PR Next June, 2009

PR Next June 2009

Dear Friends,

We proudly present to you the June issue of PR Next, the favourite eZine on your chosen profession. With this third issue of PR Next we bring to you highly valuable insights from some of the experienced professionals in the industry.

Going forward we promise to add immense value to your very own eZine with every new issue.

Along with the insightful thoughts from our regular columnists Amit Bapna, Richa Seth and Anuradha Kelkar, we have lined up some interesting interviews. Siva Ramamoorthy, Group Director Marketing, Tejas Networks in an exclusive interview with Anusuya Mitra talks about the importance of PR in the marketing mix. Ex Editor of Mid-Day Shishir Joshi talks to Vibhuti Agarwal about his opinion of PR professionals and industry in general.

We have also started a new column on Account Wins, this gives a short brief of accounts wins by PR agencies. This is important for each one of us to understand the movement of clients from one agency to another. I request all agencies professionals to send me releases on all account wins of your respective agencies on pr.vikram@gmail.com.

In our next issue we will get you some dope on what happened in Cannes with regards to Public Relations debut in Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Once again I am calling all members of IPRF to come ahead and contribute in bringing up this monthly eZine. I request you all to not only share ideas but also share how we could make these ideas work by taking ownership of making them work.

Best Regards

Vikram Kharvi
Editor
PR Next

Patrika completes one year in Madhya Pradesh

Patrika completes one year in

Madhya PradeshPatrika completes one year in

Madhya PradeshPatrika completes one year in

Madhya Pradesh

The Patrika Group celebrated its first anniversary in Madhya Pradesh last month. Patrika’s launch in Madhya Pradesh was a result of the long done research in Bhopal and Indore, which helped in bringing out a customized newspaper that people of Madhya Pradesh desired to read.

Patrika conducted a survey in Bhopal last year, touching more than 10,000 households. The major objectives included charting out readers’ preference, expectations, locate dissatisfaction areas and create brand awareness. When asked, what kind of newspaper they wish to have for their city, more than 90% of respondents opted for 20-22 paged newspapers at Rs.1.50. This intensive survey proved to be a major guiding tool for the launch.

In its expansion spree, Patrika took up another promising venture in Madhya Pradesh, starting with Bhopal and Indore. The newspapers soon changed the market proposition and became popular in both the cities.

Bhuvnesh Jain Deputy Editor, Patrika Group, said in the press release, “Patrika has always been known for its credible journalism and excellent editorial content. We maintained the same in Madhya Pradesh also and as a result, Patrika has been a hit among readers. People of MP agree that other newspapers of MP had to improve their quality after advent of Patrika in MP, which evidences the ace quality editorial.”

T3 magazine re-launches with fresh look

T3, the gadget lifestyle magazine from Infomedia 18 Ltd, has launched its new-look issue this month.

On the occasion of the release of the redesigned issue, Deepak Dhingra, executive editor, T3, said, “T3 has always been a classy magazine, and everything that we cover  from the gizmos to the girls, needs to confirm to what we internally refer to as the T3 Style. The redesign takes that several notches higher and builds upon the premium look of the magazine. Not only that, it also significantly enhances the information we are able to provide to our dear readers.”

T3 is brought out in partnership between Future Publishing Ltd, UK, and Infomedia 18 Ltd. The UK-based magazine had undergone a change, which made it mandatory for the Indian edition to follow suit, as they have 40 per cent of content from the UK.

The magazine starts with a section, called Radar, that covers what’s new from the world of gizmos, automobiles, watches and other products relevant to the magazine’s target audience. It also includes 360-degree reviews for hot gadgets.

Radar is complemented by new sections like Play, Pulse, Home and Work each with a specific objective of its own. While Play covers everything on games and entertainment, Pulse features the latest in cars and all outdoor stuff. Work presents gadgets that help readers become more productive, while Home covers the best of home appliances.

Another new addition is the Big Feature, a detailed eight-page article that covers a new topic in detail each month. The famous T3 girls, exclusive reviews, and decisive verdicts are still there in the core content of the magazine.

T3, the gadget lifestyle magazine from Infomedia 18 Ltd, has launched its new-look issue this month.

