PR builds brands. Advertising maintains brands once they're built by PR.

I'd like to share with you today some thoughts that, perhaps, would be more aptly titled by a marketing manager "Politically Incorrect from a PR guy..."

Well, Now why do I say politically incorrect? Because until recently, the mere thought of Brand Building PR having parity with advertising, let alone superiority over it, especially in the corridors of consumer brand managers' domain, was fleeting at best, if not absent completely.

Now while many of us believe that PR has made many brands, PR was still an elective; an enhancement, not a required course. And it was an acquired taste for some that sometimes left a bad taste when things didn't go quite right.

So what's changed? Let me give you some examples for contemplation. In an office in Barcelona, or Madrid or a kitchen or garden somewhere in America, someone is recommending an expensive advertising campaign. But hopefully, someone else is recommending a long-term credibility and relationship building PR program with a large order of crisis management to go.

Procter & Gamble, a former client at my PR agency. We developed a brand positioning campaign for this client that the Spain CEO —we were at the CEO table for this one— told the marketing team, quote, "It's our vision for the future launching roll-out templates," our in-house friends told us. Well, two weeks later, the leading advertising executive from this client's agency came in and basically dissected our entire strategy, creativity, and topics. Now luckily, a couple of weeks later, the client came to his senses and came back to our recommended positioning. However, and this is a little bit of a footnote. We were never asked to critique their advertising campaign (and by the way, we didn't like it very much). Our strategy was 5 times cheaper, and the client had launching budget cuts (which is maybe why he came back…anyway). He liked our ten steps strategy to success. Steps focused on some of the major issues we have studied this two-days.

· Step 1: talk to employees,
· Step 2: talk to your key trade partners,
· Step 3: talk to key opinion leading media
· Step 4: talk to key opinion leaders among consumers
· Step 5: You have already created buzz but the product is not yet in the market: Launching events are your next step for excitement and momentum
· Step 6: Massive 3 days (Thursday,Friday,Saturday) Advertising for building awareness
· Step 7: Get key retail visibility with launching podiums and In-store Promotions.
· Step 8: Go from National to regional presence Media and In-Store tour.
· Step 9: Dominate the Internet, Spread the news in an attractive on-line manner.
· And Step 10: re-start with Step 1, you are about to become a leader, check your mistakes.

Now hey, you would think, I’ve done all that. Yes but in this order? As a key strategic element or just a mandatory process?

A Learned BASIC and Key Conclusion:
“Do not buy Reputation, Earn it. Do not buy media presence, Earn it”

The largest advertised brand in America last year spent $780 million on advertising.
Do you know the name of the largest advertised brand in America last year?
It wasn't Coca-Cola. It wasn't Budweiser. It wasn't McDonald's…
The largest advertised brand in America last year, would you believe, was Chevrolet.
Now let me ask you another question, what's a Chevrolet?
If I said I'd meet you down front in front of the Hotel in my Chevrolet, have you any idea of what kind of a car I might be driving? Actually, What's a Chevrolet? I'll tell you what a Chevrolet is: A Chevrolet is a large/small, cheap/expensive car. …or a truck!

Now, the largest company advertiser in America last year was General Motors. As a matter of fact — in five of the last eight years, General Motors has been the largest advertiser in America. In the last eight years, General Motors has spent $23 billion on advertising. And what has General Motors achieved in eight years and $23 billion? Well, their market share went from, are you ready, 34 percent to 26 — 28 percent.

Big advertising budgets are not necessarily a sign of success. They're like big legal bills. Not necessarily a sign of success…

The second-largest advertiser in America last year was AT&T. You've seen some of AT&T's ads? I'll show you one of AT&T's ads. "Welcome to M-Life." What in the hell is an M-Life? I mean, you know, come on guys, "The consumer is not a moron," said David Ogilvy .

You know you're in trouble — your company's in trouble — when you make the cartoons. "Hello, Arthur Andersen." What do companies do today when they're in trouble? You know what they do when they're in trouble: They run advertising. Of course! full-page ads in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Here's a full-page ad from the former chief executive of Arthur Andersen, Joe Baradino. What does the reader or you think when you see a full-page open letter in the Wall Street Journal signed by the chief executive of a major American company? What do you think? "Oh-oh: Here's another company in trouble..."

Here's another company in trouble. Another example: "Lately, you've been hearing a lot about Merrill Lynch. Now you're going to hear from us in this Ad." Translation: "Everything you've read in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal is wrong. And we're going to set you straight. You know you can believe us because we're wearing $2,000 suits and we're spending $200,000 a page to put our message in the Wall Street Journal."

That's going to make people believe the message? What is the problem with advertising? You know what the problem with advertising is today? It's the lack of credibility. People do not believe those messages. Advertising's Achilles' heel is not a heel at all. Advertising Achilles' heel is the mind. It's the mind of the prospect. And, as per your own common sense and hidden truth and as per the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Edelman Trust Studies, people do not believe advertising.

