Today’s consumers want honest messaging & personalisation: Preeti Binoy

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. At the same time the industry has been facing stiff challenges, moreover client expectations have 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, Preeti Binoy, Head - Corporate Communications & Government Affairs (India), Kimberly Clark, speaks about her over two-decade long journey in PR, the role of digital in PR, Huggies and the diaper business, PR for FMCG brands, and more.

You have been in the business of PR and communication for over two decades. How has your journey been, both at agency and client side, and what are some of the trends that you are noticing as we embark in a new world after the pandemic?

Public Relations as a practice in India has grown over the years with many advertising agencies including PR services in their portfolio besides mushrooming of independent PR consultants to full-fledged PR agencies. For me, in the past 23 years of my career, increased maturity in public relations has allowed the industry to become more integral to brand communications. Social media has had a profound effect on public relations, creating new opportunities and challenges for brands. But the good side is that over the years, PR has become a trusted business partner to steer a company ahead. My career journey can be described in 3 words – Upward, Learning, and Evolving.

The year 2020 was a major catalyst for a digital revolution in many industry sectors. The pandemic transformed the PR industry in ways that were hard to predict previously. Driven by trends like remote working, communications plan and strategy have undergone a significant metamorphosis. As we embark on a new world, one big change that we have seen during and post the pandemic where mass in-person events including large-scale business and press conferences – along with seminars, concerts, and trade fairs were eliminated. To keep up, businesses are adapting to a “virtual” or digital form of events, using technologies like virtual conferencing and webinars. Coffee table chats or lunch meetings are now being replaced with virtual meetings – that are likely to stay even in the post-COVID “normal” world.

What is the role of digital in PR and how have you adapted to the digital transformation to engage with your various audiences?

Digital PR has emerged as a powerful tool for generating exposure and establishing credibility online. It’s a thing of the past to use print media or mere ads to introduce your brand to your target audience. Digital PR as a tool is here to make a significant impact. It is constantly evolving, becoming more effective day by day. For me, it is part of my strong strategy pillar that combines content marketing, emails, SEO, and social media tactics into a single powerful weapon for brand promotion. A well-thought-out PR strategy could be the difference between you and your competitors in terms of popularity, sales, and SEO ranking. So, my recommendation, start using digital PR and see the results first hand.

The category that Kimberly Clark is into needs a lot of educational campaigns. How have you leveraged PR to drive education for your products?

Huggies first brought attention to the diaper need in 2010, when our groundbreaking study revealed 1 in 3 US moms were unable to provide fresh, clean diapers for their babies. Huggies took action by becoming the founding sponsor of the National Diaper Bank Network, and has since donated over 270 million diapers to babies in need. Today, Huggies is continuing to help make a difference by providing diapers and wipes to babies in need. We are partnering with the nurses of AWHONN and the National Diaper Bank Network to support the national Healthy Mom & Baby Diaper Drive, providing diapers to families in need.

Huggies compiled this whitepaper to help bring awareness to diaper need, providing vital facts and figures along with ways you can help support those in need of diapers. Huggies designed this infographic to help provide education on diaper need, as well as offer ways you can help others struggling to provide diapers to their children.

Working on a PR campaign for FMCG brands is challenging. How have you overcome that challenge and what kind of PR strategy works for your brands?

Today’s consumers are looking to trust the brands they use. They want honest messaging and personalisation. So, it is best to lose the hard-sell brand speak. Lose it now!

My mantra has always been to focus on strengthening and increasing brand awareness and generating consumer interest with a PR strategy that is able to support and reinforce the marketing campaigns. Thus, directing consumers through the sales funnel to a purchase.

How do you address the smaller markets for your products? What has been your PR strategy for the regional markets?

I think the most important aspect while designing a PR campaign for regional markets is to go hyperlocal for the brand’s messaging. Campaigns today for different regions need to be customised in local languages and that needs to be at the centre of every regional market campaign.

Any measurement method you follow to check the impact and effectiveness of your campaign? What’s your view on measurement where there is always a debate?

It’s important that we don’t stand for vanity metrics and old-school reporting. The first step in measuring PR’s impact is going beyond the basics. Start by evaluating your goals: what’s the most important goal you want to achieve? If your answer is purely PR-driven, you could opt for awareness, media reach, the share of voice, news penetration, PR distribution, business press acquisition, and so on. But you need to think bigger. While PR metrics like these are valuable and important to measure, they’re limiting. The more strategic way to measure PR is to tie your program to your company's strategic goals like sales, competitive differentiation, acceptance, new markets, and investments.