PR has become a continuous process of co-creation: Arvind Saxena

With the year drawing to a close, Adgully has been doing a recap of all the major developments across M&E, Advertising, Digital, Marketing, Print, Television, PR & Communications along with leading names in the industry as part of the annual REWIND 2021 series.

As opposed to the severe disruptions brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the year 2021 has been more about resilience and rebuilding.

Arvind Saxena, GM & Head - Marketing & Corporate Communications, NEC Corporation India, recounts the key developments in the field of PR in 2021, the digital amplification taking place in this industry, challenges ad learnings from this period and much more.

Could you give us a 360-degree view of the significant developments and trends in the Indian PR industry in 2021?

Public Relations (PR) has been one of the mainstays of all leading organizations in building credibility for the brand. However, the industry has witnessed a strategic shift with the rise of discerning audiences and the opportunity to consume content across platforms. Since authenticity is one of the hallmarks of PR or reputation management, increasingly more and more organizations and marketers are focusing on driving PR-first communication strategy and subsequently rolling out integrated campaigns.

Social media has undoubtedly become not just a platform for consumption, but expression as well, enabling every individual to be a storyteller. Therefore, it is imperative to drive differentiated and authentic brand content on social platforms as well and therefore found to be an extension of stories being told through earned media.

Public relations as a function has transitioned with the ever-growing channels; the pandemic led marketers to realise that PR cannot be limited to events/ conferences followed by release dissemination but can be extended to storytelling, brand building, and restoring trust currency. Furthermore, digital amplification and marketing intelligence lead brands to reach wider audiences quickly, better targeting, and drive specific outcomes.

Here are a few trends I observed in the PR industry in 2021:

Purpose-driven playbook: Brands have started to realise the relevance of demonstrating true purpose. Companies will be left behind if they will not use PR to exhibit authenticity and to articulate and manifest the purpose of the organization as an extension of their values, and then communicate this to both internal and external audiences.
SEO and owned media: PR has become a powerful tool to fulfill SEO objectives. PR works alongside content marketing to seed keywords in blogs, listicles, articles, interviews, etc., and optimise searches through marketing intelligence, thereby building brand authentication.
Human connects: PR allows brands to establish a deeper human connection irrespective of physical presence. Especially for NEC India, PR ties well with our people-centric approach (employees & customers) through internal and external communication as most of our offerings aim to make a positive change in the end-user's life by solving real societal challenges.
Reimagine and collaborate: While PR might not be the sole channel for B2C companies, many B2B companies on the other hand have realized the role of PR and how it directly impacts business outcomes. Big B2B companies have replaced conventional PR techniques with creative story-telling, experiential marketing, and social media capabilities to tell consumer truths.

What were the key challenges that you faced? What were the learnings from this period?

One of the biggest challenges for marketers in the B2B sector, in my opinion, was to streamline internal and external communication as well as tell the ‘Impact’ story at the opportune time keeping in mind various stakeholders. Previously PR used to be a one-way street where only brands could tell their story but now, with the involvement of multiple stakeholders - employees, clients, end-users, prospects, investors, new talent, analysts, policy makers, etc. everyone has an opportunity to relate to the brand, add their voice to the story and break/build credibility. PR has become a continuous process of co-creation, resolving complex problems where customers (through testimonials) have an equal play. Therefore, brands must tell a genuine, compelling, and authentic story to restore brand trust and engage these multiple stakeholders.

Overcoming challenges and incorporating our learning experience, we at NEC India leveraged our PR strategy to:

Engage our existing workforce and evoke a sense of pride through our team’s impact on the society
Showcase technology prowess, innovation, greater traction with customers, analysts, and prospects
Build mindshare amongst customers and prospects through our effective external communication
Focused PR strategy: concentrating on building thought-leadership and expertise in the respective field and/or concentrating on any campaign and getting media coverage around it.

What does the outlook for 2022 look like? Any new trends that one can witness in the PR & Corporate Communications world?

As the ICT behemoth, a world leader in biometrics, ORAN, AI, and a plethora of technologies, NEC will be replicating the success of its global technology solutions in India by customized offerings. For the past 122 years, from satellites to submarines and everything in between, NEC has kept-up its innovation streak, with ~50k patents to its credit. So it will be critical for us to showcase NEC's technology innovation leadership, the benefit of its offerings to Indian citizens, and highlight its purpose of ‘Orchestrating a brighter world’ responsibly.

For many years, NEC has been working as a silent crusader in proactively predicting, communicating, and devising deployable solutions that encompass emerging technology trends for the benefit of the larger society. Now it's time for us to encapsulate the impact story with the larger NEC purpose and showcase the advantage that end-users in India experience.

For instance, utilising the world's cutting-edge digital technologies, including image recognition, object recognition, the IoT, AI, and the like, NEC is working on the completion of ‘Value Chain Innovation’ that solves social issues as well as creates new values by connecting people, things, and processes throughout supply chains.

Three major trends in the PR & Corporate Communications world that we might witness in 2022 include:

Using PR as a tool to ensure trust amongst stakeholders (Internal and external) to attract the top talent
Using PR to build exponential awareness that directly delivers Return on investment (ROI) to the bottom line
The clarity in communication will be very important and PR agencies will have to come up with time-bound solutions, with a focus on long-term strategy.