On the occasion of the release of the redesigned issue, Deepak Dhingra, executive editor, T3, said, “T3 has always been a classy magazine, and everything that we cover  from the gizmos to the girls, needs to confirm to what we internally refer to as the T3 Style. The redesign takes that several notches higher and builds upon the premium look of the magazine. Not only that, it also significantly enhances the information we are able to provide to our dear readers.”

T3 is brought out in partnership between Future Publishing Ltd, UK, and Infomedia 18 Ltd. The UK-based magazine had undergone a change, which made it mandatory for the Indian edition to follow suit, as they have 40 per cent of content from the UK.

The magazine starts with a section, called Radar, that covers what’s new from the world of gizmos, automobiles, watches and other products relevant to the magazine’s target audience. It also includes 360-degree reviews for hot gadgets.

Radar is complemented by new sections like Play, Pulse, Home and Work each with a specific objective of its own. While Play covers everything on games and entertainment, Pulse features the latest in cars and all outdoor stuff. Work presents gadgets that help readers become more productive, while Home covers the best of home appliances.

Another new addition is the Big Feature, a detailed eight-page article that covers a new topic in detail each month. The famous T3 girls, exclusive reviews, and decisive verdicts are still there in the core content of the magazine.

PR arrives at Cannes

ublic relations is finally being honored with its own award category at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. After years of watching the advertising world live it up at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, PR professionals now have their own entree to the famed Croisette, thanks to the inclusion of a PR category at the 56th annual event this year.

The inaugural PR Lions will see the sector take its place alongside the various advertising disciplines already honored, with awards for film, press, outdoor, media, radio, direct, promo, cyber, design and integrated. A special Titanium Lion celebrates ‘breakthrough ideas’.

The event, which is scheduled between 21 to 27 June, will give PR professionals a chance to rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in the marketing world. June 22nd will be the day for PR awards. Each day will be brimming with seminars, workshops, master classes and exhibitions.

For PR agencies, there are some compelling reasons for taking part in the festival. Cannes’ ability to attract senior client-side marketing executives is well known and remains a draw. With clients increasingly looking to integrate their advertising and PR activity, Cannes offers agencies the opportunity to start leading the creative process and win more business.

By making sure that clients see award-winning PR work, PR community hopes they will divert below-the-line budget towards the PR agency rather than the creative shop.

Cannes has attracted more than 400 PR entries from around the world, including 60 from the UK. The numbers represent a healthy tally, particularly in such a tough economic environment. It is also worth bearing in mind that attending Cannes is not exactly a low-cost affair.

PR’s inclusion at Cannes is yet another sign of its increasing recognition and importance within the marketing community. In an environment where clients are looking for the best ideas, regardless of their provenance, the onus is on PR agencies to prove they can swim with the biggest fish.

The entries will be judged on their merits, with particular regard to idea generation, and hopefully the jury will make the awards with particular regard to creativity. This is important because Cannes is all about creativity. It is also long overdue that public relations work should be celebrated in the same way that advertising always has been.

Public relations is finally being honored with its own award category at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. After years of watching the advertising world live it up at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, PR professionals now have their own entree to the famed Croisette, thanks to the inclusion of a PR category at the 56th annual event this year.

The inaugural PR Lions will see the sector take its place alongside the various advertising disciplines already honored, with awards for film, press, outdoor, media, radio, direct, promo, cyber, design and integrated. A special Titanium Lion celebrates ‘breakthrough ideas’.

The event, which is scheduled between 21 to 27 June, will give PR professionals a chance to rub shoulders with some of the biggest names in the marketing world. June 22nd will be the day for PR awards. Each day will be brimming with seminars, workshops, master classes and exhibitions.

For PR agencies, there are some compelling reasons for taking part in the festival. Cannes’ ability to attract senior client-side marketing executives is well known and remains a draw. With clients increasingly looking to integrate their advertising and PR activity, Cannes offers agencies the opportunity to start leading the creative process and win more business.

By making sure that clients see award-winning PR work, PR community hopes they will divert below-the-line budget towards the PR agency rather than the creative shop.

Cannes has attracted more than 400 PR entries from around the world, including 60 from the UK. The numbers represent a healthy tally, particularly in such a tough economic environment. It is also worth bearing in mind that attending Cannes is not exactly a low-cost affair.

