One of the most common mistakes made in the marketing industry is confusing public relations with publicity. KPS3 excels in public relations, not just publicity. Publicity is simply the practice of getting unpaid media coverage for clients. This is often times what individuals think public relations is… and only is. However, it is only one aspect of true public relations. Public relations is a practice that strategically builds relationships that help establish rapport with a variety of audiences. It also helps determine the best and most effective way to communicate strategically and persuasively with those audiences. Public relations is the strategic development and telling of your story.
Think
The first step we undertake in the public relations process is a discovery process with the client to discuss overall strategy, goals, objectives, tactics, budgets, timelines and measurements of effectiveness. The discovery process will also help determine existing assets that could be fodder for the PR plan, as well as brainstorm other tactics that can be used within a public relations campaign. KPS3 also researches our clients’ professional industry to get a pulse on key happenings and events in order to help determine appropriate tactics.
KPS3 also researches our clients’ target audiences to better understand how they think and what is the most effective way to get them to act. This helps dictate how and where we communicate to these different groups of audiences. KPS3 then uses this research to write a comprehensive public relations plan that outlines the tools and tactics we would recommend to reach our stated goals.
Act
The public relations plan is the master document that guides our actions. Some of the PR tools that we have in our quiver include: press releases, PSAs, pitch sheets and media pitching, media events, creative special event assistance that may become publicity stunts as well, media training, and talking point development and coaching of spokesperson on each interview. The plan outlines the best tactics to use, as well as a timeline of when they should be executed. KPS3 has the skills and experience to be able to advise clients on how best to reach its public relations’ goals.
Evolve
KPS3 takes a more strategic approach to measuring earned media value than other agencies. We do not measure “ad equivalency” – i.e. taking the media coverage earned and calculating a “purchased ad pricing” to it, with or without a multiplier applied. We philosophically have not embraced it as a true valuation of PR efforts, since they should always strive to reinforce the brand. We have also seen a wide variety of multipliers attached to the raw ad equivalency number and so we see the “apples and oranges” issue when comparing how PR efforts measure up across the industry. It also starts to beg the question of what is the difference between publicity and strategic public relations. Resources are limited – human, financial, ability to garner any one media entity’s attention repeatedly – so we believe in being strategic… not just generating publicity for the sake of doing so.
Our recommended means of evaluating our PR efforts is something we have developed as a proprietary model in conjunction with a PR educator at the University of Nevada, Reno, because of our concern over ad equivalency and the perception of it in the PR profession.
It is called the KPS3 MediaMetrics. It is a formulaic approach using a simplified regression analysis to quickly provide detailed information on message depth and reach, support of brand messages agreed upon with the client, tone and message content, and to provide a weighted score to evaluate public relations activities.
Our Public Relations Services
- Crisis Communication and Management
- Community Relations
- Customer Relations/Communications
- Donor Relations/Communications
- Employee Relations/Communications
- Investor Relations
- Media Relations/Communications
- Media Training/Coaching
- Publicity/Publicity Events
- Executive Communications/Coaching and Speech Writing
- Special Event Management, Concept and Support
