PR Sherpa

SPAM ME NOT MY FRIEND

2009-07-02T03:18:00.000-07:00

The title of this long due post may sound a bit boring as there is really nothing that you don’t already know about spamming. It is indeed extremely irritating to deal with spam on a daily basis, and you wish for some breakthrough technology to spam proof your mailbox (although Gmail does this quiet effectively). If you have been looking at the spam you receive, you will realize that the spam you receive now has undergone a sea change. This is the type of spam that no spam guard can ever be designed to quarantine or free your mailbox of. These days you receive a lot of content in your mailbox from your own network of friends, its almost never intended as spam, and is largely an off shoot of our active online social networking lifestyles.

Blame it on Web 2.0 if you must, but the reality is that we are generating more spam than ever before. This overload of information is not limited to personal lives, it has a spill over effect and is creeping into our professional lives as well. And that is what I want to address here, more specifically from a PR point of view.

Take for instance a case where you send out or post information pertaining to your client on every possible social network, group, forum and blog. What happens next? What are the parameters for evaluation of your efforts – the number of places you managed to post your links, the number people you managed to reach? While this practice is commonplace, it has no meaning because what you actually need to monitor or listen to is the conversation your content generates. Is it in line with your core objectives?

Let’s take a moment first to define spam in the context of this discussion. In all our enthusiasm to integrate social media into our PR plans, we are actively participating in forums, social networks, creating groups, fan pages, twitter accounts, and posting and mass mailing content to bloggers. Stop to think for a moment about what is that we are doing here – all we are doing is distributing content/information about our clients and making it easily accessible to anyone and everyone.

And therein lies the crux of the problem. While we have the right intentions in our SMPR efforts, the application is often off the mark. Anyone and Everyone is almost never your target audience. And pushing information without context to the receiver is nothing but spamming. While traditional media has been at the receiving end of this sort of spam for ages and have their own ways and means of dealing with it, spamming digital media platforms and bloggers can actually be counterproductive.

So before you put ' Create a Facebook Fan page’ in your PR plan, just because you can, take some time to evaluate your client in relation to the community. Are there for instance any hate communities already existing on that social network? What is the general opinion of the network?

We are all aware that most social media efforts start with friends and bloggers. Yes your friend will become a fan once or twice, but is reaching out to your friend your core objective? We all use our friends as seeding grounds with the intent of making our messages viral. And while your friends may be indulgent, without a relevant context the friend of your friend is not going to subscribe to your effort.

Now that we have defined the problem, where do we go from here? The steps involved in approaching social media are no different from traditional media. Study and understand how different tools and platforms work, in much the same way that you would study newspapers, magazines or television channels.

First and foremost, listen and listen close. Just like you gauge the media perceptions about a particular client, spend some time understanding what people are saying about your client in the digital space. Classify the different points of view and classify them, for example: key influencers, followers (people who subscribe to that negative/positive view).

Evaluate that report and then develop your messages. Evaluate these messages and ensure that they fall in line with your overall strategy. At no point you can have separate messaging for traditional and digital medium. You might follow different tactics to counter different views but your messaging should remain same. You also need to define a long term social media strategy and implement it in phases.

When developing your strategy, break down the social media tools into two groups:

Distributions tools: RSS, Flickr, slideshare, YouTube, Wikipedia, Digg, Stumbleupon etc.
Community & Active Conversation tools: Twitter, message boards, Q&A forums, Facebook groups, Facebook fan pages (FB groups and Fan Pages are very different and offer different controls so make an informed choice), Orkut communities, LinkedIn communities and groups etc. (Some of the distribution tool may also have community options but they are not necessarily built as a community platforms).

Note: Blogger outreach will form part of your digital plan, but you will also touch base with them on some of the above mentioned tools if you target them contextually.

In the initial phase it might be a good idea to restrict your plan to the distribution tools. It is also prudent to start building/creating a digital profile for your client at this stage. It could be a blog, a website which is Web 2.0 friendly and have content which is updated regularly and distributed on social multimedia sites like YouTube, Flickr, Slideshare etc. (If a digital profile already exists, you should work towards aligning it with the overall strategy).

Your next phase would involve establishing contact and providing context of engagement. Only when that is done should you consider participation. The golden rule and this has been said before is ‘Don’t start speaking just because Web 2.0 is all about participation and expressing yourself’. When forming or using a community tool for instance, define the strategy first, if you succeed in forming an active community, how will you keep them engaged and what will you like them to do for you?

