Product launches are going through a major transitions

In any PR agency - clients product launches cause the maximum stress to everyone in the the team - teams work from scratch to get everything right - starting from the launch concept to working with the event agency and the marketing teams to create the whole drama around unveiling of the product, think of innovative media invites and media giveaways and then do the media follow ups - and all this is done to get media to not only cover the event but also believe and write about the USP of the product.

But things are changing if you look closely, companies following this traditional hard launch style gets their coverage in the form of snippets or at max gets pictures of the product with an eye candy standing next to the product. I don't even remember the last time any news paper carried the quote of the spokesperson from the press release.

Product launches are going through a major transitions - I remember product launches used to be highly guarded secrets - any leak about the launch of the product in the press before the actual launch would spell doom for the PR agency working on the account.

But this is where the change is happening - this is where PR doesn't really work the way it used to earlier. The ceremonial launch is rarely well received in the press and the claims are often seen with skepticism, and even cynicism. The fancy press kit doesn't work anymore.

So whats the most effective way to do a product launch - there are a variety of examples available -

Tech Products:

Lets take examples of tech product launch - today most companies share their products plans well in advance and actively use blogs and offline press to share the vision, the challenges they are facing and what stage they are in and how do they think it will impact the market...this works far better than the ceremonial launch of just unveiling a fancy new product and then talk about all this - iPod, Nokia N series are great examples.

Automobile is another Industry which puts in a lot of effort in their launches - for example who is not looking forward to Toyota's small car, or the new hybrid engine technology which Mahindras are working on. Tata Nano is yet another great example - it was in the news for well over 2 years before we actually saw what it looked like...(Remember Bajaj also showcased their small car priced around 1.5 lakhs but it never got the coverage - because it was seen as a me too and nobody knew that Bajaj was actually planning to launch a small car)

Movies......I think some of the smartest marketers are now in bollywood..they start promoting movies from the day the script and star cast is finalised..they do a great job of creating anticipation and building the buzz before it is premiered to select few media & guests .

So essentially what has changed - if you want your product launches to be covered well - PR needs to start well in advance - there is no reason for you to keep it a big secret - build anticipation - build buzz around the product before it is launched.

Corporate or product blogs are great way to start - Imagine if Mahindras starts a blog on the new engine that they are working on and post all the updates on this blog - it will be far more effective. The consumers or editors will believe a blog more than a press release.

In such a scenario the definition of what a launch is—when it begins and ends, and who should be saying what to whom and when—have all become blurry. PR agencies need to really think fresh and out of the box and use all possible mediums including social media and not follow the standard format of product launches . Clients need to take greater responsibility because today - the communication strategy should be finalised immediately after the product plan has been finalised or atleast when the product is 60% to 70% complete.

If you manage to really build good genuine buzz around your product before its launches - the ceremonial launch will be covered really well and chances are that the TG will believe the claims too.

Are you managing your Corporate and Brand Related properties on Social networks

If you are an active user of any of the popular social networking sites like Facebook or Orkut or Ning or Linkedin- then you must have come across a variety of Corporate or Brand related groups/fan page/or a social network on Ning. I remember coming across some of them on Facebook, Linkedin and Ning and also joined some of them, just like that for no rparticular reason or probably because of the buzz around the campaign.

But my question is where are they headed - to me they just seem like some ghost networks abandoned by their owners - as there is absolutely no community engagement or activity on these groups - nobody seems to be managing them. So why do brands or corporates really create them or is it work of the brand team which in its efforts to promote the campaign creates a group just to get some action around their campaigns and once the campaign is over they just don't seem to bother about it.

Just to do a little a research on this, I casually discussed this whole obsession with creating groups on the social networks with some of my friends in marketing and the answers I got were pretty surprising.sample this:

"Arey my boss wanted us to do something on social networking sites - so we just created some groups across the networking sites...."

I also found out that some of the over enthusiastic PR people also create these groups and networks for their clients to promote their clients campaigns - just to show how they are optimising the opportunity on social media for their clients..and apparently the clients love it too.

