MxMIndia

Tag: PR

  • The PR industry has been thriving on Jugaad. This silent army of PR professionals, certainly for the last two decades, has been quietly helping organizations and brands get marketing "exposure" in the news space

    [PR CHANNEL] Public Relations needs measurement for its Advertising & PR!

    By Siddhartha Mukherjee

     

    Hollywood legend Gregory Peck’s reply – “I don’t know anything about Public Relations” – to a PR job proposition from a friend in a company where he was working in the Hollywood flick, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, sums up the state of Public Relations. His reply, despite the fact that it dates back to the post World War II era in the 1950s, still echoes the current state of this credible marketing tool called Public Relations, atleast in India.

     

    Before we get into the scope and type of measurement for a client’s Public Relations initiatives, there are a couple of points, I thought, we can throw light on:

     

    The central question is – Why does a Corporate/Brand do PR? It is a simple question, but the answer may not be so simple!

     

    Let us see if this question can be answered by deconstructing some possible thoughts or responses:

     

    a) We (the Corporate/Brand) do PR because it makes us feel/look good infront of family and friends

    For some this could well be a preposterous presumption. However, the fact is this is the belief for most of us – some may acknowledge…some won’t.

     

    Majority of the Corporates end up creating CorpComm/PR machineries to serve individual agendas, and not one single Corporate and Brand marketing agenda. Time is spent and efforts are made to expose “faces” of the organization rather than the Corporate itself, what it stands for and its product offerings. PR still continues to be used more as a personal and personnel gratification tool rather than a brand building tool. Many will not acknowledge this. Those who do are far more credible and only adding to their organization’s equity.

     

    b) Monthly PR scores Ranking

    Some slightly better off organizations have taken it one notch up. Given the fact that the actual purpose of PR/Corp Comm is still ill defined, self gratifying efforts to prove successful creation of decibels levels are quite high in usage. The mandate therefore given to the PR Machinery is – “My company should be No. 1 in the media visibility rank”. No wonder then, the Corp Comm machinery and its PR Agency runs helter-skelter after every possible journalist in every possible newspaper and TV news channel to get some ink or soundbyte in next morning edition. The ballgame ends up being all about the “CHASE”(journalist/publication). Get me some coverage somewhere…anywhere…with any mention of my company becomes the dictate. The thickness of the clippings dossier becomes an emblem of the PR machinery’s achievements.

     

    The only problem is that it can be easily proven that just because the Company scores rank 1 in media visibility does not mean they have actually done or achieved great PR! Same way, just because an organization has ranked no. 3 does not mean they have achieved bad PR!

     

    We are obsessed with ranking. PR Industry just re-iterates the same principles.

     

    c) To justify Ad budgets and EAV (Equivalent Advertising Value) targets:

    This is an extension of the above point. The norm of marketing team (marcomm to be specific) setting targets for PR/Corp Comm team is still a sacred ritual. Targets of Rs 5 crores, 20 crores, 50 crores are a set norm of advertising equivalent editorial value to be achieved by the Corp Comm/PR team at the end of the year. In fact, this has three interesting outcomes: a) The Corp Comm/PR team starts going through tremendous palpitations. Which in turn puts the entire Corp Comm Machinery (including PR Agency) in a tizzy. B) The corporates’ winning/dinning/gifting and media round bills go up because we somehow want to get any coverage somewhere B) Corp Communications starts losing focus on what it is ideally there to achieve.

     

    At the end of the year, the marketing team rejoices on the achievement of the EAV scores encoring “a great job done”. They possibly will also look at Share of Expenditure (SOE) Vs Share of EAVs Vs Share of Voice/Space. However, whether the annual PR efforts have borne fruit or not, who know! Is someone interested to know?

     

    The other aspect of this advertising correlation becomes all the more interesting when Corporates look at editorial space as money game – that can be “bought”…courtesy their media buying “power” houses. Some do this with a generalised belief that editorial space across print, TV and online is rigged, no longer a purist zone and should/could be bought therefore. Some believe that this is the best way to control what they want to get and not get written.