Through all of this do not lose sight of the first step: listening. Continue to monitor conversation at all times to see whether your effort is producing the desired results.

Now this is no different from what you will do for traditional media, but when it comes to social media we seem to think the basics of communication change. They don’t. Social media is not merely a distribution tool, it’s live active conversation and unless you are talking and participating contextually, you are only creating noise, and noise is nothing but spamming my friend.

Redefining the Scope of Public Relations - Adapt or become obsolete

2009-02-20T05:30:00.000-08:00

As a PR professional I am glad that the PR Industry as a whole has come of age. PR is now looked upon as more of a strategic function and it definitely goes beyond the tactical media relations program which companies used to hire PR agencies to do. PR now encompasses corporate reputation management, Brand management, crisis, issue and change management and other important stake holder communication.

With the growth of PR Industry in India, true blue PR professionals working in PR agencies have been very caught up with managing the increase in scale of operations that has come with growth in new businesses. The explosive growth of the media industry has further compounded their challenges. While they have managed to keep abreast with the fast changing traditional media industry, they have largely turned a blind eye to the rise of new media, often according it step motherly treatment.

I believe the problem lies in not understanding and appreciating the real value the medium has to offer. Both companies and PR agencies, fail to see the value in new media.

Companies in India largely continue to approach to PR the old fashioned way, where PR agencies simply get them visibility in leading business magazines, the pink papers and TV channels. For them PR continues to be thought of as an offline optimization of the brand.

PR agencies’ continues to follow the traditional method of engagement even with the bloggers and their interactions with bloggers remains limited to an Email Id and random follow up calls for press releases.

In a scenario where the Internet is the only medium used to research or to find any information about a company, product or brand; the approach of refraining from this user driver medium is counter productive. As a strategic communication partner, the onus truly lies with PR consultants and corporate communication professionals to master this emerging medium and showcase how one can truly leverage the new media in a professional manner.

There is a definite shift amongst several consumer technology companies and entertainment firms, who are asking their PR agencies to include internet and social media in their PR plans. We see PR agencies running ad-hoc experiments with bloggers, on you-tube and on social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut, without truly understanding the merits of the tools available on the Internet. The know-how required in managing and maintaining conversation in new media is seen as outside the scope of PR.

A few PR agencies now offer Digital PR or PR 2.0 as a separate offering at an extra cost to their clients by outsourcing it to third parties. And this is where I think they are really missing the bus. I believe the demand for these services will continue to grow, and agencies that outsource will in the longer run render their own assets (staff) obsolete.

PR agencies should, in my opinion, look at pro-actively training their staff to understand the new media and offer their clients an integrated strategy and media plan to leverage it to its full potential. Having had exposure to digital media, I can tell you its not very difficult. The rules of engagement with independent bloggers (although there is a very thin line which differentiates them from journalists) remains the same as engaging with any professional journalist - be professional in your approach, know the person you are engaging with, understand what he/she writes about, understand their readership and accordingly offer them what he/she wants. The rest is merely a question of understanding the tools and using them innovatively.

There are many questions being raised about the measurability of the output and outcome of new media initiatives. Such questions are not new to PR. Just as we now have many established ways of measuring output and ROI when it comes to the traditional media, a variety of tools are also available to measure the output of our efforts in the digital media; these will continue to evolve and develop with time in much the same way as is the case with traditional media tools.

What it finally boils down to is a question of mindsets. We need to re-look at the scope of public relations on the whole, and take ownership in redefining our existing standards. We need to train ourselves to innovatively use social media tools and plan integrated campaigns to really add value to our offerings.

And finally, I would like to hazard predictions on social media PR, here are my top 5:
• The scope of work of PR agencies will become increasingly complex, as will the billing process.
• Twitter will become the preferred social networking platform for PR professionals, journalists and bloggers at least in key metros.
• Social Media Press Release will become a reality in India.
• Multimedia, photos, audio & video, will become a critical part of press kits.
• Professional independent bloggers will continue to grow

Enough said about ‘Why use Twitter’, lets talk about the ‘How’

2009-01-12T03:48:00.000-08:00

A Users Guide for PR Folk

Hasn’t enough been written on Twitter already? Well, when it comes to social media being used as a PR tool in India, there is still both room and the need for more to be written.