But what happens after that, nobody seems to care and eventually they turn into a ghost network which I feel can actually back fire as the users join them expecting some sought of engagement/interaction with the brand or the corporate.

I think corporates should really think through their objectives before letting PR agencies or ad-agency create such networks on their own, because at the end of the day its a brand property on a social network and it matters. But whose responsibility is it?Just because the technology is available doesn't mean that one should blindly exploit it.

Are there any guidelines for creating brand properties on social networks? or can PR agencies play a role here.I think they absolutely can and should work towards making it as one their key offerings.

Interestingly there is also study which came out which said -Corporate Social Networks Are A Waste of Money -

Marshall Kirkpatrick has covered it really well please check it out...

Weekend @ Proto.in & Medianama launch & Mixer

Its good to be back in Bombay away from the sweltering heat of Delhi. I spent the weekend in Delhi attending Proto.in - the start up event and the Medianama launch and mixer - and it was quiet an experience.

I was attending Proto.in for the first time so I didn't really know what to expect but it turned out to be a good event with some very innovative start ups and VCs attending the event. I met some really enthusiastic start ups at Proto.in

I am capturing some pointers from the few sessions I managed to attend:

Mahesh Murthy:

• If you are not in the top two or three in a particular niche drop the idea - no point in trying to give a regional flavor especially if you are a platform -
  
• Quote of the day-'Youtube of India is youtube', 'Facebook of India is facebook' .....
• Don't follow trends - if you are reading about a particular trend in press - you can safely assume that the trend is dead - you wont get anywhere following the trend...
• Dont really look at advertising your products - advertising will not help - you dont need money to advertise - if you are not growing - then look at your product - invest in making it better
• He gave a pointer or two on how to get media attention for the startups
  

Kiruba Shankar:

Kiruba sessions are always interesting and fun - he spoke about the importance of blogging and sited examples of how a doctor friend of his used his blog to expand his business - it was simple typical kiruba session with a lot of interaction from the audience


Amit Ranjan - made an interesting presentation on Virality and how can one go about checking whether their products have the viral elements in it...(interestingly - this topic was also covered by someone at work when he returned after attending Graphing Social Patterns conference in US - nevertheless it was quiet informative and would definitely help a lot of start ups to really think through their product developments - he did mention that he will share his presentation on slideshare - but I havent seen till now (will plug it as soon as i find it online)

Medianama:

Is the new blog started by Nikhil Pahwa (earlier editor of content sutra) - its about news and analysis of digital media - it was an interesting event which started with a panel discussion on 'Surviving a Downturn' - the panelist expressed some great views - you can read all about it on the medianama itself...

AT the mixer I met Rajesh Lalwani from blogworks - who has started this really innovative pitch exchange kind of application called www.pitchh.com ...he said the basic idea is to make it like an exchange where marketers and agencies co-exists...so if you are a marketers - you can put up pitch brief and agencies can pitch for the business. Interesting concept indeed but i am not too sure if the big companies will be willing to give it a try.

This format used to work particularly well for project work in the IT services domain...where small companies used to list projects and indian start ups and SME IT companies used to pitch for it online, it worked really well for them but will it work in the media space.....well lets wait and watch..

Some things were amiss at proto.in - Mashable - one of the online media partners which was mentioned on the proto site - were missing and I didn't see any reportage of the event on mashable...

But all in all it was a weekend well-spent and even though I was there on work - I did manage to have a great time...

Kerala tourism to host a blogcamp in a Houseboat

Now this has to be one of the most innovative initiative ever undertaken by any state governments in India. Kerala Toursim (Govt. Of Kerala) will be hosting a blogcamp at Alapuzha in a Houseboat on 16th August 2008.


It's really amazing to see a Government body stepping forward to provide a platform to bloggers to get together for a first unconference to be held in kerala to promote blogging.

This is also being promoted as the first Unconference blogging event in the world to be hosted in a Houseboat.

This reminds me of an event which I did as part of one of the assignments for my client NCR way back in 2004. This was the time when ATMs were becoming really popular in India and Banks were opening up ATMs in teir 2 and teir 3 cities.

