Lakhasly

What the organization wants to achieve determines the priority publics. Once the publics are identified, the media to reach them are clear, or should be. Thus a campaign might be designed that involves no mass media at all, either for publicity or for advertising. The whole effort might be carried out through specialized media, if that’s the most effective way to reach the publics.
On the other hand, the primary publics might best be reached through the mass media, and the mass media they hold credible may be needed for one or both of two public relations purposes. One is employing publicity to give third-party credibility to other messages origi-nating from the organization. The second is advertising to give guaranteed exposure in tar-geted media.

If the latter is more important—the case with introducing new ideas, services or products— then the campaign is primarily an advertising campaign with publicity and special event sup-
port. If the campaign is primarily information centered or focused on conveying complex messages, then publicity is the driver of the campaign.
When a campaign is primarily directed to specialized audiences, there may be little or no use of mass media. Some ads may be bought in trade or professional journals supported with
publicity in the same media. Or the campaign may be entirely driven by presentations.
But in public relations, anything can be used as a channel for communications—door-knob hangers, mayors’ or governors’ proclamations, open houses, marathon races, parades and so on—the list is almost endless. The most effective programs encapsulate the individuals composing the target publics in carefully selected messages delivered through channels that are highly believable and credible to the individual public.
A public relations writer usually is directly involved only in helping to review or craft mes-
sage strategies and in the implementation phase. Does that mean a public relations writer need not be too concerned about the overall thrust of a campaign? Certainly not. The public relations
writer is a vital part of the total success of a campaign because it is the writer, more than anyone, who interprets the objectives, goals and strategies to relevant publics. So a writer must be fully aware of what the campaign is expected to accomplish and why. The entire campaign plan must be studied carefully and understood exactly, to ensure that the writing supports the total effort.
Often the most workable planning strategy is to develop numerous “mini” plans—one for each aspect of the public relations program. One international corporation has separate plans for employee communications, marketing publicity, community relations, media relations, urban affairs, government affairs, investor relations and customer relations.