Companies should invest in ideating disruptive digital PR campaigns: Akanksha Jain

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, Akanksha Jain, Head - PR and Communications, BharatPe, speaks about her journey in the PR industry, the paradigm shifts in this industry, handling PR for start-ups, growing importance of Digital PR and more.

Overall journey in the communication industry

Over the last 15+ years that I have spent in the PR and Communications, I have had the opportunity to work with both young and established brands, across diverse industries and geographies. Additionally, I have had the chance to spearhead initiatives around building and rebuilding brand reputation, corporate communications as well as leadership communications, devise and execute brand, marketing and content strategy for young brands, as well as conceptualize culture and CSR initiatives. I have successfully executed PR campaigns for brands across 30+ countries globally.

During my enterprising career of one and a half decades, I have crafted numerous marquee transformational campaigns around ‘lifestyle transformation’, including traditional and digital PR/ brand campaigns like ‘Business mobility’ for Nokia Eseries, ‘Rise of digital’ at AskMe Group and Power2SME, ‘Online and consumer commerce’ at AskMe Group and VLCC, and the ‘Financial Inclusion’ at MobiKwik, Pine Labs and now, BharatPe.

I have successfully led thought leadership campaigns for 20+ leaders and positioned them as industry voices in India/ global markets. During my stint at Power2SME, I spearheaded the public affairs strategy and worked with FICCI to drive the formation of FICCI-CMSME and placed Mr Narayan as the Vice-President of FICCI-CMSME. I conceptualised and led the 1^st and 2^nd seasons of the renowned ‘Spirit of Manufacturing’ awards in partnership with TiE. Also, I have successfully built an online community of 1.5 million online sellers in 2015-16. At BharatPe, I have crafted the impact narrative for the brand and built it as one of the most credible names in the financial services industry in India.

A start-up communications expert, I have been a part of the leadership team across numerous start-ups and led brand/ communications strategy/ execution for start-ups in various stages of growth (in existing and new markets) over the last 9+ years. I have spearheaded communication campaigns aimed at increasing the valuation of a company by 3x, as well as led new market and new product launch campaigns for companies across global markets. A young achiever, I was the youngest Group Communications Head at 32, leading communications for 5 companies under the AskMe Group portfolio.

I am also a crisis communications expert, having managed the worst of crises for companies, including shutting down or folding up of group of companies. I am a turnaround specialist, who has designed and executed successful campaigns to regain brand equity for companies and individuals.

Having been associated with fintech companies for the last 6+ years, I am known as a Fintech Communications Expert. I am well-versed with all the nuances of the fintech industry and have spearheaded extremely high impact communication campaigns for fintech companies (including an aggressive campaign in my current organisation that has multiplied the valuation of the company 7x in just one year).

What have been the paradigm shifts in the industry and the major changes that occurred in the industry during the pandemic era?

The pandemic caused a tectonic shift across businesses, irrespective of the industry. The situation was no different for the PR industry. PR and Communications teams across brands had to redefine the communications playbook and invest their energies in realigning messaging, focusing on the impact created, devising aggressive employee communication strategies (as WFH became a reality), and working round the clock to address crisis in the case of some industries. PR gained prominence over the course of last couple of years as more and more brands realised the importance of communicating the brand purpose and building trust, as well as the need for being seen as more human. Communication strategy moved away from just selling a product or talking about a brand’s success, to building the narrative around brand’s impact story.

Over the last couple of years, PR also played a key role in driving transformational campaigns for companies as they pivoted their businesses or made changes to align to the evolving needs of the consumers. PR led from the front and helped create brand equity for companies. Additionally, it was instrumental in enabling brands to build a better connect with their employees and keep them aligned to the brand’s short-term as well as long-term goals.

To talk about some of the tactical changes – one of the major impacts of Covid was the reduction in marketing spends, which, in turn, had an impact on the print media. A number of media houses also shut their print issues due to Covid, as people were reluctant to buy newspapers. With the sales of print publications spiraling downwards, PR strategy had to move to focus more on the online media. Additionally, with all on-ground events coming to a halt, brands were forced to look at conducting online events. Digital PR became more important than ever before, with brands investing their resources and time in crafting high-impact social media strategy that could ring a chord with the target audience.

