“Companies need to follow responsible transparency while sharing information”

In the last 10 years, PR has taken a different dimension, especially after the entry of social media and the rapid shift to digital, especially in the pandemic period. At the same time the industry has been facing stiff challenges, moreover client expectations have also increased, with more emphasis being given to digital and online reputation management. The industry has undergone a radical shift and the current times have pushed the industry to change gears.

In conversation with Adgully, Piyali Dasgupta, Director - Corporate Marketing & Public Relations, Knight Frank, speaks about how the pandemic period has demonstrated the true power of listening, the benefits of transitioning to digital, tackling the menace of fake news and more.

The pandemic has shifted behaviour and trends across industry. What kind of shifts have you noticed in the PR industry? How has your company Knight Frank adapted to this situation and planned its communication strategy?

The pandemic put the focus squarely on communications. Due to the abrupt nature in which the lockdown was introduced in India, companies had to reach out to their audiences far and wide in a limited time with utmost clarity – be it their employees, clients, stakeholders, or vendors. One of our key learnings from the pandemic was the true ‘power of listening’. It is common knowledge that conviction is better than coercion, which was proven yet again during the pandemic and the subsequent process of easing out.

The lockdown pressurised people on an organisational and an individual level. As we navigated through the days, we realised that if we had to come through the pandemic, we had to ‘connect’ with our stakeholders and to do that we had to listen and forge new relationships with the same people as peers. Our solutions lied in these conversations, but as we went through connecting with different levels, we also realised that many of our stakeholders just needed to converse, look forward to a human element that was not viewing them for their economic viability. Thus, as a company, right across the levels, we made it our mission to speak to our stakeholders and allowed them to share their challenges. We also felt that having a structured approach was restricting us, therefore we dispensed of any direct business targets emanating from these connects and went into these conversations with the purest of intent. What we were able to create was ‘mind space’ amongst our stakeholders and that, we hope, will be our fuel for good relations for a long time to come.

Traditional v/s Digital – there is a rapid change in the way digital is approached today. How are you managing the digital transformation? How much importance is given to digital in your organisation?

The thrust on digital is greater today and the change has been expedited by the pandemic that forced even the traditionalists to move to digital. There has been a paradigm change in attitudes as well. Previously, audiences – clients, media, industry colleagues – were sceptical about digital platforms and preferred personal connect, however, today the trust on such platforms has increased manifold. For a company like ours, digitisation has been a great boon as it allows us to transcend not just local, but international boundaries to reach out globally. We are engaging with numerous technological platforms to create more robust and result oriented conversations. From Vlogs to live views, from webinars to e-meetings, these have made our reach more real time. The new digital dialogs have allowed us to move from a push approach to a pull approach very seamlessly. However, being a tangible asset, the human intervention and personal involvement in decisions cannot be totally negated.

The real estate industry has been disrupted during this tough period. What kind of PR challenges have you faced at Knight Frank in the last one year? How did PR help you to navigate and overcome the challenges?

The disruptions in real estate have been at two levels, if we take a stock of the last 18 months. I clearly divide them into two parts: Part 1 – where the future of the real estate segment seemed extremely endangered roughly between March 2020 and October/ November 2020; and Part 2 – When the new lease of life started to emerge from November/ December 2020.

As a real estate consultancy, it has always been our endeavour to remain objective and unbiased. Our initial challenge (mostly in Part 1) was to ensure that while we provide the right image of the sector, we do not create a panic amongst our target audiences. Therefore, we approached our PR with sensitivity, bringing out those aspects that provided stability. We created research reports and then media stories around the same to adequately demonstrate that. In the second half, our challenges were reversed. With the sudden momentum coming into real estate, especially residential, the fortunes improved for the sector. However, our commitment to objectivity and unbiased commentary remained. We realised that it was only a few markets that were leading the growth, so to ensure that we got the right image of the markets, we started to delve deep and create market-specific stories and target local markets. We were achieving two of our aims – firstly, being seen as a think tank for the sector, secondly and more importantly, engaging with clients with more relatable conversations.

One of the most challenging parts of the last 18 months have been the continuous demand for projections and predictions, where people from varied segments demanded that we crystal gaze. However, true to our role, the company remained stoic about not sharing gossip that had no scientific basis. We only shared information that could be proven in an empirical fashion and not engaging in baseless predictions.

With the advent of social media, news travels fast today and especially fake news. What’s your view on this and being a seasoned PR professional, how does one manage to control and curb fake news?

Fake news is a challenge that we all face and to some extent, there may not be any fool proof way of combating this. There is a very thin line between fact-based sensation and fake news. For companies, I always recommend policy of ‘responsible transparency’ while sharing information with stakeholders to ensure most of the immediate circle remains confident of the facts rather than believing in spewed fiction. This is definitely easier said than done, but having an intent should be an ideal start for this process. Companies should include ‘fake news’ in their crisis management programmes and have regular dialogues with the media – with or without agenda – so that there is complete clarity and trust.

The ultimate breakthrough to curb ‘fake news’ can only come when senders and recipients realise that they must verify facts as a moral and societal duty.

Internal communication and external communication with stakeholders are very important in any business. What process and framework do you follow to continuously stay engaged with both your internal and external stakeholders?

Knight Frank uses a mix of vendors and in-house resources to achieve our PR goals. While certain functions are in-house, like Social Media Management, Designing and Graphics, and CRM, aspects like Media Relations and Content Creation are outsourced. I am always proud to admit that Knight Frank is a PR-led brand with media relations as a key contributor. Our communication with stakeholders is very important as we are a consulting company (with no tangible product) therefore, we must ensure that our communications are relevant, relatable and reliable. We use our channels to create dialogues, taking a more conversational approach to our ‘Marketing’. Much like our services, even our marketing is bespoke to the requirements of our clients.

What is the theory that you follow when it comes to ROI on PR campaigns? There are still no standard formulae designed and endless debates keep happening on this subject. How do you work with your PR partner on measuring PR campaigns?

Any PR or marketing programme has to have an impact on the target audience, which eventually leads to growth of business. The desired impact should be put in clear empirical and then measured. A company must set out an agenda for their PR activity right in the beginning and then measure the programme’s success basis that. For example, if the company wants to grow its consumer base and feels that their product has the right USPs, then the real measure will come from the incremental growth in market share. My belief is that Public Relations needs to be contextualised, without which any number being assigned would only create more discussions and disputes.

My first steps are to identify the target audience and then set a target. One needs to arrive at a reasonable benchmark in complete confidence with the management and the PR vendors and create milestones based on the simple SMART approach. A regular review of the project and its achievement and course corrections, when necessary, will help reach goals. Based on the acceptable targets, a strategy should be devised. The PR campaign’s success will be measured at every milestone achieved.