Because advertising has no credibility inside people's minds! They do not believe what they read in an advertisement. Now that doesn't mean advertising doesn't have a purpose. But if you have no credibility, you have no advertising program. It's actually as simple as that!

What does have credibility in the mind? The only thing that has credibility is PR and publicity. That's what has credibility. And sometimes Advertising take advantage of PR and profits of it: When you see an article that says, "Safety: The Hallmark of Volvo S60 AWD," you say to yourself, "Yeah. Must be a safe car..." And people read these ads. They read all the PR about the three-point seatbelts, the crushable frames, all this other stuff. And they say, "Yeah, Volvos are safe." So when they see the ad, they look at the ad that says, "We design every Volvos to look like this." And people think, "Right. It's a safe car." The advertising takes advantage of the PR. And that's what advertising should do, take advantage of the PR. It's what we call PR-oriented or PR Centric advertising. You use PR first to establish the credibility of the brand. Because without credibility, advertising is going to go nowhere…

Second, you use advertising to —what do you do with the ad? You re-affirm the brand's credibility. You repeat ideas and concepts that the PR has established in the mind. But you know something? That's the last thing ad agencies want to do. You can't win an award by using a PR program as the headline of an ad campaign. So the agencies will say, "What about creativity? What about the holy grail of the advertising industry, creativity?" Well, here's one of the finest examples of advertising creativity in the last decade. You see, here is, fundamentally, the marketing strategy of America's 15,000 creative advertising agencies.

Nobody has won more creativity awards than a brand called Budweiser. As a matter of fact, two years ago, Budweiser's classic, creative advertising campaign, on the mouths of all the younger people in America was the "Whassup?" campaign. Grand Prix at Cannes! Would you like to know what's down at Budweiser? What's down are sales. Budweiser beer has lost market share every year for the last 11 years in a row. And this is perceived to be the most creative and effective advertising in the world. What should they do? They should use their credentials. What are the credentials of Budweiser? The King of Beers. "Why would you want to drink the Queen when you can drink the King of Beers?" These are ideas that resonate in people's minds. When you see two black guys say, "Whassup?" you might think it's funny. You might laugh. But that doesn't necessarily reaffirm what Budweiser means inside your mind. If advertising doesn't connect with ideas that are already in the mind, put there by PR, advertising itself is not going to work.

How do you launch a new brand anyhow? Well, you see, here's the thing, advertising programs are normally launched with a big bang. "Hey, we gotta get above the noise level. Otherwise people are going to ignore us." PR programs are invariably launched or rolled out over an extended period of time, the slow build-up idea.

But I want you to notice something. I want you to notice the sales of a typical new brand. Here are the sales of a typical new brand. Launched in 1987, in the first five years, it took five years to be ten million in sales. It took another five years to be 100 million in sales. This year, this brand will do one billion in sales. It's a big brand. Well, you recognize it, of course.
It's of course Red Bull! How was Red Bull launched? The classic way you launch a new brand with no credentials. You gotta build credentials. You gotta use PR. And Red Bull has been terrific at using PR. Red Bull's good buzz here from Newsweek magazine.

Now last year, as you know, to compete with Red Bull, Coca-Cola launched Burn Energy drink. Here's the biggest soft drink company in the world, the best marketers, the biggest advertising agencies, the biggest budgets, the most valuable brand in the world, Coca-Cola. Is Coca-Cola going to be successful against this single, small, Austrian company called Red Bull? Are you kidding? All the advertising in the world will not make Burn a dominant brand of energy drink. You can't win a marketing war today with advertising. You can only win if you start with PR and build the brand's credibility. Now interestingly enough, the soft-drink industry has been picking up on this. Pepsi Co. I mean, these are real believers in the big bang advertising launch. Not only Pepsi Co., but Coca-Cola now are finally discovering the benefits of massive product PR launches. Leak it out. Let it percolate in the press for a while before you launch the brand. That is classic PR strategy.

We have seen the future of marketing. And the future of marketing is Botox. That's the future. Botox. That's the way you launch a brand. Botox was launched in the year 1993. Twenty-five million the first year, 300 million in sales last year. No advertising, no advertising, no advertising, no direct mail. No nothing but PR. But some Incredible PR! And of course this year, Botox maker plans $50 million ad campaign. Terrific. Great. That's what they should do. Protect and expand the brand now that the brand has credibility in the mind.

Brand building is about engagement with consumers, not exposure, it’s about creating emotions. Targeting the brain, you may keep your market share, get some results, if you have the budget and the right mix. Targeting heart’s you will win the marketing battle. At Intercontinental they also learned that trusting their people, caring and involving them as a 40,000 men and women marketing army was a formidable competitive weapon and ticket for the future or the brand. You do not buy your Reputation, you Earn it. You Do not buy media presence, you Earn it” And it may take you a while to earn, but you may lose it in a week; It does not come with a guarantee.

My message is simple:

PR builds brands. Advertising maintains brands once they're built by PR.