Exchange4Media PR and Corporate Communication Conference & Awards 2014

Challenges of PR & Corporate Communication in Changing Time

                                                                                                       - Pradeep Gupta

Anurag Batra kickstarted the event

Sachin Kalbag delivering Key Note Address 

   Exchange4media India is giving away PR and Corporate Communications Awards from last 4 years. Apart from giving awards they also do PR and Conference raising issues relating to PR and Corporate Communication. The event  held on October 17, 2014 at the Trident, BKC, Mumbai. The best in the industry were  honored for their outstanding work in the year gone by.

 The theme of the conference was ‘PR 2015’ Are we ready?”. Luminaries from the field of PR, journalism and corporate communications shared their thoughts on what is needed for the PR industry to thrive in the coming year.

Anurag Batra, Chairman of the group kick started the tone and tenor of conference, stressed the need to talk about issues related to PR and CorCom and also recognizing, honoring best in the industry.

 Sachin Kalbag, Editor of Mid-Day in his key note address stressed upon the art of story telling for effective communication. In a lighter vain he admitted that his knowledge of the PR industry was not great and he had not wisdom or ‘gyaan’ to share with the wise audience. “It is a classic tactic of a speaker who has nothing much to add to tell a story,” he quipped. Kalbag then gave the example of his grandmother and the stories she used to tell him as a child; stories, he said, which changed with every telling and which he still remembers after all these years.

According to him, the key was great storytelling. “As communications professionals, we have forgotten how to tell stories. Before we talk about whether the communications industry is ready for 2015, let us ask ourselves whether we are ready with great storytellers. Can we use technology to tell better stories?,” he said.

He also pointed out that the internet has overtaken print as the favourite medium for advertisers in the M&E space and he hazarded the guess that in five years, it might even overtake TV. However, he opined, that this does not necessarily mean that the story telling process needs to change. Touching on the social media wave taking over the globe, Kalbag said, “As a client I want stories, not social media campaigns.” His point was that great content always delivers, irrespective of the medium used.

He termed the emergence of new technologies the DSLR effect - the fact that people buy expensive cameras but cannot visualize photographs. “Any great photographer will tell you that good photographs are created in the mind and not by the camera. We have sacrificed our imagination on the altar of technology and this is true with both journalism and communications professionals,” he said.

Talking about 2015, he opined that the challenges will remain the same; what will change is the pecking order of content delivery, news delivery and communications delivery. “Increasingly, TV channels create # to trend on Twitter and to create discussions. We have seen how people use Photoshop to spread doctored images, which are not true. The PR industry has a great opportunity in these new times,” said Kalbag.

Kalbag shared his concern about how one can deliver content to readers. “If a 75 year old can adapt why we can’t? I think it can be done but we need to think about it,” he noted. Pointing out to the mathematical concept of ‘necessary but not sufficient condition’, he said that all storytellers need to have the necessary tools to tell great stories.

Group Discussion in the progress

The main panel discussion for the day was on the topic ‘The evolving world vis a vis The Conventional PR’. Venkat Mallik, President & Head RAPP India moderated the discussion, and joining him in the panel were Madan Bahal, MD, Adfactors PR , Paresh Chaudhry, CEO, Madison PR, while from the brand side were Roma Balwani, President, Group Communications Sustainability & CSR, Vedanta Group and Sudeep Narayan, Marketing & PR Director, Volvo Auto India.

The main points which the discussion highlighted were the relationship between the PR agency and the brand in today’s day and age, the talent pool in the PR agencies today and need for PR agencies to bring more creativity to the client. Balwani started with talking about becoming a communicator to becoming a strategist on communications sustainability and CSR. She said that roles are something that a communicator should be looking at closely. “It’s not all about an issue, it’s all about how would that create that partnership. How it (PR) can work in an environment which is so cluttered and information led and how do you be smarter,” she said.

She further talked about the partnership between the PR and Brand which she said is become very relevant and important in today’s context. She talks about India which has 65% of youth population and questions how many are addressing this population. “With this kind of context the client and the advisory firm (PR firm) becomes even more complex. Your advisory firm must believe core purpose and does not understand your narrative. Each organization has a narrative and story, I think the advisory firms need to understand that they are not just somebody on the other side. They have to understand the brand and the narrative of the brand and help them develop that narrative. I will not be comfortable with an advisory firm who just comes and says this is what we offer and these are our strengths. Every good advisory firm can do that, how is it different? How do we look at it together working towards creating brand respect?,” she said.

Chaudhry further says that the word called PR is considered as a dirty word in this country. He further says that PR agencies are not putting their mind were their heart is. He went to say that brands on the other hand are not putting money into research where it is really needed, than saying that they are putting money in all the mediums of communication. “The fact is we are on the ground telling them about the trend, competition, brands, etc.,” he said.

Bahal however said that there isn’t a divide between the agency and the client relationship. He speaks about how the agencies are trying to navigate the growth of the brand. In crisis situations there are expectations from both sides but there is not conflict between the two. In fact it is the expectations of the clients that actually help PR agencies evolve, he added.

Narayan said that they have a lot to gain from the agency side. “We see agencies as a partner that tells us what the best trends are. They are involved in strategic discussions, involved in research. What I think for us to look at them should not be PR people but brand managers,” he said. He further spoke on how PR has been used innovatively to benefit brand. For instance he spoke at how he feels that Chetan Bhagat and producers of 3 Idiots were a PR exercise that was in fact helping both the parties through the controversy.

Madan further highlighted the point that there is lack of rigor in PR agencies. There is a need for the agencies to know the client completely in terms of their market and what the brand is dealing with. He said that PR has now come to templates and formats where press releases are filed instantly and that there is lack of thought in creating good stories. He further added that PR industry needs to get rid of this notion of self defeatism which currently exists. There is a need for self confidence to be instilled in the industry.

Chaudhry on the other hand spoke about how the PR workforce should learn to stand up and not take negativity from either clients or journalist. They have to learn to be more assertive and put their point across.

Balwani brought about the topic of talent in the PR industry and that they do not know much about the client and how they lack knowledge of business communication imperatives. They need to make the brand relevant in today’s world and for this it is important to know about the narrative of the brand. This could be a good debate in case the focus would be on future challenges rather than agency client issues.

But overall the discussion confined mainly to the client agency related issues rather than talking about the future challenges.