What’s the difference between marketing and advertising? 

Now this is a question that I think people don’t know they need to ask themselves. And for many, they might not think there is a difference between the two.

But let me tell you, there is. Oh lord there is! I heard Zara Curtis, Director of Content at IAG, explain this perfectly at the Content Marketing Summit this year in Sydney. And it’s something that once you understand what the difference is, it will make your strategies, your plans and just your business in general make a lot more sense. 

Advertising is the message you want to tell. Marketing is the story you want to show. So for example Kmart’s message they tell is they have low prices on everyday goods. The story they want to show is how you can be easily on trend and just make you life lighter and better with their brand. Examples of advertising can be radio ads, supermarket catalogues, television commercials, Search ads (you know, when you Google something and the first result has the tiny square that says “ad”? Kind of self explanatory). These all tell you a message. Examples of marketing could be articles, case study videos, those sometimes awesome sometimes super annoying email newsletters you get in your inbox.

The key is to have a healthy balance between the two. If you’re continuously shoving your message into peoples faces, they’re just going to switch off. People now more than ever are attracted to brands that they can have a personal connection with, where they can see a little bit of themselves within the brand. So if you’re selling say crackers, it’s not about saying “come buy these crackers!” all the time. It’s a little of “create this amazing grazing platter with these ingredients in your pantry with a little help from Cracker Co” along with your “come by me!” ads. Advertising creates awareness of your brand, and marketing creates the authority you need to show to be considered the ideal brand to align with.

So if you go in for an interview or to meet up with a potential client and they say to you “all we need is SEM. Content and brand awareness can come later. SEM is the way to go and it will get us the leads we need,” turn around and run. Pack your shit, and run. It may have been the case two or three years ago that SEM was king, but that’s not the case anymore. 2018 was a huge year for artificial intelligence, social media and advertising, and not in a good way. The Cambridge Analytica scandal with Facebook showed the world that your data is never private, and social media users in a way rebelled against social and brands that did a lot of “in your face” advertising like Facebook ads and SEM. Hootsuite observed in their Social Media trends in 2019 report that “the pendulum has swung back to social’s roots: real, personal, and authentic”. People don’t want to be shown an ad for your product just because they meet your target demographic. People want to have a personal and genuine connection with you. It’s now more important than ever for every business to start thinking “if my business were a person, who would they be? How would they speak on social, and what stories would we tell to attract customers?”

That in a nutshell is the difference between marketing and advertising. Have any questions? Keen to learn more? Sign up to my monthly newsletter and follow me on social to get the best tips and latest news.