     

    d) To keep negative stories at bay

    Our country is all about negation and rejection! Critics, crisis, negatives, these are aspects that dawn on us almost everyday, starting from our breakfast table. Corporates increasingly becoming within the common man’s radar find them mentioned in most “negatives”. PR/Corp Comm machinery therefore is expected to play a role in pre-empting these negative mentions in the next day morning news reports. Worse case, if pre-empting efforts fail, they start rolling out damage control exercise. Actually, where Corporates passionately believe in this principle of getting easy ink in next day’s paper, and more importantly, pre-empt negative stories, often ex-journalists find a prominent place in the CorpComm/PR chair of the organization.

     

    e) To achieve a set business objective

    This is where we normally get stuck. How many times have we asked a simple question – why am issuing this press release? Why am I proactively approaching a publication and to give an interview to a journalist? Can the answers to “why” be broken down into specific Quantitative and Qualitative target outputs?

     

    The reality is that this seldom happens. Those Corporates/Brands who have started with this are already enjoying the benefits of this Samaritan tool. For their customers or consumers out in households, communications is much more smooth, homogenous and credible. For those who have not, probably best is to leave them to market forces. One day, they will realize it is too late.

     

    Way Forward:

    Our good old Public Relations industry started and has been thriving on Jugaad. This silent army of PR professionals, certainly for the last two decades, has been quietly helping organizations and brands get marketing “exposure” in the news space across Newspapers, Magazines, TV Channels and Websites. Their Jugaad as relationship managers with journalists has actually helped many Corporate Entities enter India, settle well, understand the market and more importantly trigger the interplay of Demand and Supply.

     

    However, in the last seven odd years especially, this ART of Jugaad has been complemented with a crying need of SCIENCE both in strategic & tactical planning and implementation of Public Relations. CEOs, Directors, Marketing Heads, CFOs, HR Heads, now that all are getting hooked and booked under “ROIs and Accountability”, they are finding it both important as well as challenging to incorporate the tool of PR into their Corporate DNA.

     

    Here is where PR Agencies have initiated and paved the way. Starting with transforming themselves into Consultancies, their thoughts and initiatives have changed the matrix of this tool called Public Relations. The tool, which was largely confined to the PRO/Corporate Communication desk of their Client Office is actually today showing its influence and usefulness to the internal clients of this same desk – Marketing, Financial as well as HR corridors…not to leave alone the CEOs office. Public Relations can be created, nurtured and propelled only with the vision and proactive initiatives of its Agencies.

     

    Measurement of PR can go a long way in establishing purpose and focus to a brand PR efforts. PR Agencies therefore will play a big role in introducing measurement into the DNA of PR and Corporate Communications industry.

     

    Let us not forget that Measurement or Data can do actual PR for PR! The Client, its agency and the industry stands to benefit from it. What the benefits could be, who all stand to gain and how…next time!

     

    Siddhartha Mukherjee is senior VP, Communications and Business Head, Eikona PR Measurement

  • In an age of instant information, fire-fighting is a skilled specialization and PR agencies are not willing to leave it to chance or the last minute.

    Corporate crisis? Call the PR firm

     

    By Johnson Napier

     

    (With inputs by Tuhina Anand)

     

    Murphy’s Law states, “If anything can go wrong, it will.” And adversity has a way of striking when least expected. From individuals to small establishments to large corporate houses and even celebrities, many have been at the receiving end of the turmoil unleashed when bad times arrive. Often it is expected that the individual will pull themselves out of the crisis, but not many are successful in fighting their way out of the mess as well as later avoiding being consumed by the negative aftermath.

     

    Ajay Sharma

    Enter public relations. Crisis PR, to be precise. From being a dormant activity within an agency and playing minnows to their bigger counterparts, crisis PR today is emerging as a critical and strategically important unit for most agencies. Such is the need for handling crisis situations that a few big players have gone ahead and launched separate divisions to handle crisis-related affairs. Recent examples include Hanmer MSL that went ahead and launched Crisis Network last month while Ad Factors already has Crisis 24×7 that has been functional for a couple of years and more. According to Ajay Sharma, Managing Partner, Ketchum Sampark, it would be fair to say that 15-20 per cent of the time spent on PR programs for across the industry would be dedicated to crisis. When analaysed in numbers, this would easily mean revenue in excess of Rs 100 crores given that the size of the organized industry is around Rs 500-600 crores.