I have gone through the whole process of questioning myself on the utility of Twitter - from why should I use Twitter (I find that when it comes to my personal I am not interested in posting continuous updates on my activities and participate in what sometimes seems like useless banter) to how can I use Twitter in my daily work life.

I won’t get into the why, each of you will have to find your own answer to that one and in time you will, but before we get there let us focus on how you can use Twitter in your daily work life as a PR professional.

For the uninitiated, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform which allows you to post up to 140 characters per message through the web, your mobile and via other applications. It’s also a social networking platform as it allows you to follow your friends and network with experts in your area of interest.

First, what Twitter is not: Just like all the other social media tools, don’t think of Twitter as a stand-alone channel. It should be viewed as very effective media channel in addition to your existing tools, its effectiveness can be best harnessed in an integrated campaign which has all the elements of new/social media.

Now let’s get to how Twitter can help.

Effective Promotional Tool: Like blogs Twitter is most effective and useful when used for promotions, be it self promotion (to promote your blog, your views), new product launches, interesting updates on your client, or simply sharing a piece of news/article which you found useful. Twitter is often used to evangelize a new concept, product or service. You could leverage this aspect in the following ways:

• Simply create a handle (user name), and post links to interesting news. Other users can subscribe to your updates through RSS or follow you.
• Point to interesting / positive article written by one of the influencers about you or the company you are promoting.
• Profile your spokesperson as a thought leader/expert on a certain topic by encouraging him/her to create a handle with their original name, and having them update it regularly, use it connect it to their blog and other platforms.

Networking Simplified: Many a times we try to network with media and columnists on social platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, without getting a favorable response. On Twitter you can network with them without being intrusive or pesky. Simply start following them and connect with them over time by replying to their posts.

Track Conversations: We constantly track news in all form of media, and social media is becoming increasingly important to track and monitor. The latest and most topical on the web finds its way onto Twitter pretty quickly and spreads even faster from there. You can easily keep track of the conversation taking place on Twitter, just like we set Google Alerts to track keywords; you can use Twitter Track to keep track of what is being said about your client both positive & negative.

Opportunity Mining: Most journalists use twitter when they are seeking information with regard to a story they are working on, or simply post their views on certain products or companies. You can use twitter to help them with inputs or connect with them and try to point them to facts which might change their views about your company or client.

Understanding Journalists: Twitter is a great tool to understand and keep track of journalists who report on your industry. As you follow their updates on their daily routine, share their views on interesting articles, you can get a better understanding of the journalists’ views, ultimately helping you to connect with them more effectively.

Instant Feedback Mechanism: Twitter is great platform to get instant and to the point feedback about your service or product. This helps you to take immediate corrective action to change the perception when negative.

Monitor Pop Culture/Media Consumption Trends: Tracking conversations on Twitter and noting the kind of stories people are reading and sharing on twitter will help you gain an insight into pop culture, stories that are doing well in current times and how consumers actually view them.

Some Basic Tips
• Define the target audience and proactively find them and follow them on twitter, this could be a journalist, bloggers, columnists and actual users/buyers of your client products and services.
• Take time out to regularly post updates, its only required initially, as soon you see the value in it you will get hooked.
• If people follow you, proactively follow them back, this will help you to grow your network.
• People are constantly innovating and finding newer ways of using Twitter. While my list here gives you a starting point, don’t confine yourself to this list - innovate and find newer ways of using Twitter.

The latest innovative campaign on Twitter that caught my attentions was the Burger Kings campaign: You can read about it here: But-is-it-a-burger-king-campaign

PS: Twitter is prone to some minor hiccups and some functionality might be disabled but it works just fine most of the time.

It’s back to basics for PR firms

2008-12-22T01:49:00.000-08:00

Operating amidst the global meltdown where cost cutting and layoffs are the buzz words, Indian PR agencies are also beginning to face the heat. With most companies having curtailed their ad-budgets, PR budgets seem to be the next on the chopping block. The clouds of worry are already beginning to show. Although most PR agencies would not admit to any immediate impact, they are gearing up to face the challenging times.

There have been reports that some companies have sacked their PR agencies and are looking to manage their communication in-house by hiring more corporate communication professionals. While many PR agencies argue that this cost cutting measure may not serve in the best interests of the corporate, some agencies are now offering to work with such clients at reduced retainers.

