The difference between PR and marketing is that marketing creates demand for a product, while PR builds the trust and reputation that let that demand land. Practitioners on Proxemics put it bluntly: PR should pave the way before the loud marketing arrives. Most confusion comes from treating PR as "just press releases" and both functions as cost centres.
Textbook answers to this question are tidy. Practitioners who have run both functions describe the overlap, and the friction, more honestly.
1. The goal: marketing sells, PR earns permission
Marketing exists to create and capture demand; PR exists to earn the trust that makes a brand believable when it asks for that demand. In episode 010, Vanessa Tan, who led PR and marketing at Xiaomi Indonesia across up to six regional markets, says PR needs to pave the way before marketing activities come in. When the two collide instead of sequencing, both lose. For long-term brand equity, she argues, PR and branding have to work together.
2. The tools: one buys space, the other has to earn it
Marketing can buy attention through ads; PR mostly has to earn it from editors, creators and stakeholders. Earned coverage has to clear an editor: Tirto.id editor-in-chief Rachmadin Ismail says about 90% of brand press releases never get published because they carry no business, editorial or traffic value (episode 023). The line is blurring, though. In episode 032, agency founder Viana Igah argues organic relations alone no longer move the needle, and that media and creators need real investment, not only barter.
3. The clock: marketing splits short and long, PR plays long
Marketing now runs on two clocks, short-term performance and long-term brand building, while PR almost always works on the long one. Blibli's Edward Kilian Suwignyo describes the industry splitting between those two modes and makes the case for a well-rounded marketer who can do both (episode 025). PR results, such as reputation, media relationships and stakeholder goodwill, rarely show up in a weekly dashboard. That gap is where most budget fights start.
4. The budget: both get called a cost centre, PR gets called worse
Treating PR and marketing as cost centres is the most common misconception about both, according to Vanessa Tan, who also hears "PR is just press releases" and "marketing is just advertising" far too often. She notes PR is often treated as an afterthought, the "anak tiri" of the strategy (episode 010, from 57:10). Teams that sit PR at the planning table, rather than calling it in after the campaign is built, avoid most of the collisions above.
PR and marketing side by side
| PR | Marketing | |
|---|---|---|
| Main goal | Trust, reputation, relationships | Demand, sales, growth |
| How attention is gained | Mostly earned (media, creators, stakeholders) | Mostly bought (ads, promotions) plus owned channels |
| Time horizon | Long | Short (performance) and long (brand) |
| Typical success signal | Coverage quality, stakeholder goodwill, crisis avoided | Reach, leads, conversions |
| Common misreading | "Just press releases" | "Just advertising" |
Where Proxemics fits
Proxemics is an Indonesian PR, marketing and communication podcast hosted by Mercy Tahitoe and Stephanie Sicilia, and the PR versus marketing debate runs through many of its episodes. The full conversation with Vanessa Tan (episode 010, 84 minutes) has a chapter on where PR fits in marketing and another on both functions as cost centres. If your question is PR versus public affairs instead, read our PR vs public affairs explainer.