Risk appetite has definitely grown in the PR industry: Xavier PRabhu

As the year 2021 draws to a close, it is time to recap the major developments across the industry. As in the previous years, Adgully has been reviewing the year 2021 for M&E, Advertising, Digital, Marketing, PR & Communications along with leading names in the industry.

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

In conversation with Adgully, Xavier PRabhu, Founder & Managing Director, PR Hub, speaks at length about the performance of the PR industry in India in 2021, the multiple developments seen during the year, the growing maturity plus credibility seen in the influencer marketing space and much more.

Major developments and trends in the Indian PR industry in 2021

First and foremost, the industry has performed really well this year particularly in India and has proved to be highly resilient. We have tuned ourselves and captured the opportunity posed by the numerous changes triggered by the pandemic.

There were multiple major developments the industry witnessed due to the pandemic the biggest being with remote working and the media. As all of us shuttered to move to the remote work mode, there are challenges arising out of the same which are now slowly coming up and need to be discussed/ analysed/ debated. There is clearly evidence coming out of surveys across industries that particularly for freshers and early employees, the remote work from home is proving to be a disadvantage as they remain disconnected to the firm and its ethos with virtual not able to plug that. Also, the power of collaborating in person, impromptu discussions and other conversations when diverse people huddle in an office are clearly being missed. Virtual, however, powerful and enabled by technology, is not able to replace this and for creative industries like PR, where much of what we do is subjective this is an important facet that cannot and should not be brushed under the carpet.

Also, while we saw employees highly productive during the first wave of remote working we did see it significantly dip in the second wave both due to weariness and also a certain confidence that stemmed from knowing one can get away with it. The other challenge of remote working is also loneliness and lack of bonding, which leads to its own issues which we saw in many of our own employees. We are sort of looking at a multi-model, which has not one or two but three elements but all fused well keeping the above in mind. The three models are – some will come to office all the time, some will come to the office some days a week and some will come to office only few times a year.

On the media front, the shrinking of print and overall revenue shrinking of the media does pose major challenges and accelerates the shift towards online and digital, which was already gathering steam. There is some talk of print rebound and hopefully that is sooner than later.

The influencer front is slowly clearing up and its maturity plus credibility/ reliability factor going up will serve all the stakeholders good. There is mushrooming of podcasts and video chat shows which are both good and bad – so one has to wait and watch how the audiences are reacting to and consuming these in the near future.

Key challenges & new learnings

Learnings have been many and that is one thing we will look back at 2020/ 2021 gratefully for. The risk appetite has definitely grown and there were multiple business model changes that have been initiated and in the offing that puts us in a new direction which am very excited about. We have accelerated our investment in technology, though it is clear we understand very little of it and there will be hits and misses in that journey of ours, but we must plough along nevertheless. We are creating multiple new revenue lines over and above the existing ones, which will ensure there is some amount of cushion when there are drastic changes or headwinds like the pandemic. After being conservative on hiring and keeping costs on talent in control, we are swathing back to the investment mode and will strengthen the leadership/ talent at every level. In keeping with the new multi-model, we will only work out of co-working places in all locations other than Bangalore where we already have invested in creating one of the best agency offices in India.

Integrated is an area we want to push more and we believe it allows us to deliver clear value to clients and also is a difficult area to master considering the numerous skillsets and capabilities one needs to have to be able to deliver it successfully.

While we will increase our investment in training & development, we are still trying to figure which is the most effective way of doing it and mode of delivery. A lot of training seems to be not resulting in any perceivable change or skill addition, which is a major concern, as it then becomes superficial and not a differentiator or value generating.

The biggest learning is anything can happen and one needs to be prepared for it. Also, to have one’s business model flexible and nimble to adapt quickly without significant repercussions or impact.

Outlook for 2022

Completely to the contrary. It will be an all out aggressive approach, which is more akin to the fail quickly, learn fast approach that start-ups are more known for. The landscape is fast changing and there are too many moving parts. No one is going to get it all right and this is the best approach in this context. It requires a new mindset, which I think have developed over the last 20-odd months, as I turned a start-up entrepreneur myself.

Tech-enabled. We will see more technology coming to be used by agencies across the board.

Paid will grow and will need to be part of any PR plan or campaign.

Talent churn will continue and industry will continue to grapple with its quality of talent and attrition issues. There will be no clear solutions as the industry is not in one voice on this and there are no established processes or standards to adhere to.

Investment in training & development will rise across the board.

We will embrace digital even more – not that there is much choice and that will mean not just practices headed by someone experienced in digital but building capabilities in digital. There is a difference between both though a fine but big one.

Innovation in business model as we seek new revenue streams will become more important.

Indian economy is likely to do well in 2022, so some growth across the board will happen, but real growth will be for those who are ready for the bigger challenge ahead.