Traditionally PR has always been a savior for companies through turbulent economic times, and it got me wondering why these companies are looking to cut on their PR budgets.

A closer look helps shed some light. While the going was good most PR agencies were focusing on increasing their client base, and due to shortage of talent roped in below average talent. They became mere executioners and only came in handy when the companies needed to make big announcements and hold press conferences. Even for smaller announcements agencies insisted on Clients roping in celebrities and spend big monies on creating events. Value addition to their clients in terms of strategy or tactical PR took a back seat.

Now that their services are likely to get axed, many PR agencies are gearing up to ensure that their clients see real value in their work, and not simply a cost center that can be done away with. PR agencies find themselves getting back to basics.

PR agencies are examining each and every aspect of their client’s business to see how best they can use it to their advantage in the media. They are re-looking at their staff strengths and putting in extra efforts to ensure good coverage for every small announcement. Improving media relations have become a key task for every employee, a crisis can erupt out of nowhere in these tough times, having the right contacts and better understanding of how news flows can really help in bailing their clients out.

Admittedly, these are the tasks they were hired to do in the first place! But while the going was good, most PR agencies were looking at offering services which went beyond the basics to earn more money for these special services.

There are reports that PR agencies right now are happy to take on more project work, the money is good and the pressure to consistently deliver is negligible. This is what a lot of PR agencies used to do in early days of PR in India.

The clients seem to be in the driver seat once again, and stand to benefit immensely from their PR agencies, who are willing to walk the tight rope in these circumstance. PR can add significant value to the business, more so during times like these. It would be prudent on part of the companies to think twice before deciding to do away with their PR agencies, many agencies have taken stock of new realities and are ready to stick along with you and add real value to your business.

Some Views on Blogging and its impact on PR

2008-09-30T00:31:00.000-07:00

Recently I was approached by some students to share my views on blogging and its impact on PR Industry. So I just thought I will also share the information here:

What is the scope for Corporate Blogging in PR especially for technology related companies?

Blogging is emerging as one of the most effective and important tool for engaging with all the stake holders of the company and more specifically with the consumers. Corporate blogs are today as seen as conversational media wherein Corporate or Companies engage in active conversation with their consumers and other stake holders. The trend is more prevalent in technology companies who actively use blogs to engage and form an active community of users around their products or brands. Most of the blog readers or bloggers are the early adopters of technology products and it is essential to engage with them in a more meaningful manner to get the word of mouth going for the products.

In developed markets where internet penetration is high – blogs have overtaken the traditional print media, as users relate and believe more in the corporate blogs in comparison to traditional print or television media. In India we are seeing early signs of adoption of blogging as an important PR tool. Various Industry leaders have started their own personal blogs and they actively take time out to post their views, thoughts on the various industry topics and issues.

In pure traditional PR terminology Blogs can be used to serve the following purpose:

Tool to actively communicate and engage with all stake holders of the companies
Highlight and showcase the thought leadership of the leadership team
In building and identifying community of followers of the brand or the product
Getting initial and immediate response to product trials

How necessary is it for technology companies to update external public on its future products and how does blogging help in this process?

Any new technology or product adoption cycle follows a bell curve – wherein the innovators and early adopters are the first set of users who try the product and their verdict or response determines the future success of the product. The verdict of innovators and early adopters becomes the driver for early majority to try the product. So it is extremely critical to have a meaningful engagement with the innovators and early adopters’ of the products – these set of users are seen as tech experts and they become your endorsers.

Reaching out and engaging with these set of users is extremely important at early stages of the products as they can provide invaluable insights into the product design, usability and features that sometimes determine the success of the product in the market. And the most effective way to engage is by using blogs.

How do you think blogs will change traditional PR agency practices?

The changes are already happening, blogging is completely changing the way companies engage with their audiences and PR agencies are gearing themselves to face the challenges involved in engaging with this new user lead media. PR agencies have a far greater role to play –they need to actively engage with the bloggers and have to front a lot of dialogue which has traditionally been done by the clients/corporate themselves wherein PR agencies use to merely facilitate the engagement.