Traditional PR Vs Startup PR

There is quite a lot of difference between PR strategy for traditional vs that for start-ups. PR in traditional companies is more structured and spun around milestones achieved for existing range of products, employer branding as well as any new product launches that might come around. Traditional companies have an existing brand equity as well as an established brand narrative and hence, they don’t have to do the leg work in building awareness. Instead, traditional companies leverage PR to create buzz around a new brand/ marketing campaign. Additionally, the company has a set of business leaders who are renowned names in the industry.

In case of start-ups, PR plays a very important role in building brand equity. Start-ups need PR to attract attention and raise brand recognition. However, it is important to have a robust PR strategy in place from the early days. To begin with, a start-up needs to invest its PR efforts to get its impact story out. This is key as the company should carve a clear niche for itself from Day 1 and not be seen as another one in the market. It is important to also position the brand’s founders as industry voices in their respective domains. Also, it is important to build trust by running a comprehensive campaign around the brand’s products, their successes and the customer experiences via traditional and digital channels. Digital PR can be a great enabler for start-ups and hence, companies should invest in ideating disruptive digital PR campaigns. Also, start-ups need to have a focussed employer branding campaign as they need to attract good talent and position themselves as ‘great place to work’.

Ways of handling PR in a start-up at various stages of growth

PR for an early stage start-up will primarily be around building the impact narrative. The sooner a brand starts focusing on getting its impact story right, the better it is. Also, early stage start-ups should focus on building brand equity by talking about fund raise, partners and sharing product milestones. Additionally, it is advisable to start early when it comes to profiling the Founders so as to position them as credible names in the industry.

Start-ups that have been 2-3 years into existence should focus a lot more on talking about their overall growth, product successes as well as their leadership and team. Also, they should focus a lot more on building trust and positioning the company as an employer of choice.

The importance of Digital PR

Digital PR has slowly gained importance to become a key part of the PR and Communications strategy across organisations over the last few years. The pandemic only accelerated the adoption of digital PR as companies realised that it is the best way to reach out to and engage its existing and prospective customers. Digital PR is being used by brands, across industries to communicate their overall purpose and showcase their human side. Also, digital PR is being leveraged to share an important announcement with a wide set of audience. In times of crisis, it plays a key role to broadcast a message to larger audience or to find help.

Brands are using digital PR to showcase the experiences of their customers. At BharatPe, our series on merchant impact stories called ‘Transforming Bharat’ has been a runaway success with over 3 lakh organic views across 8 videos. Also, they are leveraging the power of various forms of content – like videos, static graphics, blogs, infographics, etc. to engage a larger set of customers. Digital PR is also being used very effectively by companies to showcase employee engagement initiatives. BharatPe’s initiative called ‘crication’ garnered 5 million plus organic views in a span of 1 month (on LinkedIn).

Evolution of PR from just being a share of voice to impacting brand sentiment and brand equity

PR has moved away from just being about that story in top financial daily or a huge number of regional stories. It is more to do with the quality of messaging and the reach of the announcement/ brand. With the rise of social media and digital PR, the metrics used for understanding success of PR campaigns has evolved to include brand sentiment and overall measurement of brand equity. At BharatPe, we closely map social media exposure across channels, SOV across channels for key leaders, have clear bifurcation by unique authors across channels on social media and online portals, tonality with emotions mapped, as well as key phrases/ words driving chatter. Additionally, we track geo impact to understand the reach of the social chatter.

In times of crisis, we map these parameters very actively (sometimes on an hourly basis) so we are well aware of the trends building up across channels and take corrective action. Also, we closely map influencers who are talking about the brand to better understand narratives across social media and news portals/ blogs.

To sum it up, effective social media metrics/ understanding of social media sentiment as well as keeping a check on social media chatter around the brand/ spokesperson have become important with social media driving a lot of conversations in today’s times. It is no longer only about Share of Voice or the quantity of coverage. Another important data metric is to understand and evaluate the impact created – if the brand narrative is on the right track and the brand can make an impact with the right messaging across media stories.