Thought leadership is not something one can build overnight: Rachna Baruah

In the last 10 years, PR has taken a different dimension, especially after the entry of social media and the rapid shift to digital, especially in the pandemic period. However, at the same time the industry has been facing stiff challenges, moreover client expectations has also increased, with more emphasis being given to digital and online reputation management. The industry has undergone a radical shift and the current times have pushed the industry to change gears.

In conversation with Adgully, Rachna Baruah, Founder, Madchatter, speaks about the changing face of PR, working with start-ups, thought leadership in the new normal, and more.

You started as a young entrepreneur in the PR business. How has been your journey and what are some of the trends you have noticed that have changed in PR in the few years?

Starting early comes with its pros and cons. While I started at the age of 23, without the typical decades of experience and network under my belt, I could bring in fresh perspectives and ways of solving clients’ pain points that helped Madchatter grow so exponentially. Today, our growth can be attributed to novel ways of solving problems and from our ability to understand the new-age PR and media landscape. Our campaigns have enabled early start-ups in etching a niche in their domains while building a cerebral rapport with the landscape.

The business of communication dynamically changed with the onslaught of COVID-19. The pandemic fast-forwarded India’s pace of digital transformation and that impacted every industry alike, PR being no exception. COVID made the industry leapfrog towards digital transformation. Consumption of news became predominantly digital because of the lockdown, as print copies of newspapers were not available. Take, for instance, the emergence of News in Twitter.

There was a time not very long ago, when a typical cycle of news stories used to be in newspapers followed by a copy on the website, but the supply cycle of that has drastically evolved. Today news first breaks on the publication’s own app, then hitting news alerts digitally, followed by the social handles of the outlet and the journalists. This also has put a focus on how journalists build their personal brands in the ever evolving landscape. This naturally changes how PR professionals and the PR industry at large are able to complement and support these changes. The ubiquitousness of social media and digital transformation has changed the entire landscape of communication, be it the media, or advertising, or Public Relations.

The focus of your company has been with many start-ups. So, how do you go about building their brand leveraging PR? Do you follow any structured process so that your messaging is sharp and focussed?

Over the years, we have serviced start-ups and businesses that have had little to no brand presence or have had a dip in perception that needed a breath of fresh air. The crux of every successful delivery lies in creative storytelling and good old ability to deep dive and understand their industries and pain points. We start by prioritising the type of landscape and niche are clients are present in, followed by engaging several positioning and market credibility building tools. Our focus is towards enabling and facilitating the business’ objectives and help secure for them high profile, cost-effective exposure that benefits the bottomline objectives.

It cannot be discounted that in this day and age effective communication is absolutely mission critical for every business, be it to create or consolidate brand visibility or reputation, to manage crises or to promote a product or a service. All communication has at its core four key dimensions – the message, the creator of the message, the messenger and the recipient. The post COVID-19 era is seeing brand marketers, advertisers and consultants rethink their ways, revisit strategies and innovate integrated content approaches to reach out to where their consumer is, effectively!

The economic impact of the pandemic has already led many businesses to slash down their operational and marketing spends. Many brands are now increasingly trying out newer content formats, integrated mediums/ channels of content distribution to reach out to their relevant audience persuasively and more effectively, thereby bringing both democratisation of information and strategic placement of content to the forefront.

With the advent of multiple screens, be it the smartphone, the tablet and the laptop and multiple digital platforms and social media channels, consumer’s content consumption behaviour have been undergoing seismic shifts. Today’s young, urban, acutely time-crunched netizens prefer to consume short and precise, bite-sized, high impact streamed content on the device of their choice, whenever and from wherever. Consumers today absorb, interact and consume content at their terms, at their convenience and in their method. Therefore, content needs to be crisp, relevant and customised to the medium – be it rich media, multimedia, blog, social media, print etc while also ensuring that the essence and the messaging remains sacrosanct.

CSR has become very important for every CEO and corporate. What, according to you, is the role of PR in CSR campaigns? How do corporates leverage CSR activities through PR?

There is no doubt, given the current circumstances, CSR and philanthropic activities are increasingly gaining heightened prominence. In these testing times, serving the community will go a long way in riveting brand salience and its equity in people’s minds. Not only will it help a brand gain customers’ love, trust and support, but will also add to its credibility in the long run.

Several research papers have time and again reiterated how Corporate Social Responsibility can improve long-term business performance and that consumers prefer to patronise brands with strong legacy of social responsibility and are more likely to associate with companies with strong ethical values.  People want to buy from businesses they respect. Here, PR can play a definitive role in ensuring that customers, other stakeholders and the local community know about the good work that the organisation is doing. PR should give companies a voice to inform and inspire people about their CSR efforts. However, companies should be cautious that they don’t make CSR a purely marketing tool.

Dynamics of PR have changed with the digital transition. How much technology does your organisation embrace to bring in efficiency and productivity in your workings to deliver that extra value to your clients?

It’s fascinating to see how Public Relations is enabling agility and assisting players in moving up the value chain and across the sustainable well-being spectrum faster than ever before.

Over the years, I have learnt that the management of communication and reputation is the most essential aspect of an organisation. The term “public relations” has evolved over time. At Madchatter Brand Solutions, we provide our clients ideas to combine all the aspects in the communication space like PR, Social Media, Content Creation, Digital Marketing, Events, etc. I personally crave the new need to optimise steps. This increased requirement to optimise communication processes has resulted in deep minimalism – a term strongly connected with a system’s capacity to reduce steps while ensuring quality.

As a small agency you must be agile and nimble footed. What are some of the processes you follow to tackle new business and what has been your strike rate when it comes to new business?

Madchatter has had a remote, flexible working format since its launch in 2017, because I identified that the future of working will remain hybrid and flexible. This is a reason why business was as usual when the lockdowns were implemented worldwide. Our processes and working style has always been centred towards smart reporting practices and agility rather than having traditional means of work.

This is a reason why our reporting mechanism to our clients is equally agile and catered to what their business needs, rather than clogging efficiency with a long line of processes. The team at Madchatter is open to recommending and implementing systems that make us agile and smarter, while staying more connected with each other than ever. This helps foster intrapreneurial tendencies in our teams. Today, our work is 100% digital with the help of SaaS and cloud.

Many brands and clients want to achieve a thought leadership position overnight. We all know that attaining a thought leadership position as a spokesperson and brand takes time. What’s your view on thought leadership?

Thought leadership is not something one can build overnight. It takes a lot more than one blog, social post or networking event to cement yourself as a trusted leader in any domain. Experience, expertise, visibility, credibility, insight and valuable perspectives are some elements that can establish one as a thought leader.

If you are not a known brand, for example, in the early stages of your business or conducting business in a highly saturated market, one of the best ways to stand out and build visibility is to just be real with people. Whether it is providing some advice, inspiring and educating others, or sharing an expert point of view, at its essence, thought leadership is about having something meaningful to say that resonates with customers’ needs, demands, wants and aspirations. This method not only has the capacity to drive credibility and equity for a brand, but it's likely to foster a more involved and connected audience.

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