Crafting messages and managing messaging in a user lead, boundary less medium is far more difficult than compared to the traditional print and broadcast media. In India there are a handful of key bloggers so the task is not that difficult but looking at the way blogging is taking off – PR agencies will need to really push themselves to keep track of the conversation in the blogosphere and look for opportunities to plug their clients messaging and also actively manage the brand’s reputation online.

How does Blogging help to win prospective clients and maintain relationship with current ones?

Blogs are seen as a more transparent and effective medium to actively engage with the audiences - and the views expressed by the bloggers are their personal with no monetary gains involved – so any positive endorsement by the blogging community goes a long way in creating positive perception about the company or its products there by helping them to win new clients/users or businesses.

Crisis management is an important aspect in PR. Can blogging help in solving the issues and how?

One thing which plays a critical role during any kind of crisis is the time factor – the damage can be minimized if the company can effectively and very quickly communicate its stand or position about the situation to its stakeholders. And this is where blogs as a tool comes in very handy – it is the fastest and most effective way to communicate your position to the target audience and since its controlled by you – you can effectively manage the conversation and put to rest any kind of rumors or misreporting that can happen when you are dealing with the traditional media.

What is the most important technological breakthrough to aid the practice of PR?

I think it is the rise of social media which I think is a boon for all PR practitioners – it has added a new dimension to the way one can engage with the target audience in any part of the world sitting in their offices. User Publishing mediums like blogs & video platform like YouTube, news ranking engines like Digg, social bookmarking tools like deli.ci.ous, and social networks like Linkedin, ning, Facebook are some of the tools which PR practitioners can use to propagate their messages to their target audience directly and gauge their response immediately.

Blogging is advancement for PR activities in Western countries. Do you see the trend catching up in India? Where are agencies falling short?

Blogging has definitely arrived in India and most of the PR agencies are looking at ways and means to effectively tap the medium to their clients benefit. But unfortunately the effort lacks seriousness from both ends i.e. the clients and the agency. Since not all clients are very appreciative of the effort required to leverage the blogosphere the agencies also have decided not put in as much effort in actively engaging with the blogging community. I think the agencies need to accept internet and social media as a big medium and work with their clients to see the benefits that can be derived from the medium. Once the value is clear to the clients, PR agencies will definitely be able to leverage this new medium to their advantage.

Having said that a lot of agencies still train their people in a very traditional format so there is very low awareness about social media in the PR industry in India. PR agencies need to understand internet as a medium and not see it as some new form of technology. A few professionals have got out of traditional PR agencies and have started offering services as social media consultant as currently it is not seen as a traditional PR agency offering.

What impact will blogging and other forms of online communication have in PR agency practices 3-5 yrs from now?

The new media space and social media has spread like wild fire and agencies will need to quickly adapt their offering to leverage this new medium to their clients’ advantage. I believe you will see a change in next 2 years wherein most PR agencies will offer consulting services on social media – either as a separate offering or as part of their standard services. PR professional will need to move beyond traditional media relations and build their capabilities in understanding and forming community relations and using the social media tools which will play a bigger role as internet takes of in India. The Industry itself will become more knowledge lead and PR professional will have to engage more actively on behalf of their client which will require good understanding of their clients business and the industry on the whole.

Apple Rock Event - The Buzzzzz....

2008-09-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

Innovation is central to everything that goes with the Apple brand. So when a cult brand like Apple decides to host an event - they ensure that there is enough buzz which is generated before the event. The latest buzz doing the rounds which has got everyone excited is the Apple Rock Event scheduled for september 9th 2008.

All the world media and blogworld is busy speculating about this Apple event and everybody is expecting a new product launch - most likely to be around the iPod.

How do they manage to generate this kind of buzz - well its not just their products - like I said, innovation is central to everything they do. Take a look at the invite which was sent out as mailers to the media and all the bloggers.

Its just a plain simple invite which just says lets rock with the silhouette of man jumping in the air (synonmous with Apple iPods) hooked onto to his iPod.

No over the top message, no other details and the Company is tight lipped about what they intend to do..So you can either be there or miss it at your own expense.

I looked over for some of their past event invites just to share the uniqueness of APPLE event invites...

Apple is truly a master when it comes to generating Buzz...we all try to use innovative invites but its never really tied to one central essence for which the brand stands for.. may be we can take a leaf from this and be genuinely innovative with everything we do.

Would you settle for a small medium sized PR Agency?

