PR function has evolved from being a ‘push’ to a ‘push & pull’ channel: Priya Patankar

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, Priya Patankar, Head of Communications, PhonePe, speaks about the changing face of PR, how PR professionals are turning into trusted advisors for brands, and adapting to the pandemic disruptions and beyond. 

You have been in the PR world for over two decades. What are the new dimensions and trends that you have seen in PR in these years? What is the road ahead going to look for the PR industry for the next 5 years?

I have been working across communication and marketing roles for the last two decades and have seen the industry evolve and change in multiple ways. To begin with, there is a clear and conscious shift towards digital channels, news breaks online first, often in real time, and then moves to print. News also tends to travel faster and gets shared more quickly given how connected we all are. Secondly, the PR function has evolved, from being a “push”, to a “push and pull” channel. PR is now an essential part of any company’s integrated communication mix, helping build a brand’s reputation and send out a consistent and cohesive message to all the stakeholders. This requires the PR team to be constantly in touch with the relevant media people, even when there is no “story”. This positions the PR team as the trusted advisors on what’s happening in the space, and becomes a source of high impact “pull” stories that get generated out of the interest in new trends.

The future of the PR function is exciting. Most PR teams are now an extension of the marketing function and they have a strong say in the overall message which goes out externally. Their output is also strongly mapped to business metrics which also brings in more accountability for the function. 

Digital has become a powerful communication tool and managing online reputation is a challenge as the medium is dynamic as news travels fast. How is your company geared to manage the online reputation to project a positive image and maintain the brand equity?

We have always believed that happy customers are the best influencers and brand evangelisers. A good experience on the app always carries a very strong word of mouth and we over-index on ensuring that happens every time. One of the things that we do is make sure that help and support is available in real-time for any issues our customers face, and those get solved promptly. That has actually helped us build a very strong brand equity. 

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 when you had to stay engaged with your employees?

Employees are a company’s biggest asset. With the work force getting younger and more diverse, it is important to build a strong sense of community while keeping them strongly aligned to the company’s culture, vision and goals. The role of internal communications has become even more important during the pandemic as everyone is working virtually and we are also hiring a lot of new employees across roles and geographies. Building a sense of belongingness in a virtual workforce is much tougher. From virtual town halls to online jamming sessions and celebrations – Internal communications has taken centre stage to foster a sense of camaraderie among the workforce. 

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?

It is hard to measure the value of PR because there is no immediate ROI that you can present. However, the true value of a good PR program lies in its ability to shape and influence customer behaviour towards your offering and brand. This is long term and takes a lot of time across multiple touch points. The PR industry has to move beyond the measurement of AVE as a PR campaign success metric and tie it to real business problems. For example, if top of the mind recall in certain regions is a business problem which the company is trying to solve, then PR should sharp shoot and focus on running a sustained campaign in those regions. Most marketing campaigns run customer surveys to measure the before and after impact, and PR should be driving the TOM along with the other mass media campaigns that are being run. Other metrics which should be granularly tracked would include brand mentions, sentiment around the brand, engagement with your content, reach and share of voice. 

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?

In the last few years, industry practitioners as well as educational institutes have introduced specialised courses in communications and PR and those definitely help anyone looking at getting a foothold in this industry. Also, there are a few things which any budding PR professional should definitely focus on. Top of the mind is good writing. You need to be able to put your point across engagingly and succinctly and also adapt your writing to suit different mediums; from blogs to press releases to articles and social media posts it is important to get the tone, the style and the messaging right. You should also constantly read and be aware of where the news cycle is headed. As PR professionals, you would be expected to advise the leadership team on media questions which the company should be commenting on and it is important for you to have a clear point of view. You should also understand the media landscape really well both online and offline as that will help you pitch the right stories to the right journalists. 

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 and the final output?

PR and Communications were very high touch professions, thriving on face-to-face interactions, but we have adapted well to the pandemic. I have personally not seen the quality or output of stories slow down. The key reason is that the “high touch” was actually driving “high trust” leading to good engagement. We have figured out ways to build a “high trust” model with stakeholders digitally. We are talking to the media more than ever, and our reach has definitely become wider, though a lot of stories now have a digital first slant. 

Your PR partner plays an important role in building your brand reputation and also helps you in shaping a positive opinion of the company. How do you measure your agency’s performance and evaluate them every year?

Our PR agency is an extension of the in-house and we collaborate and work very closely with them. We also over-index on the quality of output generated over the quantity of output. The performance management is done on a quarterly basis, and for some metrics, on a monthly basis, so there are no surprises, and the agency is always in sync with the direction we want to go in.