Digital PR can help businesses garner the crucial ROI: Piyali Reddy

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 Reddy, Head - Corporate Communications, Axis Bank, highlights the growing importance of digital PR, working with thought leaders, using data analytics to gauge the impact of PR campaigns, and more.

How has your overall journey in the PR and communication world been so far? Any significant development that you have noticed in the last 10 years?

The communications industry has seen a lot of changes in the last few years.From being completely print media driven, it has gone on to explore several other avenues such as the digital/ new age media, which include podcast, video interviews, blogs, and even theuse of influencers and micro-influencers. Also, with the pandemic coming in, the industry adopted the virtual and digital worldfar more actively than earlier. As demanding as the change was, it has strengthened our path towards a colossal transformation and moved us closer to the digital India goal.

The industry has shifted to online platforms to reach the modern audience. We saw the rise of virtual press conferences and webinars as they became an important tool for communication, which has now given way to the more flexible hybrid models that allows both physical presence and the option to join online from anywhere. Another trend is the growing importance of regional and language media, as more and more people are looking for the local flavour, even in terms of the news and content that they consume. I believe that as the industry evolves further, we will have a lot more to learn.

How do you view the growing importance of digital PR? Transformation has happened rapidly on the digital front. How are you leveraging the same and adapting to the situation?

Digital PR is the buzzword these days and for a reason! It could prove to be one of the most important elements of your strategy, a game-changer and can help you garner the crucial ROI. It is, in fact, the sweet spot between traditional public relations, SEO and social media, harnessing the power of all three. It helps build your online presence seamlessly through quality content and effective dissemination to the right platforms, directly impacting your search engine rankings. Being digital, it’s the fastest and easiest way to build awareness across a wide section of the audience. Moreover, it helps drive website traffic and can impact business through lead generation and customer acquisition. A host of metrics/ analytical tools are available to measure Digital PR and its effectiveness, thereby making it an even smarter option.

At Axis, we have been using Digital PR very effectively over the last three years. We now disseminate Digital press releases (instead of plain pdf files) with embedded link and cross-links, images and videos. These multimedia-rich press releases have impacted our search rankings positively and are also easily shareable on social media. This one strategy has hugely impacted our online presence. We now track metrics like – number of organic searches, number of user sessions, new and returning visitors, audience demographics, average time spent on page, etc., most of which are steadily improving. In fact, we get an average of 15X higher unique page views in comparison to PDF releases. Apart from Digital PR, we have been actively looking at new age media opportunities, video interviews, podcasts, blogs etc to make our mark in the Digital world.

The banking industry has a sizable network of both internal and external stakeholders. How are you engaging with both your stakeholders continuously with the right messaging?

As a Communications team, not only do we make a detailed quarterly plan for our PR initiatives aimed at external stakeholders, but also an equally detailed plan for our internal stakeholders, especially employees. Our communications strategy revolves around themes that prioritise various focus areas for the Bank. Many of our campaigns have both an internal and external part to it – for example, the #ComeAsYouAre campaign for the LGBTQIA+ community, which needed awareness both internally and externally.

In external PR, we use a combination of different PR tools to reach our audience and deliver our key messages. In Internal communications, our goal has been three-fold:

1) Engaging and ensuring that all important information is shared with employees;

2) Building awareness on new products, services and initiatives;

3) Motivating and aligning them to the organisation’s goals and direction.

We have a range of internal channels and tools that help us do this. From internal apps, screen-savers, mailers, newsletters to digi-walls – we utilise a combination of these to land the right messages with our internal audience. Effective leadership communication, HR initiatives and regular connect keep people involved and engaged.

We have created several internal properties to drive meaningful and differentiated communication, whereas our internal campaigns support business teams in creating awareness around their initiatives. Lastly, communication with our internal stakeholders goes beyond work, especially during stressed times like the pandemic, when it is meant to keep everybody together, supporting and building the bridge of trust and compassion.

What are your views about thought leaders? Who according to you is a thought leader and how does one recognise a good thought leader?

Thought leaders are experts in specific areas, who quickly recognise trends and patterns, as well as their potential before they become mainstream, and in many cases, help shaping those areas for the future. They are recognised and respected by the industry, their opinions may often be different from the rest, yet they are trusted and often influence how people react to some of these trends. I believe a thought leader has tremendous responsibility and should shoulder it with honesty, sharing her knowledge and insights for the larger good.

I have been fortunate enough to work with some amazing thought leaders through my career, including our Axis Bank MD and CEO, and have seen their power and influence from close quarters – on employees, customers and others.

The one thing that truly stands out is their ability to use their valuable experience and expertise in making a real difference, whether it’s in shaping the future of the industry, organization, people or simply a cause that he or she has taken up. Their creative and thought-provoking ideas, insightful messages, their individuality and unique traits, and passion for the subject make them stand out and influence hundreds of people. Lastly, good thought leaders are not just great thinkers, but often show how to deliver results to back up their hypotheses. They act as catalysts to bring about a positive transformation through best practices, sharing of practical knowledge, hard-earned experiences, and success stories.

Recently, I picked up the bestseller – Indra Nooyi’s autobiography ,‘My Life In Full’, which is an inspirational narrative of her grit, determination and achievements over a dozen years as the CEO of PepsiCo, with challenges being thrown at her indifferent life stages. Through her candid account, she has not just connected with every professional woman, but also the entire ecosystem around her. She has stressed on organisation and community support and has brought up some very critical areas that need to be addressed,if we want to build a more inclusive working world.

Axis Bank is a highly visible brand in the media. What kind of synergy and strategy do you follow with mainstream advertising to make your PR strategy equally effective and rewarding for the brand?

At Axis Bank, brand building through advertising and strategic PR have always complemented each other. Our philosophy ‘Dil Se Open’ is the thread that binds all our communication, across stakeholders. This applies to mainstream advertising, as well as our PR strategy. While in PR we have various themes to highlight the priority areas of our organisation, the communication is always simple, direct, transparent and tries to establish the human connect.

We also believe that PR strategy can be successful only if it alignswith the business objectives. We follow a holistic approach, starting with understanding the business needs todefining the audience, charting out the relevant media for them - traditional, digital as well as social, and establishing the connect through impactful messaging. Sometimes, it’s done in phases, focusing on a specific outcome at a specific point in time. Our strategy usually revolves around owned and earned media, with powerful content at the center of it.

Ultimately, what matters is how we convey the intent behind every initiative and the difference we are making to our customers, people, partners and the community at large. At Axis Bank, we have been building a culture of Customer Obsession by keeping the consumer at the very core of every conversation and decision, and actively working towards it in everything we do – consumer interactions, product designs, process innovations, as well as communication.

How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your PR campaign on an ongoing basis? What kind of matrix do you use to measure the effectiveness of various PR campaigns?

While we use a range of data analytics to gauge the impact of various PR projects and campaigns – like spokesperson engagement, geographical coverage, share of voice, tonality, etc., I believe the real measure is always in terms of the outcome that we could deliver for the business objectives. Landing the right messages to help drive the right narrative for your organisation is equally important. An integrated, all-encompassing approach of qualitative and quantitative parameters surely gives you a far better understanding. Therefore, while planning a PR campaignit’s imperative that we define the measurement criteria/ parameters, which help decide on the effectiveness of the campaign. Also, measurements often provide a plethora of insights, which can help plan the next campaign better.