     

    What is important to understand here is that PR should not be brought in after a crisis hits. In fact, given today’s media speed and its impact it is prudent to have a robust PR edge at all times. Take the case of Cafe Coffee Day or CCD as it popularly called which was embroiled in a sudden crisis when a customer complained of service at one of its outlets on a social media platform. Now it’s a case study on how CCD handled this criticism. K Ramakrishnan, President Marketing, Cafe Coffee Day, emphasized, “I believe that you can’t just wake up one day when crisis strikes and get your PR machinery active. There should be a consistent conversation with all medium of influence and media and not just when tough situation arises. It should not be crisis PR but consistent PR and if a situation arises it’s better to come clean. Anybody can make mistakes but its important to accept the mistake, correct it and try not to repeat it.” CCD has been using the social media effectively to listen, nurture and even co-create with its consumers.

     

    While the origins of crisis PR could be traced not only to corporate misconduct or accidents or natural disasters as it used to be, increasing conflicts with different pressure groups, rising customer activism, customer fraud and regulatory changes among others are some of the frequent causes of crisis for most organizations today. A quick dive into history and we won’t be surprised as to why crisis PR has emerged to be what it is today. Imagine Nira Radia walking unscathed for a long time when major telecom players and a few famous personalities were being hauled up for their role in the alleged 2G scam or Vijay Mallya going about his everyday chores with the same flair and exuberance despite Kingfisher Airlines, seeing red or even the case of telecom operator Vodafone attracting more subscriber base despite facing on online backlash for wrongly promoting its 3G services a few months ago… Even celebrities – who come under flak more often than not, often emerge victorious after a few days of bashing by the media et al (Shiney Ahuja being the most classic example of them all).

     

    “Crisis PR is a super specialised function that needs a certain attitude of being able to partner with clients during such demanding situations. It is a combination of expertise, experience and above all a dependable team that can make good on its advice and planning. The agency believes that the testing time of a crisis is the best time to showcase the agency’s capabilities, reach out and stand by the client at the crucial time. A well managed crisis situation will go a long way in forging relationships and improve the agency’s acceptability and utility amongst the clients at the top level which is relatively lower in routine times” said Venkatesh Somayaji, who heads Crisis 24X7, a specialist crisis communications unit of Adfactors PR.

     

    Asserted Ajay Sharma, “Anticipating the kinds of crisis that an individual or an organization may face, given the nature of the industry and the specific stakeholders/issues, crisis is an important part of planning for any client PR program. At Ketchum Sampark, we believe that Reputation Risk Management is as important as building reputations. Crisis communication if not handled effectively can ruin years of good work put into building reputations.”

     

    According to him, to meet up to the challenges organisations of today now work towards putting in a) crisis preparedness training among key managers at the head office and location levels b) crisis scenarios planning c) internal systems and processes to get early warning signs for crisis and d) proactive communication with media and other constituents to reduce speculation and any snowball impact.

     

    Varghese M Thomas, Director – Corporate Communications – India & SAARC, Research In Motion India Pvt. Ltd in fact goes to say that crisis communications is probably the most challenging part of this role and it keeps the adrenalin pumping, brings all your training and knowledge to the fore (sometimes exposing embarrassing gaps in your capabilities!) and has the ability to save businesses and reputations. He said, “As a professional, when you think of creating an impact, there is nothing like a crisis to test your mettle. But this is something we pray, that it doesn’t happen too frequently. There is always some learnings from such situations, it is important to keep your ears and eyes open to feedback and more importantly to ensure you learn from the past mistakes.”

     

    When asked on the need for his agency to float a new vertical for crisis management, Jaideep Shergill, CEO, Hanmer MSL said, “We’ve only now started calling it by a separate name. Actually we have been doing it for a long time. The reason we have decided to package it and launch it like this is because we see that the world is changing very quickly and crisis and issues is becoming an integral part of people’s and companies lives and futures. 10-15 years ago nobody cared as such when a crisis broke out as there was no social media – digital was largely undeveloped. So something would happen in the US and we in India wouldn’t know about it until later. But today the rate at which it spirals is a matter of concern.”

