As a PR & Sustainability communications professional, what do I learn from marketing and advertising?

The other day I realized that, on this blog, I often tend to write more about advertising and marketing, than public relations, which can potentially seem quite shocking surprising to some of my peers. PR pros indeed love looking down upon their advertising & marketing counterparts for not getting what the ‘conversation age’ is all about, i.e. for still largely operating in a ‘push paradigm’, and not a ‘pull’ one through engagement and two-way dialogue.

Well … as the communications disciplines are converging today, I believe it is important to being ‘less territorial”, but instead being open to learn more from advertising and marketing, including  insights that can be extremely useful for Sustainability and CSR communications campaigns.

Here’s is what I learn from marketing and advertising, and why:

1/. Creativity & Ideas

Creativity is by far the reason #1 why I am always looking at the latest PSAs or non-commercial ads available online, such as these ones here, as they smartly leverage cultural references, social trends and emotions to get their messages and big ideas across. Needless to say that in order to cut through the clutter, creativity is a MUST for sustainability/CSR communications, as 1)  the average consumer sees more than 3,000 messages a day, and 2) audiences like to be entertained, not pitched!

2/. Research & measurement for ROI

For many in the PR field, and especially in digital/social media communications, ROI measurement is a ‘holy grail’, and here, marketing has a lot to offer with an extensive set of research approaches (pre- and post-campaigns), measurement metrics and objectives. It particularly makes a lot of sense when it comes to CSR & Sustainability communications as  the budgets for such programs are often cut due to budget constraints and doubts over their capacity to achieve business objectives.

3/. Messaging and target audiences

Finally, as the success of any communication campaign always depends on the right definition of target audiences/key stakeholders and  messages, marketing research and studies are a gold mine of insights about people’s perceptions and related-behaviors for all things sustainable in an always changing environment.

Do you see anything else that PR & Sustainability Communications consultants can learn from advertising and marketing?

Or vice-versa?