Advertising is What You Pay for. PR is What You Pray For (With PR Expert Michael Levine)

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Audio Transcription

Clay Clark is having a conversation with the man, the myth, the legend of PR, Michael Levine about why PR is so important and what the Tiffany Theory is and how it applies to your business.

  1. When you buy ads many people will not believe you or your offer.
    1. NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “Advertising is what you pay for. PR is what you pray for.”
  2. When you score a public relations win, it makes your advertising more credibility.
  3. If you have good story/message, you are transparent, and are authentic you can be effective.
  4. PR brings forth a kind of credibility that ads don’t.
  5. How Michael Levine got started in the world of public relations.
  6. Michael Levine’s Tiffany Theory

NOTABLE QUOTABLE – “If you give someone a present, and you give it to them in a Tiffany box, it’s likely that they’ll believe the gift has higher perceived value than if you gave it to them in no box or a box of less prestige.  That’s not because the receiver of the gift is a fool. But instead, because we live in a culture in which we gift wrap everything — our politicians, our corporate heads, our movie and TV stars, and even our toilet paper. Public Relations is like gift wrapping.” – Michael Levine


The actual man who is known in the pr world for creating the tiffany theory. If you don’t know what the tiffany theory is the tiffany theory to describe, this is Notable quotable from Michael Levine. The most successful pr consultant in the history of the planet. He is a business coaching type guy who’s worked with three presidents. He’s worked with Nancy Kerrigan, worked with Cameron Diaz, for Pizza Hut. He’s worked with Nike and he wrote the tiffany theory which just totally changed the game for pr and we had a chance to sit down with him and have a break it down. This really connected with me. It makes so much sense: okay, tiffany theory. If you give someone a present and you give it to them in a Tiffany box, it’s likely that they’ll believe the gift has a higher perceived value then when you give it to them in a box or no box or a box of less prestige? That’s not because the receiver of the gift is a fool, but instead because we live in a culture in which we gift wrap everything. Our politicians, our corporate heads, our movies and tv stars and even our toilet paper. Public relations is like gift wrapping. So Michael Levine breaks down the tiffany theory and how he got started in the world of pr. Well. We have a kind of humorous way of discussing it in our industry, which is to say that advertising is what you pay for, and pr is what you pray for, and what that means is that you know if you take out an ad in time or newsweek or people are us, news & world, report or usa today, or the wall street journal, the new york times, you get a certain cost and the ad bushas a certain believability by virtue of the fact it’s an ad. On the other hand, if you had a story in the wall street journal or usa today or the new york times, the la times, it’s believability would be at a rate of at least 10 to 1 c, because it would come with the improper mota or the authority of wall street journal USA today. So I think that is what’s underneath. The idea that pr advertising is what you pay.

What you pray for, and today there is the world is so cynical people start with the ascent. They start with guilty until proven innocent, not innocent until proven when you, when you educate your customers about the potential value of your product or service, and you do it through the media, you get a believability that is significantly greater than if you do it with you know an advertisement. What, if you have a good story, a good message and you’re transparent, your authentic I think you can put forth a message that can be very effective with p r? U get it it it! You a brings forth what kind of credibility that adds. Don’t what you say about yourself. It’s not nearly as important as what is said about by others. How did you get started in the pr business I had two passions I was interested in the entertainment industry and I was interested in politics so now I’m, 17 scared and skinny dyslexic, no money, no job, no education I got to figure out what to do and when you’re 18 scared and skinny I think you as a business coaching expert come to conclude when I came. To conclude, which is Washington is Hollywood for ugly folks and i. Come out here, see I’m, just look stupid play i, just look stupid I come out here with a pretty people are and that’s how the whole damn thing began. The point where your know known as one of the top publicist of all time on top pr, guys of all time, you came up with the sink on the tiffany theory, and this is from you from your book.

A gorilla, pr 2.0 by the way I bought about 35, copies outside for $35 purchase, 35 copies a good start. Pr is the most widely used. Introduction appears on the world and it’s not because of its brilliance, nearly to the degree of its accessibility, which is what he really teach the concept of the third grade level, which my mind can grasp and you say hear what I do is gift wrapping. If you pack, a new bracelet in a Tiffany box will have a higher perceived value than it presented in a Kmart box, same bracelet, different perception. How does this story pertain to small business owners across the country? It’s a plumbing business. How does this apply to me as a small business owner or a business coaching client? So let’s first, let’s take your question, which is a good one and let’s cut it into bite-size, all we can think about. Okay, so first of all, I did not I had a problem when I began my career in pr I tell you about that. I didn’t know how to do. Pr and second of all, I didn’t know what it was other than that I was in good shape, so I had to come to I had to create for myself and for others and understanding what pr was and I said. The pr is analogous to gift wrapping stuff in so, if I come to visit, you today, I come to visit your wife today and I give her a gift and I give it to her in a tiffany box. In her mind, the gift would have a higher perceived value, then, if I gave it to her and no boxer or a box of less prestige. Other reason, that’s true is not cuz. Your wife is a jackass is true because she lives in a culture in which we gift wrap everything. So we gift wrap our politicians and our corporate heads and a movie and tv stars, and even our toilet paper. Learn more from the business coaching team at Thrivetimeshow.com

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