PR’s inclusion at Cannes is yet another sign of its increasing recognition and importance within the marketing community. In an environment where clients are looking for the best ideas, regardless of their provenance, the onus is on PR agencies to prove they can swim with the biggest fish.

The entries will be judged on their merits, with particular regard to idea generation, and hopefully the jury will make the awards with particular regard to creativity. This is important because Cannes is all about creativity. It is also long overdue that public relations work should be celebrated in the same way that advertising always has been.

Slog for that blog!

By Anuradha Kelkar

Let me tell you a story that you might find familiar. One day you wake up to realise that the world around you is blogging and you don’t have the slightest clue as to what it is all about. An Internet search throws up only a million searches on how blogging is the latest phenomenon and just about the simplest thing since writing letters. Most blogging software’s are free and soon enough you have in place a pretty looking blog with your first post ready to be read. So far so good. Then comes the twist in the tale. No one wants to read your pretty blog. Any why is that so? Well, coz it happens to be just one among the 36 million other blogs already existing in the cyberspace.

The point I am trying to make is that it’s best not to listen to anyone who says ‘oh! Blogging is so simple, you know…just keep updating your blog every week and you can make truckloads of money off it.’ While both statements are in fact correct, I would not quite put it like that.

Its easy to lose relevance in the online jungle, especially if your posts are not interesting and catchy enough. Sometimes it so happens that your posts are excellent and yet nobody reads them. This is because its not enough to just write a blog, update it each week and expect readers to show up. Just like any project at college, the good grades come in only when the research is in place and sufficient time has been devoted to sculpting a masterpiece out of it.

Most professional bloggers spend anything between 12- 14 hours a day just reading others blogs and RSS feeds to get a good idea of what their followers are interested in reading about. Commenting on someone else’s blog is also a good way of engaging interested readers in a conversation. It would also be a great idea to include the blog in ones email signature, visiting card and Facebook profile to ensure that nobody forgets what you have to say.

This groundwork in place is essential for each blogger to remember that there is always some new phenomenon waiting to happen. Keeping ones readership intact has to be a combination of a choice of good keywords which will show up easily on search engines, coupled with catchy posts, good links (especially to other blogs which have been inspiring and newsworthy articles) and tags. URL trackbacks is also a great feature that helps readers to revert to all those blogposts that have been quoted and hyperlinked in a particular blog.

A well-written blog can also act as the face of an organisation that otherwise seems impregnable. It shows that the company has a point to make and that it is liberal enough to give the employees a certain amount of creative space. Also, it brings about a certain assured transparency in the system making it easy for stakeholders to put faith in that company. Everybody wants to know about the guy behind the scene and blogs are a great way to showcase the thought process that makes the company run.

In India, however, corporate blogging still has a long way to go. Even tough companies like Tata, Infosys and Accenture are doing a good job out of it, most mid sized companies still look at blogging as an unnecessary addition to workload. For the full benefits of blogging to be realised more and more mid sized companies need to change their outlook and adapt to blogging as the new age way to communicate. At least then communication will be looked at as recession proof in India.

Why you shouldn’t do your own Editing

By Richa Seth

The last time you wrote a press release; didn’t it make you mad when – after checks and double-checks – someone pointed out the error you should’ve spotted before you printed 50 of the bleeding thing?

This happens most of the time to me, after drafting the release and re-checking it more than twice I send it to my senior colleague for approval. This is when I feel disgusted about myself, when my boss points our silly mistakes that could have been easily avoided. Sometimes I feel he suffers from some kind of reverse dyslexia, where mistakes come out of the document and dance in front of him.

By this time if you have started agreeing with me, then let me take this opportunity to introduce you to the world of ‘Neuro Autocorrect’, where your brain fixes your mistakes so you don’t see them. Here’s how it happens, why it happens, but more important, what you can do about it.

Poor reflections

First off, you probably agree that publishing poorly edited copy (or copy that hasn’t been edited at all) reflects extremely badly on the organization which is responsible for it. How many times have you seen a mistake in the newspaper, an ad, an annual report, a sales letter or on the back of a bus?