     

    Pascal Beucler

    Citing the emergence of digital and lack of trust as the core reasons for the surge in crisis PR, Mr Shergill remarked, “People don’t trust companies as much as they used to. So when there is a lack of trust, an issue or crisis can become much bigger.” According to Pascal Beucler, SVP & Chief Strategy Officer, MSL Group said that “it is mostly as a consequence of the Social Media revolution, I believe, as this is where it all starts, and spreads very fast. In recent cases we could see in Europe, it took only hours for a crisis to go mainstream media after having emerged on a blog or on a forum.” Echoing Mr Beucler’s sentiments, Ajay Sharma remarked, “An important factor is also the rapid growth of media, especially electronic and internet that picks up such issues more quickly than ever before and then transmits it across wider audiences almost in real time, creating a snowball impact. Such rapid transmission of news means that organizations frequently risk losing control of the opportunity to present the true picture and avoid any speculation.”

     

    On claims that doing PR in crisis situations could also mean hiding the wrongs of the client in concern, Mr Sharma replied, “No extent of crisis PR can defend the guilty, but effective crisis PR can certainly help an organization’s reputation not being damned as guilty even before it has a chance to state its side of the story.” Mr Shergill retorts that the best thing one can do is have a point of view. “If there is a negative sentiment floating around a company, it’s their job and that of the PR agency to correct that and give the right perspective or message. But that doesn’t mean that media or people can be gagged or stopped from writing; I don’t think that should be the approach.”

     

    And what about claims that agencies inflate their budgets to get the client out of their miseries? After all, a client would go the distance in splurging huge sums to be portrayed in a positive light or risk being shunned by the market and media. Says Mr Shergill, “I wouldn’t say that clients are over-charged; it’s just that we charge them the right amount of money. What happens is that because it’s a crisis, the PR agencies and clients are willing to invest more time in more people and more money because they have to make it work. I am not saying that they would be overcharged but that you will have to spend a certain amount of money or resources or people to make the crisis work in your favour.” Presenting a more scientific stance, Mr Sharma states, “Crisis PR needs resources with substantial experience in issues or crisis on hand, some of them even outsourced for the duration of the crisis. Costs of managing a crisis are significantly higher and hence the outlays on a crisis PR program are higher than usual client engagements.”

     

    On the future for crisis PR in India, Somayaji of Crisis 24×7 explained that Crisis PR is emerging as a strategic tool for clients to safeguard from uncertainties that are routine as well as unexpected and ward off actions of competitive forces. It is also gaining acceptance for providing competitive edge by bringing ability to address issues more effectively. “Eventually we foresee Crisis PR to become a critical partner to clients,” he concluded.

     

    What is clear is that crisis is no longer the prerogative of only the client – the victim of a circumstance. It’s now become the mandate for PR agencies to step into the shoes of the clients and do everything to rid them of their miseries. So what if a few egos are hurt and questions are raised on the ethics of the approach? So long as the damage is being plugged.

  • Truth be told, Radia only did her job. She may have been involved in murky negotiations, but all she did was ride an already corrupt and rotting political system.

    Hard Knocks: Radia was not the one to blame

    By Anil Thakraney

    Make no mistake about this: Niira Radia did no wrong. At least, technically she did no wrong. The seductress has announced her retirement from corporate PR, citing health and family reasons, but we all know better. No corporate suit would want to continue to use her organisation’s services post Radiagate.

    But truth be told, Radia only did her job. She may have been involved in murky negotiations, but all she did was ride an already corrupt and rotting political system. Exactly the way many of us bribe our way out of red-taped procedures, not because we are dishonest, but because the straight route is much too painful and time-consuming. So what exactly did Radia do? She aggressively lobbied for her clients, was proactive, cut deals, influenced ministerial berth allotments, won the goodwill of powerful journalists… pretty much all that a solid PR person ought to be doing. Her only guilt was that her methods were hard-edged and her objectives cut-throat, but that’s about it. She was handling mighty corporate accounts, and the demands must have been heavy.

    In short, Radia only pressed those buttons which work in this nation. In that context, terming the scandal ‘Radiagate’ is unfair in itself. Give me a Radia any day over those nice but ineffective PR people who sit back and issue press releases for a fat fee.

    The hard reality is that the actual culprits were the netas, the babus and the journalists who fell for her charms, compromised their positions, and were caught with their hands in the cookie jar. She tempted, they fell like nine pins. It is they who ought to have paid for their follies. And while some politicians are in jail, nothing happened to the journalists. For them, life goes on as if it was a minor career hiccup. The ‘gate’ ought to have been named after one of these worthies.

