just not worth the effort.
But we were all wrong. We are all wrong. Public relations gases up advertising’s empty credibility tank. PR
feeds the hungry consumers with what they have been craving for – the truth. PR is known for its honesty. Consumers are more likely to believe
news-like PR articles over a seemingly perfect product AD.
For all these years, we were all wowed by “creative”
advertisements. But as I have read, which I strongly agree upon, advertisements
lose its value when it’s just seen as something creative and witty.
Advertising has to stress out a product or service’s basic features. Advertising has to sell. Now as an advertising graduate, what
should I do with my sloping down industry? Good thing I can still use my
creativity (if I have) and my writing skills in PR. Besides, PR has to be the
creative medium in the first place. It has to be fresh, innovative, and
original. It is tasked to build a brand, to build a good public image of your
brand, product, service, or even company.
Now, as I’m typing away to finish this entry, I’m thinking of
other ways to “advertise” or should I say to “market” our company. As a
service-oriented I.T. company, we don’t seriously need advertising. PR is what
we need. Now the challenge for me is to basically “advertise” our company
through PR works. I’ll be blogging about our company, our services,
I.T.-related articles and more in the future. Meanwhile, you might want to
check out our sites:
www.webfocus.ph | www.servobox.com | www.docpedro.com.
Anyway, thank you for spending your 5+ minutes with me. Thank you
for your time.
This is my first time writing a blog, and hey, I enjoyed it!
Kampai,
WebFocus Solutions, Inc.
Online Marketing Team