Your expertise

Secondly, you might or will also agree that your clients and customers should feel a) that they’re getting value for money and b) that you know exactly what you’re doing – otherwise you wouldn’t be writing stuff and you certainly wouldn’t be taking the time to check it. You’d be having a cappuccino instead.

Neuro Autocorrect

But the unfortunate reality is that your closeness to your writing tends to blind you to its flaws – and sometimes, to autocorrect it. The UK-based Society for Editors and Proofreaders explains the phenomenon: “You hold the whole text in your mind, and you’ve developed its ideas in sequence right to its conclusion. You can’t now put yourself in the reader’s place by somehow ‘unknowing’ any of this.”

The cold, fresh eye

In short, you know what you meant to write, so your eyes just fill in the gaps, miss the typos, etc. No matter how many times you check it, your brain interprets what it wants or expects to read, not what is actually there. So while you may have all of the skills to deal with the editorial functions, you lack the cold, fresh eye that a copy editor can bring to your work, and this is what leads to mistakes creeping in.

You’re too close

A copy editor is also sufficiently detached from the writing process to spot the mistakes and inconsistencies that distract the reader. After all, when we’re too close to things, we don’t see them clearly – which can be interesting in our personal lives but is hazardous for the editing process.

The solution?

You may not have the relevant editorial skills. This isn’t a failure on your part  no doubt it is your job to be able to clarify meaning; eliminate unnecessary jargon; polish language by editing which should be done for grammar, usage, spelling, punctuation and other mechanics of style; or check for consistency of internal structure. But there are wonderful nerds sitting free in your office, go to them and request them to check the copy for you, ofcourse in the meantime you can make coffee for them. Believe me they will do it willingly and do it well. That’s the first step, once you have got an external help, please read the copy aloud to yourself and see if that makes sense to you finally. If yes, press the send button.

Meet the Media – Shishir Joshi, Mid-Day

Vibhuti Agarwal in an in an exclusive interview with Shishir joshi, Ex Editor with Mid  Day, explores a journalists’ opinion about role play of PR in journalism

1. What are your views about the PR fraternity?

It is a highly misinterpreted group of professionals. One because of an absence of understanding by the editorial in an organization, two, by their (pr fraternity) own undoing and three, by absence of adequate training/mentoring at the foundation and mid career level.

2. How useful / helpful are they to you as a source of information?

It is almost like a parallel arm of any news organization. A journalist can work faster and more smartly, if he learns to organize his PR networking appropriately. Similarly, a PR professional can get his/her story across ON MERIT if he/she starts understanding how a news organization functions, networks better and starts thinking like a journalist.

3. What is it that you expect when interacting with a PR professional?

a. Do your homework. Do it well.

b. Network. Not just in times of crisis. This is your bread and butter.

c. Understand the working and life of a journalist. And the organization.

d. Play the role of an interface between the client and journalist.

e. Do not mislead/over promise either of the two.

f. Do not resort to unethical means (bribes) to get your story across. Even if asked for. A story should appear/and should be passed to an organization, ON MERIT.

5. What is it that the PR professionals need to improve on to meet journalists’ expectations and strengthen the professional bond?

I think if points mentioned in question three are followed, life would be simpler. Having said that, yes, it is always, or often the contention of the PR executive that journalists do not treat them well or are too arrogant.

My advice is, let us CHANGE first. Then we have a right to point a finger at others. Also, signing of, I would request PR professionals to remain updated with names and people movements.

I still get calls from executives (of eminent PR firms) telling me they have sent a mail on my Aaj Tak mail id (an organization I left in 2007 and subsequently I spent sixteen months with Mid Day).

Hence, to sum up, and hoping at least all those who read this piece. I am no longer with Mid Day as the Group Editorial Director.

I have taken up teaching. Have set up a Journalism Mentorship programme for students and can be reached on shishirj@journalismmentor.in. The link is www.journalismmentor.in

Interview with Siva Ramamoorthy, Group Director-Marketing, Tejas Networks

Anusuya Mitra in an exclusive interview with Mr. Siva Ramamoorthy, Group Director Marketing, Tejas Networks shares with us his thoughts about the importance of PR in marketing mix

1) What according to you is PR and where is this industry in India headed?

