For example, Ries says, let's say a company sells a huge selection of golf clubs on the Internet. Along comes a second site that wants to sell golf clubs. It carves out its niche by selling only left-handed clubs. That would be newsworthy even though the site isn't a first mover. Only after the site created name recognition through publicity would it make any sense to advertise.
Advertising needs the credibility publicity can create.
Strategy may not be the strength of traditional PR firms. Many of them are totally focused on getting publicity in the media. But getting coverage is not what it's about. They even measure the value of a story by the amount of money it would cost to advertise in comparable print inches or minutes of air time. Ries explains, the introduction of New Coke is said to have gotten over a billion dollars worth of publicity but the product was a complete failure.