Rewind 2022: PR needs to embrace strategic planning and thinking - Deeptie Sethi

It’s time to review the most significant industry developments as the year 2022 draws to a close. Adgully is reviewing the year 2022 for the M&E, advertising, digital, marketing, PR and communications, along with leading names in the industry as part of our annual Rewind series.

Recapping the year 2022, Deeptie Sethi, CEO, PRCAI, speaks at length about the evolution of PR since the Covid struck, the realisation of the role of PR at the boardroom, why PR needs to embrace strategic thinking. She also sheds light on the three key pillars of PRCAI.

Key trends and developments in PR in 2022

Post-Covid, the role of communications as an industry has grown. One thing that Covid did was that it allowed the C-Suite to recognise how important PR is as a function and how it can help brands in difficult situations. We also have to see, going forward, how to preserve the opportunity of the role that communication is going to play in this whole discipline of brand building.

The other trend that I see from a communications perspective is digital and the role it can play in integrated communications. So, we can see a lot more shifts happening. It is just not about moving from tactics to outcomes, it is about the opportunity and how to increase our toolkit to be able to manage. It is not just about press releases or media relations, but it is also about building experiences. It is about learning how we can reach directly to the consumers, and the role digital will play into it with this opportunity of integrated communications.

The third trend is communication is now looked at as a problem solving tool. So, it is more solution-oriented. It is about building consumers’ experiences and reaching them directly. Thus, that is where the shift in communication is moving forward. Something to watch out for is the purpose of all of this communication, the role of advocacies, corporate social responsibility, and internal communications. Your stakeholders of communication are also changing. These present us with the opportunity to embrace strategic planning and thinking and to reach out.

Experience working with PRCAI

I feel humbled and honoured that I was given this responsibility. It is beautiful to see the kind of stakeholders that you would address in this whole PR community with this role. And I am really proud that we have started almost afresh to think about where the gaps are and what the opportunities are. One big gap that came to the forefront was talent. We are producing maybe one-fourth of the talent that the industry really needs. So, where are the new hunting grounds? And that’s where a global exchange like this comes in, because we are really learning from it. How can we work closer with the student community from grassroot level?

The second thing about addressing talent in the camp that I brought in was to make the certification program live. I think it was really important from our perspective of looking at this young talent that has entered the PR industry, sometimes by choice and sometimes by chance. The certifications allow us to provide a common lens to see where they stand and how they can get the clients. There is a level of expectation that’s happening from that perspective. So, certification was one thing that I feel is a very good start, now we have to make it more rigorous and ensure that for the people who are certified it is not a one-time activity, but that they keep learning. I think we have triggered a mindset, and that’s what we got to nurture.

We have commissioned this program called The Writing Pen Challenge – the basic objective is to get the young PR into the habit of writing. This is a 10-12 week program where we bring various experts from the media to help the young professionals to visualise, research, look at different forms of writing, and learn from those who are experts in this area. With this with can look to bridging the gap in learning. There has been an overwhelming response to this program. These camps are bringing in answers to the three pillars of PRCAI:

• How to become more inclusive – there are several people who are our members apart from just the consultancies, so how can we have a fruitful dialogue?
• How do we make this as a Knowledge Hub?
• How do we position ourselves to be the think tank of the industry?

Thus, driving elite conversations will be very important to various platforms, blogs, discussions, and listening circles. That is what you will see a lot more happening in 2023 from PRCAI.

Overall performance of PRCAI

I would not say just one year, but it started from the COVID perspective, when marketing was not the front facing thing and people from the C-Suite realised what PR professionals can contribute. I believe the role of communication is only going to grow. There is an expectation from us as to how we can become more strategic; how we can have the right conversations at the boardrooms; how we can know the realities on the ground and really make this profession be acknowledged and recognised in that light. That’s what the role of communication is going to be. We have to really direct our strategies to be ethical, honest, and see how the brand takes advantage of our understanding of the space to be able to do that for their own brands.