PR provides a set of tools and reach for organizations to reach out to a broader audience and a broader set of stakeholders. With the age of Social Networking, we live in an age of co creation of knowledge and products. Companies are seeking to work much more closely with external stakeholders than ever before. PR plays a key role in providing the brand cover or the pull that enables a company to work well with its external stake holders.

The PR industry in India is headed for a very rapid growth. Apart from macro economic reasons such as the relative fast pace growth of the Indian economy, the growth in quality press along with growth in both horizontal multi segmented coverage as well as growth in specific vertical coverage is a key driver for the industry.

2) How important do you think is PR for any organization? Comment on the role of PR for Tejas Networks?

PR is a strategic lever for any organization and one of the vital elements of its branding strategy and integrated marketing campaigns. Quality PR enables an organization to reach out to its stake holders: the public, future employees, customers, opinion makers and thought leaders.

Tejas Networks is unique in being a IP based product company out of India. Hence, the rarity factor is high and it becomes particularly important to reach out to a larger audience and articulate the value not just of Tejas Networks and our products and services but also the importance of IP / innovation and creating large value chains and IP based ecosystems from India.

3) What is the ideal percentage of PR in the marketing mix? PR vs. advertising: please comment.

There is no ideal percentage of the various elements in a marketing mix. However, one essential ingredient of all programs in a marketing mix is consistency and uniformity. In building a brand, nourishing a brand and growing a brand, a very essential element is consistent uniform messaging and touch points which espouses the values which your company stands for.

An integrated marketing campaign has a variety of programs – both internally and externally facing. PR is an essential glue which fits in and horizontally supports many of these programs by providing the broad air cover that is needed for these to be successful.

With the advent of the Internet, the world of advertising has changed significantly. With tools such as blogs and postings in news groups, viral marketing has become a very large element of reaching out to customers. As such the lines between earlier tools such as PR, Advertising, Promotions have all blurred. However, I firmly believe the essential value propositions remain the same: Consistency, Uniformity, Innovation. Depth and breadth of reach are the key elements in such as a reach out strategy.

4) Out of marketing and PR, which would you say has more impact/output in promoting the messaging/branding of the company?

We are in the world of marketing in a Web 2.0 world which is very much an integrated marketing approach. Companies are being very fast in creating their new products and services and are inviting their customers to participate more and more in co creating products and services. Companies are using a variety of tools – Branding, PR, Corporate Communications, Internet Advertising, Viral Marketing, Social Networks, Product Launches – and integrating all their communications through all these tools to deliver a consistent and homogeneous message.

5) What are your expectations from PR?

I would expect PR to play a vital role in enabling a company’s messaging and uniqueness to be heard. Smarter companies are seeking to work more and more closely with customers than ever before. A look around various industries will reveal several Web ecosystems around a company in many industries – Sun Silk Gang of Girls, Kraft first taste, Red Bull – apart from the usual suspects in the computing industry. PR is obviously a very vital tool for a company to make such external links happen.

6) Challenges of PR as a profession?

As a career, PR is very challenging. To begin with, you would need to understand a very wide variety of people with very different information backgrounds. You would need to be able to relate to such a broad range of very smart people. Every company has uniqueness in corporate messaging, and it’s vital to understand that in great depth and provide a trusted advisor relationship with your customers. As a trusted advisor/consultant, you will play a key role in developing the companies PR approach, its strategy and do’s and don’t’s.

PR is a very exciting profession as it lets you meet a very broad set of people and learn. In our industry, life long learning is key and PR as a career provides you the opportunities to do so.

Who can be a PR Pro?

… Vikram Kharvi

A year ago a communications professional decided to do a short survey on the importance of PR professionals in the eyes of top corporate bosses. He did it by asking one simple question to over 500 professionals via a professional networking portal, the question was “Does the PR executives in your organization have valuable knowledge that you don’t have?”

51per cent said they either disagreed or strongly disagreed with that statement. Of those polled, 19 per cent represented corporate owners, upper level executives and management, and of that number, between 25-38 per cent “strongly disagreed” with the notion that their PR people knew something they didn’t.

