Evolution of PR is the survival of the persistent: Ashish Jalan, Concept PR

As part of our latest series on ‘PR Conversation’, we at Adgully are speaking to some of the industry leaders from both PR agencies and the corporate communications world about how PR as a business and communication tool has evolved and grown over the years. In the last 10 years, PR has taken a different dimension, especially after the entry of social media in a big way. While the PR business has grown, some of the challenges that the industry is facing have also multiplied as clients are becoming more demanding and are expecting their consultants to be on their toes to manage their brand reputation, as news today travels fast and clients are expecting quick response and action in case of a crisis situation. 

Also read: I see more consolidation in the agency ecosystem: Ameer Ismail

In conversation with Adgully, Ashish Jalan, Managing Director, Concept PR, speaks about the ‘peculiar’ evolution of PR, the growing impact of social media and questions on its credibility, the new normal of interpersonal communication and more. 

How has PR evolved in the last 10 years? Going forward how will the Industry shape up as the dynamics of the PR is changing with the acceleration of digital?

Before we talk about the future, it would be pertinent for me to give you a bit of historic perspective. Till about a decade and a half ago, traditional communication had two building blocks – Advertising and Public Relations. With the advent of the web, social media has progressively changed the communication landscape. From an Indian context, the last 10 years have been a mixed bag. At the start of the last decade, advertising as an effective medium of communication was losing steam, however, despite this perceptible shift not too many organisations understood the relevance of PR and its efficacy. There were a few established organisations and brands that used PR effectively. For the rest, it was a hard task convincing them of the value-add that PR brought to the table. Over the next 5 years, PR grew in prominence and corporates began to understand that PR brought a whole lot of credibility through third party endorsements that advertising could never hope to achieve. 

Of course, it goes without saying that PR is a slow, long drawn process comparatively. However, even before PR could reach the pinnacle, in India, the influence of social media grew by leaps and bounds. I must say that the evolution of PR is very peculiar. If I may paraphrase Darwin, evolution of PR, to me, is the survival of the persistent. 

Credibility was the main reason for the growth of PR when compared to advertising, but social media communication, which often is miles from being credible, has succeeded beyond imagination. There is no doubt that the power wielded by social media is way beyond PR and advertising combined, but authenticity is a question mark. 

Therefore, going forward, the amalgamation of these 3 arms of communication will be imperative for the success of any communication campaign. A holistic approach, a cross pollinated strategy and an in sync execution will become the norm.  

For a PR professional, thinking beyond getting an article published, will become imperative. Already clients are demanding that PR should have a positive impact on their businesses or brands. 

Extensive hands-on knowledge of the omnipresent digital medium and the various facets of the same, be it wires, knowledge portals, news based apps or social media, will be indispensable. The doors to true innovation and out of the box ideation are already being opened, the potential and possibilities in this digital space is endless. 

The Pandemic has disrupted everyone. In these times how have you managed the client expectations and how did you manage to keep engaged with your clients?

I sincerely believe in the old adage that “A problem is a chance for you to do your best” and to add to this, I also believe that one’s creative juices flow greatly, when faced with a problem. In these unprecedented times, every company has taken steps to manage clients and employees alike. 

We, as an agency, are service-oriented and our people are the most valuable assets. In order to keep clients happy and manage their expectations, we had to make sure that our people were motivated and would give their 100% even while working from home. Our senior management spoke to each client assuring them of the teams’ commitment to deliver without any compromises and we turned Work From Home into a positive step and not an excuse. The ardent use of technology like cloud storage, video meets, internal software for time sheet management, proprietary software for press release dissemination, WIP reports, etc. has gone a long way to maintain and to a certain extent improve the quality of service. I am humbled to say that we have received encouraging mails from clients for being as efficient now as we were in the pre lockdown era. 

How different are you as an agency and what are some of the interesting tools that you deploy to give the best in terms of result to your clients? 

While we are not radically different from other agencies in our structure, we do have certain USPs, including a certain way of dealing with a client that we strictly adhere to.

