“Integrated marketing communications is the need of the hour for brands”

As part of our 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.

In conversation with Adgully, Tanya Swetta, Co-founder and CEO, id8 Media Solutions, speaks about the dramatic shift in both the implementation and perception of Public Relations as a profession over the last 10 years.

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

Being a part of the PR industry over the last 20 years has given me the advantage of understanding the growth and maturity of PR. The last 10 years have seen a dramatic shift in both the implementation and perception of Public Relations as a profession. Notable changes:

1. Public relations has come into its own and professionals are considered high on the scale of importance when consulting on overall marketing and communications matters in small, mid cap and large companies
2. Digital PR has now allowed a global audience to view your brand or companies notable achievements
3. Mapping has become easier for PR through the use of digital tools, thereby allowing more efficient and less time consuming strategic thought process
4. Content and the way it is presented is of paramount importance. Measurement of impact has to be constantly innovated keeping the constant change in consumer mindset

You turned into an entrepreneur in the PR profession. What motivated you and how did the idea of starting your own PR consultancy happen? How has been your journey as a PR entrepreneur so far? What are some of the challenges that you have encountered as an entrepreneur?

I majored in psychology and philosophy and then went on to do my post graduation in communications and Public Relations. Right from the start I knew that great content inspired me and inspiring others was a passion. Public Relations allowed me to do both – be a content creator and executor. As a child, I had travelled the world extensively, which I believe in hindsight was one of the greatest assets that I had. I could understand many cultural differences, and with my background in psychology, it helped me assess and hit the right notes when it came to solid PR strategies.

The journey in PR is exciting every day. I love it because it has a deep research base and there is never a dull moment as you are learning something new all the time – be it the industry of your client or global events and news, all of these help you shape and carve your strategies that are extremely personal and curated for each brand that we work with. As an entrepreneur with no mentor, I believe that the biggest challenge I always faced was when there were unprecedented crises or moments in business where a mentor would have been invaluable. Today, however, I believe that when I look back at all that has happened, the experience is invaluable and I use this experience to the benefit of all our clients under the id8 Media Solutions umbrella.

How different are you as an agency and what are some of the interesting tools that you use to give the best in terms of result to your clients? How do you ensure a very long-term relationship with a client in a competitive world?

id8 Media Solutions is an integrated marketing communications firm. We have five distinct departments within the company, namely Content and Visual, Digital Marketing, PR, Marketing and Events. What sets us apart is that we had the vision in 2009 to set up and start creating a seamless and efficient system of working towards a common goal across all of these departments. This goal was arrived at on the basis of our understanding of the market and the customer and the foresight to know what is credible and non-credible news, especially in this world filled with fake news. In today’s times, integrated marketing communications is the need of the hour for any brand, service or company. Today, we come with more than 10 years of integrated marketing experience across sectors and services, we are an ideal choice of agency that comes with experience and innovation.

Relationships, be it work or otherwise, are based on very important factors of trust and proactivity. At id8, we have had long standing relationships with our clients, the longest spanning 14+ years.

We all speak about external communication, but equally important is internal communication, which needs to be handled with kid gloves. What are your views on this and how important is the role of internal communication, especially during the pandemic times when you had to stay engaged with your employees?

As a communications agency, we hold our team to the highest regard. It is with the cumulative strategies and skills of our various teams at id8 that we are able to create path breaking, innovative and effective campaigns for our brands. We believe very strongly in work-life balance and have been propagating this right from the beginning. Our team is our family and we constantly think of different ways of engaging with our team. Our objective for engaging with them is to be able to share knowledge with them or provide them with a fun light hearted activity, which further promotes the bonding within the team and the company.

The last year of the pandemic was very tough, it is because our internal communications have always been strong, we have all as a team been able to get through it and move back into full throttle mode, Version 2.0 of id8 Media Solutions.

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?

You are absolutely correct in your assessment of PR measurement. As PR has evolved, at most times the old standards of measurement, though standardised, do not cut the ice with the client simply because there is no IMPACT. Impact is what we look for at id8 Media Solutions – have we been able to reach the right customer? Have they engaged with our content? Are we being placed in credible media? Are we telling a credible story? Here is where being an integrated agency with over 10 years of experience really helps. We derive our data of Impact from multiple sources – digital and offline and thereby help meet our client expectations and help our brands achieve their marketing and communications goals.

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?

Being traditional at id8 is never a practice, we are always innovating! We all miss the office. The traditional method of meeting and brainstorming is always the best way. Plus as humans we are social animals and it is definitely good for our own mental wellbeing. Virtual in the last year has taught us many things – one is that we can manage the same and even better efficacy, there is less waste of time on travel and the like. A video call is still as good. In conclusion, this virtual world is looking good for us and we continue to make our virtual systems stronger.