Advertising is something that creates a certain illusion and image, and public relations is something that manages crowd control of different categories of people
Paulius Stankevicius is a CEO and founder of Stankevicius MGM, professional PR and advertising firm and Stankevicius Group which focuses on mainstream business including advertising and trading. Paulius Stankevicius has worked with Fortune 500 companies and over 500 clients internationally on public relation and advertising matters. In this interview Paulius Stankevicius shares professional insights on advertising and public relations.
1. As a branding professional could you share professional insights on how to successfully market a business during a crisis market such as COVID-19?
Surviving the crisis is all about showing the strength and keeping up the balance between the public image and reality of internal business processes and management. During the crisis of COVID-19, most of the SME and corporate size companies lost revenues, clients, and due to lack of sustainable strength in branding, most importantly they lost public image. When the public loses faith and belief in a company, word goes around quickly enough and it touches matters of investor relations and client relations, and this is where competitors who are aware of weaknesses of their rivals, overtake them through strategic marketing push.
How to avoid this? Don’t let your brand down, don’t stop marketing, don’t stop advertising. In fact, quite the opposite, increase advertising spending because during the crisis nobody spends on advertising which makes standing out more easier than usual. It is important to show that your business, regardless of the actual reality, is keeping up strong and showing all of the unique points of sustainability, market domination, ROI generation, extraordinary client experience and support, and a certain level of aggression giving fear to competition.
2. What are your favorite marketing techniques?
The best marketing technique in my opinion is, no questions asked, media relations in combination with advertising, and not just regular advertising such as paid ads on social media but more advanced, iconic outdoor advertising and online top tier magazine advertising. As far as media relations go, getting published dozens of articles in global and also local media on a quarter basis is just enough to maintain a stronger and better brand image from the public perspective which includes investors, clients and new prospects.