First and foremost, we, as a group, are driven by a certain ethos which is native to us and we make sure that this is not compromised across the entire ecosystem. Next comes the attitude of serving by example. Our senior most colleagues are hands-on and a client is never left to be serviced by only junior or mid-level staff. This actually has a dual effect, not only does the client get the best in the industry, but it also helps the junior and mid-level staff to learn from the rich experiences of the senior. Third is our focus on strategy and ideation, we believe in going beyond regular PR. We believe that a good relevant idea gets better mileage, both in terms of image and visibility for the client. Finally, we are a very delivery focussed agency, in fact, our contracts have an annexure of agreed upon list of expected deliveries. This brings a lot of clarity in the client’s mind and also sets his expectations correctly. In terms of tools, we have our internal software to manage time sheets, WIP reports, campaign management, etc. But our proprietary tool of media monitoring and analysis is what sets us apart from most of the other agencies. This tool helps us analyse our performance and give the client a transparent account of the efficiency of the agency. 

Today, artificial intelligence and data analytics are becoming very important in marketing and communication. How is your agency making use of this to help you clients on overall messaging and achieving the desired ROI?

As I said earlier, we have a proprietary tool which does a detailed analysis for the client vis-a-vis their competition basket. The analysis is done under several parameters, like tonality, mainline publications & regional publications, region wise coverage, journalist wise coverage, segmentation of coverage, etc. The analysis brings forth trends, which help in future messaging, it also helps us identify affinities of media, thus enabling us to pitch the right story to the right media. The tool also helps in analysing the coverage benchmarked against competition, which helps us in developing strategies to counter them. 

PR measurement and effectiveness of PR has always been a subject of debate. As a PR professional, what steps the PR industry should take to bring in uniformity so that everyone speaks one language when it comes to PR measurement?

This debate of universally accepted valuation has existed from the time PR has come into being. Globally, Barcelona Principles 3.0 is providing a clear benchmark for agencies to follow. But I believe, with the advent of social media and the blurring of lines between the earned and paid media formats, it has become very difficult to have a measurement tool that will give accurate results. The measurement is also compromised due to the nature of requirement of PR of a client, since no two clients would have the same communication goal. The medium, the geographies, the target audience and the way to deal with each of them is very different and the permutations canrun into millions. And since PR is not a science, the client will have to, at regular intervals, gauge whether the agency is delivering to his expectations and the set objectives. AMEC, which is a globally recognised association involved in measurement and evaluation of communication is doing a great job of educating agencies and clients. Recently, Concept BIU won three AMEC awards. 

Getting the right skillset and training has always been a challenge in the PR profession. What is your view on the same and what would be the valuable tips that you would like to give to the budding young PR professionals?

Earlier, there weren’t many institutes offering courses for PR, but times have changed. There are enough and more programs available, full time, part time, distance learning, online courses, etc. But to me, it’s no longer about traditional PR. My advice to the younger generation is that they will need to have a holistic approach towards understanding communication of which PR forms a part. Going forward, the successful professional will be one who can advise a client on all aspects of communication, since advertising, PR and digital go hand-in-hand for overall effectiveness of a campaign. The other important aspect will be that they need to read regularly and be updated of the ever evolving nature of communication. Just like doctors and chartered accountants, communication professionals will have to be in a constant learning mode to keep themselves abreast of the times, else they might find themselves redundant very soon.  

Do you feel the traditional role of interpersonal communication which was so critical to the profession has somehow been put to the back burner because of too much virtual engagement? How are you experiencing that, is it bringing down the efficiency of the agency? 
Video conferencing has become the ‘New Norm’. Whatsapp groups have become indispensable. They have actually brought in efficiencies and have made every person more productive. Travel within cities and to different cities has reduced substantially and we have realised that work continues. I am not undermining the role of interpersonal communication and the same will continue to exist, but I am sure that the frequency of the same will be replaced with this virtual engagement.