2008-09-02T03:16:00.000-07:00

Well the answer is - 'It depends'- on several factors and what expereinces one has had while dealing with agencies. In my opinion, Businesses in India today have very little choice when it comes to finalising a PR agency as there are only a handful of established PR agencies.

So I decided to dig around to find out what are the general perception of small/medium sized agencies and what would the folks in PR agency recommend to their clients. Note there are several medium sized agencies which are doing extremely well but don't get mentioned as much.

I decided to throw this question to some more PR experts on one of the social network and these are the responses I got:

Response 1:
Keep it open - Shortlist on the basis of the strategy presented by an agency. The dilemma might arise when the top two shortlisted agencies are equally good in terms of strategy but one happens to be a mid sized agency and other is a well established agency. The deal breaker is mostly the team servicing the account and the fees charged by an agency. Also the client needs to take a call on whether they want to be a big fish in a small pond or small fish in a big pond?

Response 2:
Bottom line: as a client, you never want to be one of the smaller clients on an agency’s roster.
You also don’t want to work with agency representatives who are essentially punching a time-clock; i.e., their wages and careers are not on the line if a client doesn’t get great service and results.

Work with people who are just as invested in your success as you are – financially and emotionally. Yes, they should be passionate about what you have to offer – not just looking for the next retainer.

If you are managing a start-up or mid-sized company, that means you should definitely go with a boutique firm or virtual team of highly experienced experts. That way you won’t be paying for a lot of people to sit in meetings or do busy work just to log billable hours. There is a lot of pressure in traditional agencies to make sure every hour is billable regardless of whether or not it is productive.

However, if you run a large company, you will need to go with a large agency because you’ll need a large quantity of PR folks to handle all the elements of your account. Knowing that a lot of time and money will be wasted is just part of the deal – and hopefully you’ll have enough slush
in your marketing budget to afford it.

Response 3:
In my opinion, it really comes down to the people and connections in the organization as well as the influence they can exert on others. Another factor is what you are willing to spend. In my experience with both large and boutique organizations, I have seen better success with the smaller organizations.

Why? Because unless you are able to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on PR,you re going to end up with junior pr associates at the big firms. It is inevitable.

Yes, they have a better network. but, there is a downside to that as well. Because there are so many people at a large firm, the individuals become less recognizable.

I like the smaller, boutique firms because they have had the experience in the larger firms and have made all their networks. Once they are in a small firm, they are typically the owners as well. Your best interests are theirs as well because they rely on you to put food on the table. In addition, they usually carry a much smaller client load, so they can dedicate more time to your company.

And, the amount of coverage you get is dependent on their network and how they are viewed by the journalists. But, it also has a lot to do with the quality of your news as well. I have my company by the WSJ and New York Times. That is a pretty difficult thing to accomplish when you are a small technology firm.

My recommendation, therefore, is go smaller if you don't have unlimited funds.

There were few more responses but they all point to the same things mentioned above. So net net I think it boils down to few things:

Large Agency - Big Retainer, Less Quality time, Focused on standard deliverables, can mange big accounts
Small Agency - low retainer fees, More focused quality input, Focused on making success of every deliverable, may not be able to manage large accounts

Well I am not making a pitch for smaller agencies here but if you are a small medium sized company it makes better sense to go with a medium or smaller sized agency.

It will be interesting to know which are the best tier 2 level of PR agencies in India.

PR agency uses Google Ad Words

2008-08-27T01:13:00.000-07:00

This might actually make sense for the business - but it is a bit amusing to see a well established PR agency like Perfect Relations using Google Ad Words platform to do online advertising. I am not too sure if they offer any services on the Digital front to their clients but they are definitely going digital to attract new Business.

Commentary on the Indian Telecom Sector

2008-08-21T01:40:00.000-07:00

As a PR consultant I have worked on a number of telcos and infrastructure providers and telecom as a sector holds a special interest for me. It is still the most dynamic sector and I was really fortunate to get the ring side view of the Industry which was taking off in India. I

I just thought of sharing a commentary on some of the recent action in the sector:

After the exit of the dynamic telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, the telecom sector in India had undergone a slight lull with no new plans and policy changes being made. Roll Out of 3G services has been put on hold and everyone is just waiting for the new spectrum policy to be formalized .

