The "most effective advertising medium"

Thumbing through the morning paper, I came across a full page ad with the headline, "What is the most effective advertising medium in New Jersey?"

Much like Claude Rains in Cassablanca who was "Shocked -- SHOCKED -- to find that gambling is going on in here," imagine my utter surprise to learn that the New Jersey Newspaper Network thinks that newspapers are the "most effective" way for companies to advertise in New Jersey.

Don't get me wrong -- I LOVE newspapers (remember how this post started? With me reading the morning paper). But I also love the radio in my car. And TV. Magazines, too. And the Internet.

So, I would ask, why not have them all? (Spoiler alert: here comes the "commercial" for Public Relations.)

PR firms routinely target all of those, with the most audience-appropriate messages, and in the media that will best reach decision makers. Our clients regularly find themselves in newspapers, trade and general interest magazines, on television news, on the radio, and liberally distributed all over the Internet. Moreover, their message is delivered far more credibly and believably than ads, which people tend to look at with a jaundiced eye.

Almost EVERY successful major new product introduction in the past decade has been launched via a public relations campaign. There is a reason for this. PR works. It's credible. And it can deliver your message in the widest variety of media.