What may be the reason for this? We in PR have been hearing for years that the days of PR people being considered glorified corporate doorstops were over. PR had finally earned its value in the communications industry. Wealthiest-geek-in-the-world, Bill Gates, said if he had only one dollar to spend, he’d spend it on public relations. Corporate presidents are welcoming PR people into the boardroom, their input is now greatly valued as more and more corporates have become aware of the incredible power of media and how it can make or break an institution. Even the recently conducted survey by a leading PR agency claimed that over 58 per cent of the global corporate communication officers now report to CEOs.

It is true that PR has made some big strides. In my own experience, I’ve been lucky to work for companies that have insightful, forward-thinking leadership that appreciate and recognize public relations as an important tool of communication.

But still the fact remains that many CEOs do not give much impetus to their PR people. With the global meltdown encompassing the entire economy, businesses decided to cut costs and the first ones to come under hammer were advertising, marketing and along with them even Public Relations. Only few corporates realize the importance of public relations in the times of financial crisis.

And why is that? If Edward Bernays, the “Father of Modern Public Relations,” was alive today, he might say it is because there is no required certification for public relations practitioners, unlike lawyers, doctors and other well respected professionals. Technically, anyone can practice PR and do, from call center executives to anyone who thinks for himself that he is a good communicator, people are “committing PR without a license.”

Part of the problem is, so many people don’t know what public relations truly is. If you go by how PR people are portrayed in TV and movies, you’d think PR is the practice of putting “positive spin” over negative doings, is without ethics and typically the province of marginal human beings who leave a slime trail behind them when they walk. Our very own Bollywood movies depict the similar picture, the recent one being ‘Laga Chunari Mein Daag’ in which Rani Mukherjee calls herself a PR professional, while playing a character of an escort. On the other hand a Hollywood movie HANCOCK, which at least offered a somewhat more sensitive and realistic depiction with Jason Bateman playing a PR man who takes bad guy superhero Hancock under his wing to improve his image, inside and out.

In the days of bloom, you’d see job openings in the newspapers for “public relations executives” that were nothing more than tele-marketing. PR seems to be one of those professions where people with ZERO experience in the field think they can just “wing,” right off the street. I recall few months back I had met a PR executive who was earlier, a telephone operator in one of the accountancy firm. I mean, does anyone walk into a hospital and say, “I think I’ll be a doctor today! Yeah, wanna give this whole surgery thing a whirl!”

So, are we fighting ignorance and stereotypes? Still, nothing sells like experience. It really doesn’t matter what profession you are in, corporate management isn’t going to put much faith in you until you prove you can pull your weight. You get the CEO on the cover of a widely circulated business magazine, you make a suggestion that helps keep your company out of a major media mess, your stock will rise, and sharp execs and VPs WILL listen.

Account Wins for June 2009

Blue Lotus bags Yash Birla Group PR Mandate

Blue Lotus Communications, has won a PR mandate for the Yash Birla Group, an INR 30 Billion conglomerate. With over 20 diversified companies, in sectors like Auto, Engineering, Textiles, Chemicals, Power and Electricals it has also diversified into the Wellness, Lifestyle, Education & IT sector. The group has 8 listed entities in the country.

Good Relations India wins PR mandate for beyond smiles & Get Through Guides

Good Relations India (GRI), has bagged two new accounts; beyond smiles, dental care centre and Get Through Guides (GTG), an organization which provides professional education in finance, management, and accounting.

beyond smiles is the first brand to bring in new concepts to the Indian market like state of the art dental experience, relaxed atmosphere with unique relaxation therapies, technologically advanced latest techniques, materials and equipments handled by highly qualified medical personnel, cleanliness & hygiene with international standards of sterilization.

GTG, a global publishing and training company, is the only organization in India to be Gold Certified by the ACCA, the world’s largest accounting body.

Hanmer MS&L awarded the PR mandate for Dr. Km Cherian’s Frontier Lifeline Hospital & Dr. K. M. Cherian Heart Foundation

Dr. K. M. Cherian’s Frontier LifeLine Hospital, a leading cardiac hospital in South India, has appointed Hanmer MS&L Communications Pvt. Ltd. to manage its Public Relations mandate. Over the last 5 years Frontier Lifeline & Dr. K. M. Cherian Heart Foundation has been dispensing cardiac treatment and care for patients globally.