But some of the recent developments partly initiated by market forces and partly by TRAI have again set the ball rolling for the telecom sector in India. New Licenses have been issued, Idea has bought spice and has launched its operations in Mumbai. Tata JV with Virgin set the ball rolling for MVNOs with Virgin Mobile and interestingly TRAI has proposed to make MVNOs legal in India.

There are various other developments which are at play:

Two telecom biggies RCOM and Bharti AIRTEL after covering some ground by offering Broadband services are now getting ready to slug it out with plans of launching their DTH operations - Reliance has already announced its foray and Bharti under its AIRTEL brand is expected to announce its DTH operations soon. Both players are looking to leverage their existing customer base to offer one stop shop to its consumers under one bill. Interestingly the two big players already in the DTH business are from the Broadcasting sector – Tata Sky (JV between Tata and STAR) and Dish TV (from ZEE Group) – it will be interesting to see how this market pans out and see how the telecom giants compete with content companies on the DTH front. Though Reliance as a group has announced several plans including plans to launch 20 new channels, IPTV, movie rentals, movie production etc…so they are definitely looking at getting a lion share of the market both as a service and content provider.

COming back to the Telcos, the battle for acquiring new customers in a highly lucrative Circle like Mumbai seems to be getting hot with Idea and Virgin Mobile getting aggressive with innovative pricing and bundled offers. It has become clear to all the players that having sound infrastructure alone will not help the business – the major focus is on creating a distinct brand identity – the winner will be the one with a very positive and strong Brand perception amongst the consumers which cuts across all SECs.

And on the brand front – Vodafone after the acquisition of Hutch has been busy establishing its brand in the Indian market - so far we have not really seen any new unique proposition being brought to the table. They did announce some plans to invest around 2 billions USD in India. But we haven’t really heard anything of great significance.

Though I personally think their efforts in creating a distinct brand Identity in India has so far got a very mixed response. But you can’t really blame them – they entered the market at a very late stage – Majority of the other Brands present in the country have evolved along with the market so they have managed to form a very clear brand Identity in the market – Vodafone on the other Hand had to first overcome the emotion based branding of Hutch which had positioned it as an ‘Innovative’ player in the market and then establish Vodafone as a new global brand whose brand essence is built around four key words – Thoughtful(caring, emotional), Integrity (truthful, trustworthy), Dependable (reliable quality of network) and Value( affordable and value for money).

Interestingly, I feel Vodafone has tried too many things in too short a time – first the launch of new brand (which got massive media attention), then they tried to highlighting the emotional connect with ‘make the most of now’ campaign, parallelly highlighting the value message with some bundled offer campaign, then came their biggest campaign on ‘Happy to Help’ to position them as customer friendly brand (though a recent report which was covered in ET voted Vodafone as not so customer friendly).

Sponsorship and brand association are big part of Vodafone’s global marketing strategy and they normally choose sports as it cuts through customers of all age groups and class. They are sponsor for the England's Cricket team and also ran a campaign with David Beckham. They seem to be doing the same in India – they were present as key sponsors for the IPL 20 20 cricket tournament and also aligned themselves with F1 and did some promotional activity with the God of Racing Hamilton. But for a consumer, Vodafone has still not managed to create a distinct Identity for themselves.

Interestingly some other Brands have also tried to change its brand positioning – BPL Mobile for instance after the buyout by Essar, is trying to up its brand image mostly through outdoor and print campaigns but that has not really helped. Tata Indicom after its initial Non-Stop campaign with Ajay Devgun and kajol has revamped their advertising.

BSNL themselves are not keeping quiet and are part of all the action and have been running some odd campaigns with Preeti Zinta which doesn't really seems to be helping in terms of imagery but it is if you go by the numbers its definitely helping.

Now with TRAI proposing to allow net telephony on local and long distance and international calls - a new price war is slated to begin - though a normal consumer in a metro like Mumbai and Delhi is not too bothered about the call charges but it will definitely impact STD and International calls being made from mobile. When this proposal becomes a reality it is also expected to give much needed boost to broadband subscriber base in India and the Instant Messenger market will really pick up again. Internet telephony on mobile can really boost the overall VAS market and also benefit the internet players – mobile advertising can also get a boost – so this decision will definitely see a lot of action.

There is also a proposal to allow users the freedom to choose their long distance caller (STD) so the operators are now asking for calling cards. Number portability will become a reality by 2009 which can put some serious pressure on the players.

