PR DICTIONARY - ADVERTORIAL VS EDITORIAL
One of the first things to bust about PR, is the difference between advertorial and editorial content.
Simply put, advertorial is paid for and editorial is not.
Example of Advertorial content
Advertorial can be made to look like editorial but will often explicitly have 'Advertising'/'Advertorial', or more discretely 'Promotion', nestled on the page. The content, that fills the magazines in addition to the traditional full page advertising that we're all familiar with, is the type of content that may have been generated in collaboration between the brand and the magazine or simply composed of imagery and content provided directly by the brand.
Example of Editorial content
Editorial is content that has been written/styled, collated and produced by the editorial team at a magazine - the journalists, stylists, photographers and creatives - and will be original and created impartially on this basis.
Editorial is made up of many different types of content such as:
- Styled Shoots - this could be any type of product, but let's use a modelled fashion shoot (as above) as an example. This type of shoot would be directed/conceived by a Fashion Editor who will probably work with a Fashion Stylist to 'call in' products for the shoot. They will have a photographer on board as well as sourcing a location in order to create a multi-page spread of beautiful 'Fashion Editorial'.
- Shopping/Product Pages - these will be found in almost any type of magazine and come in the guise of 'Top 10...', 'Hot List', 'Style List', 'Best...', 'Get the Look'... the list goes on. Essentially, it is a page that typically features a number of cut out product images along some kind of theme or concept in order to demonstrate a range of product to the reader. I've always seen this type of page as 'bread and butter' coverage for any product based business as there is an abundance of opportunity, the product placement will include your brand credits and even a small placement allows you to promote your product, 'As seen in...'.
Product based beauty page
- Features - this type of coverage is typically made up of mostly wording with accompanying images. A 'feature' could cover any subject - a round up of the latest trends from fashion week, the newest talents in the design world, the secret world of manufacturing, the rise in 'at home' start ups... This may be a good course to explore if you feel that you have a particularly interesting story or you are part of a movement that is gaining traction in the media and there may be growing interest in stories like yours.
- Profile - these opportunities will focus on the people behind the business as a way of focussing more in depth within an industry sector or one business in particular. As a founder you may have an exciting or unique story to tell. You may have a particularly distinctive workplace that would really lend itself to a 'behind the scenes' profile interview.
Example of profile/feature coverage - 'at home' with the owners of an interiors company