    Anyway… goodbye, Niira. You spend quality time with your family as the corporate world gets busy hiring expert press-release-issuing chicks.

     

    ***

     

    PS: So, Shakti Kapoor got kicked out of the Bigg Boss mad house. What a moron he is! The channel expected him to molest a few ladies (there are 13 in the house) and he ended up behaving like Mahatma Gandhi! Now I can believe the show isn’t scripted.

     

     

  • PR agents are often abrupt and rude. Indisciplined too, perhaps influenced by their bosses. And their egos massively inflated because they believe they ‘own’ the stars.

    Anil Thakraney’s Hard Knocks: A problem called film publicists

    Part of my work involves doing big, detailed interviews with movie stars. And meeting these mighties is often a tedious process. Interviews get cancelled at the nth hour, or the star will arrive hours late for a pre-arranged meet. And therefore instead of it being a routine story, the ritual turns into an exercise in testing one’s patience. Of keeping your cool. Most filmi journos, for whom actors and directors constitute a regular beat, have reconciled with the waiting game.

     

    Though I must mention that an interview with Amitabh Bachchan starts sharp at the appointed time. On the occasions I have met him, I never have had to twiddle my thumbs. So if the ultra-big and the ultra-busy Big B can be so disciplined, it makes you wonder about the younger stars. Perhaps they get some jollies out of making journalists wait? Or they are simply disorganized folks, and haven’t been brought up to value other people’s time.

     

    And what makes things worse is the role played by the star’s PR agent or Publicist (or whatever fancy title they’ve acquired these days). Except for very few senior agents, who are a little more professional, I have often had rotten experiences with these front men and women. The job of representing movie stars (and close proximity to them) seems to give these people a false sense of self-importance. And the boom in the media, which also means a boom in celeb journalism, has resulted in too many journos chasing these PR agents with interview requests. And this has made the fronters feel even more powerful.

     

    The PR agents are often abrupt and rude. Indisciplined too, perhaps influenced by their bosses. And their egos massively inflated because they believe they ‘own’ the stars. As journalists, most of us have learnt to live with these ‘obstacles’ enroute to meeting the actors. Some junior reporters even indulge them, so that interview requests don’t get turned down, and gossip about rivals keeps pouring in. And the show goes on, as it should.

     

    But a few of them have gotten so drunk on their access to celebrity, they refuse to leave the room even AFTER the interview begins. They continue to hover around like a nasty presence, like ghoulish shadows. Completely ignoring a basic principle of journalism: That the best interviews (at least for the print medium) happen one-on-one, and it’s in their interest if the discussion with their bosses is insightful and meaningful. I have had PR agents politely evicted from rooms, but some die-hards still won’t get it. They’ll hang around despite being ticked off.

     

    I hope one day we see some degree of professionalism come into this job. So that meetings with film stars can be a joyful ride. And not a pain in the you-know-where, which it often is.

     

    ***

     

    PS: My best film interviews, in my own judgment, have so far been with Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan… in both cases there was no middle person involved. And with Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor, because their agents were wise enough to leave us alone.

  • FirstRand Bank (FRB), South Africa has called for a creative, media and PR pitch. Industry sources close to the development have confirmed the news to MxM India.

    FirstRand Bank calls for creative, media and PR pitch

    By Shubhangi Mehta

    FirstRand Bank (FRB) has called for a creative, media and PR pitch. The overall account size is estimated to be around Rs 10 crore.

    FirstRand Bank India is a branch of FirstRand Banking Group South Africa. FirstRand Bank, a pre-eminent financial services group in Africa is the first bank from the African continent to be granted a full scale commercial banking license in India. FirstRand has commenced its banking operations in India since April 2009 and currently has one branch set up in Mumbai.

    With a history dating back to 1838, FirstRand is a fully integrated financial services group and one of the big four South African retail, commercial and investment banks. Through its ownerships of brands like First National Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, Momentum and Wesbank, the group operates in almost every area of the financial services arena.

    The group has representation elsewhere in Africa, including Nigeria, as well as the United Kingdom, Dubai, Australia and China, and now more recently in India.As part of its international expansion strategy, FirstRand has identified India as a key market for future economic growth and set up its Representative Office in Mumbai, India in January 2008. A year later, it received its banking license, becoming the first South African bank to open a branch in India. FirstRand India currently has an office in Mumbai.