Hancock promotes the PR Industry - Here is why you should make all your clients watch it

2008-08-07T02:02:00.000-07:00

This is probably a little late but still if you can then you should atleast send a DVD of Hancock movie to your clients. And I am not saying this because it’s a great movie but because there are some subtle messages that I am sure everyone in PR would want to send to their clients.

For all those who have not seen Hancock yet, the movie is about a super human being who is one of his kind on the planet and though he does his bit to protect the citizens from the crime, he is actually quite messed up – he is shown as a complete loser, with no idea of his past, and he always ends up getting bad press for his actions. And that’s when he meets a public relations professional Ray whose life is saved by Hancock.

Ray decides to help Hancock out and explains him how he is super hero who should get the respect and love of the people he protects. And that’s where I thought that it was a brilliant concept which should help the PR industry on the whole – ‘Even Super Heros Needs PR’, what more can PR industry ask for.

But that’s not the only thing – the movie goes further and there are lessons to be learned – it clearly highlights that the PR person should really be able to understand the client’s problem and connect with him/them and the client also needs to believe in his PR consultant. Just like Ray and Hancock did.

Clients need to understand that doing one right thing and nine wrong things will not get them good press even if they have the best PR person managing their mandate to cover up for his/her client. If they want good press, become super brands, then they also need to do the hard time just like in the movie Ray advices Hancock to turn himself in to the police and say that he will return as a better person.

And Hancock genuinely changes himself and becomes a super hero whom everybody likes – which goes to prove that PR can only work for you if you are genuinely good and have something unique to offer – People don’t even respect a super hero if he is not genuinely good – so Brands or companies trying to get mileage for a one off good deed in press can be rest assured that they won’t go too far.

So the message to the client is:

If you want good press and want to become super brands – then have faith in your PR consultants, be genuine in your efforts, don’t take any short cuts, its hard work but it pays off in the long run – just like it did for Hancock in the movie.

And hey lastly all those PR people who have been struggling to explain to their parents and friends what is it that they really do – show them the movie Hancock and may be they might just understand.

Has Social Media Press Release arrived yet?

2008-08-04T02:30:00.000-07:00

If you are a PR professional who has been hearing a lot about PR 2.0 recently, then chances are that you may have also heard about the buzz words like social media kit and social media press release (also referred to as SMPR). But if you ask around nobody seems to have an authoritative answer on what it really means and how it really helps.

The good old solution to every problem 'Google' also does not throw up any conclusive or definitive answers to SMPR and how one should go about using it. So I decided to check with the people who are at the receiving end of all this material - the journalists and the bloggers and find out if they have actually received any social media press release in India yet. The answer is big clear NO - NOT YET.

Even in evolved online markets like the US, there is no definite answer to SMPR yet. There is a community of PR professionals who are experimenting with it, while others are keeping an eye on the buzz, waiting for it to emerge as a formal media tool.

All in all the core objective of SMPR is the same as the traditional press kit - to help a journalist or a blogger to file their story. SMPR though is a lot more than just a press release.

There are early versions of SMPR available online and there are some early examples of it too - and to me they seem quiet practical. Ford for example has taken the lead in SMPR, they call it digital snippets, which is essentially an online media kit with all the possible details about the FORD cars complete with tags, photos, videos, blogs, quick links, community links, quotes, bookmark tools, sharing tools, basically the works.

Given below is the currently acceptable and popular SMPR format. While I am unsure how journalists in India will respond to it, the online journalists and bloggers that I spoke to said anything that helps them in filling a story is a welcome move. So while you don’t really have to worry about their reactions, it always helps to check if they would prefer to receive an SMPR along with the standard press release.

A typical SMPR includes the following:

News Summary:
Quotes from the spokesperson:
Pictures or links - embedded on popular photo sharing sites:
Videos or links - embedded on popular video sharing sites:
A good list of tags for the release - this will help in the news discovery on a particular blog or site
Bookmarks, RSS feeds
Links to Community pages that you may have created

If you know of any other examples, or simply have a view or comments to share, feel free to get in touch with me.

Product launches are going through a major transitions

2008-07-29T04:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-23T02:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-21T23:06:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-15T04:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-14T01:56:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-07-12T05:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-11T01:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-10T03:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-10T01:26:00.000-07:00

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.