I remember - we launched the opening of India' first ATM on a Boat - for SBI. I remember taking ride on those 'Jhankar Boats' (these are large boats which ferry people and vehicles from one place to the other) - the launch was a big success and was covered across all national and local media.

And I can tell you - if all goes well this blogcamp will also get national coverage for their initiative.

So here is a cue - If you want to do something innovative in kerala - just do it on a boat and chances are that you will be the first ones to do it on a boat
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Entries Open for Asia Pacific PR Awards

The general view that I get from PR agency heads is that the work done in India by PR agencies is much superior than the work done by International agencies. So here is an opportunity to showcase some of the work/campaigns done by Agencies or Solo entrepreneurs and get accolades for their work...

Entries Open for Asia Pacific PR Awards:
Call for entries: July 2008
Entry deadline: 22 August 2008
Awards presentation: 20 November 2008

For those in the PR industry who believe that they are doing superlative work that ought to be recognised, the Asia Pacific PR Awards beckon. Entries are open upto Friday, 22 August 2008.

For more details on the Award, contact Iris Mui at +852 31751912 or email her at iris.mui@haymarketasia.com.

The entry kit is available on www.prawardsasia.com.

I wonder how many Indian agencies have participated in this before and won ?

Can PR agencies play the role of Marcom?

In the last 6-7 years or so, PR agencies in India have been on a roll with new businesses and most agencies today are handling more clients than they can possibly manage. In this scenario the biggest challenged faced by them is to gain scale and finding the right talent – so most of them are busy with just gaining scale and adopting processes and setting standards into their work processes to bring in efficiency.

On the other hand what has happened parallely is that the media itself has undergone a change and the consumers today are getting exposed to a variety of information from a variety of channel – leading to an extremely cluttered space.

In this scenario, the CEOs and Marketing heads are looking at immediate impact of ‘communications’ on their sales and businesses – mind you they do understand the importance of Public Relations and the benefits of managing the corporate reputation - but they are seen as long term objectives and PR is slow and can only work in long term – whereas the sales target are immediate objectives.

Most of the businesses are in an ongoing crisis (numbers) mode – which ad-agencies understand and PR agencies don’t or they choose not to as it is not their concern – it’s the marketing teams’ problem.

It is this philosophy of the PR agencies which makes many corporates/clients to look at PR as pure press relations or executioners rather than consultants.

CEOs look at Marketing communication on the whole to drive business objectives - which is nothing but amalgamation of advertising, events, contests, PR, road shows, seminars, brand properties etc..

And this is the opportunity which the Ad agencies and event management agencies are leveraging to their advantage – unfortunately it is the PR professionals who get caught off guard and are called at the last minute to get coverage in press for their initiatives/campaign – and then the team has to oblige because of the pressure of retaining the business.

This has lead to several PR professionals feeling a little confused about what is the role of PR?

The problem here is two folds –

• Though the heads of big PR agencies are thinking in the direction of marketing communications as a way of increasing their retainers– they are not really defining the deliverables upfront – they often say by the way we can also do a college activation program for you – which means nothing to the client and they don’t know what to expect from the PR agency on that front
• Secondly, since the agency heads have no clear definitions – the employees of the firm are only groomed and trained to deliver on the basic essential and deliverables of the PR. They are always caught off guard because at some meeting their CEO committed to do a certain project for the client - for which the employees have absolutely no experience on – resulting in PR professional doing odd-jobs with no clear cut idea of how to go about it

What makes the CEO commit to such deliverables to the client – because some team somewhere in the agency thought through a real business problem and discussed a campaign and executed it really well in close coordination with the marketing team – this makes the CEO think that every team should be doing it

There are a few agencies that have a very clear cut well defined scope of work – and charge the clients by the number of hours spent – and a lot of PR professional feel good about it as they have the power to say no to the client when called into to do an odd job.

