Susan and fellow PRSAers,
This would be worth the trip, just for the excuse to go to Magianno's! It's
amazing that an Ad Club would sponsor this event. Maybe PR really is coming
into its own, although the concept of PR trumping advertising is nothing new
to me.
I was PR director for the Music City Song Festival, an international
songrwriting contest in Nashville in the late 1980s. This was way before the
American Idol concept. We had a missing winner whom we were waiting to award
a $10,000 prize and a record publishing contract in the gospel division one
year. The winners usually made it into the Billboard Top 20 when their
records were released. I wrote a press release that basically said, "...call
us up, sing your song and the prize is yours." I took it to the AP bureau in
Nashville, and the story ran all over the country in newspapers, on network
radio and on TV; Paul Harvey even did a story on it after we found the guy, a
laid-off teacher in California. A friend of the winning songwriter had heard
the story on CBS radio news while driving from St. Louis to Los Angeles. That
initial press release and a follow-up release the next day after we had
located the winner generated about 100,000 entries in the contest in two days
at $10 a pop! It took million-piece mailings and months of magazine ads over
several months to match that.
I won't be able to make the trip, but it is good to see that PR is finally
gaining wide acceptance as a powerful force. When the budgets reflect that
and ad people get downsized before PR folks, then we will have really arrived!
John M. King
P.S. It was great to see so many friends at the UT PR Day!
Susan Barnes wrote:
> Many of you have expressed interest in the following topic; if you're
> looking for an excuse to go to Atlanta, check this out.
>
> AD CLUB PRESENTS AL AND LAURA RIES
>
> Join the Atlanta Ad Club for "The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR,"
> presented by Al and Laura Ries of Ries & Ries. The event will be held next
> Tuesday, October 15, from 11:30 a.m.- 1:30 p.m. at Maggiano's, 3368
> Peachtree Road, in Buckhead. Al and Laura Ries will offer a provocative
> perspective on the role of advertising vs. public relations in today's
> world, which challenges many of the assumptions agencies have about
> building brands. The Cost is $35 members, $45 guests if you register by
> Thursday, Oct. 10 online at http://www.atlantaadclub.org
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