But are they really doing enough for their client businesses? – I don’t think so – PR professionals needs to start thinking business – get a grip on the clients business environment - they should see the targets – they need to act as consultants - they should design campaigns along with marketing teams – they should roll out campaigns – give the clients what they are really want – ‘communicate with the target audience’.

Are PR agencies willing to take that road – some of them are trying – how many will succeed only time will tell.

India PR Forum - Gaining Momemtum

Recently I came across a forum for PR professionals in India on Google groups. The group titled India PR Forum is actually gaining popularity amongst the PR and Corporate Communications professionals in India. They also have a blog www.indiaprforum.blogspot.com which is quiet informative and updated quiet regularly.


The forum is the brain child of Vikram Kharvi who is currently working as Senior Account Manager at Adfactors PR. The group is quiet active and some of the members are really taking out time and sharing a lot of interesting information - I personally use it to keep track of media movements as the members are from all across India and actively share the movements.

You can also find host of other information on Tv Schedules, Important Industry events calendar etc...

Net Take: A good effort - for a industry which has always worked in silos. And the active participation from the members on the group shows that PR Professionals in India are actively adopting internet tools and more importantly willing to openly share and collaborate with other PR professionals.

APAC - Blogger Survey - 2008

Text 100 - the leading technology PR Agency, has put out the results of a Blogger Survey for 2008 for Asia Pacific region - though the study states 2008, I couldn't find any previous survey done by them in the public domain.

Unfortunately they have not covered the Indian Bloggers - something I am sure Text100 India would be thinking of doing (will check on that soon). Nevertheless the survey is quiet useful for PR professionals looking to start engaging with the bloggers.

The new media space in India is really picking up and it is becoming increasingly important for PR agencies to start engaging with online news aggregators, professional bloggers and online news portals. Just to put things in perspective - today a leading Indian news portals Business section news has higher readership than all the editions of ET put together and it's archived and searchable.

So lets see what the survey has to say:

• Bloggers expect the PR person to know what they blog about (not very different from a typical journalist from traditional media) - Know us and our blogs they say
• Don't just send us press releases - they welcome one-to-one engagement and expect some unique news element - (again a typical journalist trait)
• Here is a differentiator - bloggers are willing to engage with anyone in the company who has an understanding of the business/news you are pitching for - this gives the PR person something to work with

There are some more findings but - net net the blogging community expects the PR Person to be a thorough professional and should know their subject/clients business well.

I have engaged with some of the leading bloggers in India and I found their requirements to be more or less the same - all you need to do is genuinely read up their blogs first and understand what they like to write about - I have personally found my engagement with bloggers much more useful as they have a strong understanding of the subject and can sometimes share important industry information which can be extremely useful.

You can find the detailed survey findings here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3732769/Text100-Blogger-Survey-2008

First Post - The Title

I have been planning to start a diary of my experiences in the field of Public Relations in India for sometime but somehow never managed to take out time or lets say I just couldn't think of a way to start. But today I have finally decided to start with a simple post on my first blog - 'PR Sherpa'.

Zeroing down to PR Sherpa was quiet a task by itself . I wanted to have a title which will not only reflect the content of the blog but would also give me the flexibility to share my experience in PR as a Sherpa (The term sherpa is used to refer to local people, typically men, who are employed as guides for mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas, particularly Mt. Everest. ) Which i think gels perfectly well with a PR practitioners as the role of PR professional is quiet similar - each client assignment is nothing less than climbing the Mt. Everest.

(Sherpas are highly regarded as elite mountaineers and experts in their local terrain, as well as having good physical endurance and resilience to high altitude conditions. However, a sherpa is not necessarily a member of the Sherpa ethnic group. Sherpa generally act as porters on Everest expeditions.) Which also depicts the role of a PR person, which is to play behind behind the scene and help his/her clients to reach the peak.

I also thought of 'PR Tales' as a title - the PR Industry is full of interesting tales but then decided against it as I wanted to start something more meaningful which will off course have tid-bit of gossip of the industry for sure.

Lets see how this effort shapes up and hopefully I should be able to post something interesting and usefull 3-4 times a week - that's the target I have set for myself for now.