Dear All,
I have come across instances, when the agency refuses to share media contacts with the client. I believe this is absurd as being at the agency side for quite long time, I never thought that my strengths are only the media contacts that the agency has (getting media contacts probably is not that difficult, if one wants to compile). I always believed as an agency our strengths are the concepts and ideas that we collectively come up with to help the client right mileage in the media.
Refusing to sharing media contacts with the clients while on a contract I believe is unethical. This practice is not prevalent even in developed countries, where PR is practiced from decades.
I believe this is too childish, would be interested in knowing your views and how do you deal with this, if you are on the corporate side and incase you are on the agency side then how to do you react to such requests.
Your inputs will be highly appreciated.
Media Lists, a prized possession of every PR professional, which most often is the last thing he would want to share it with anyone, even his colleagues, let alone his clients. What could be the reasons for such a behavior? Insecurity; fear of losing clients, once they get hold of the media contacts; or fear of backlash from the media, who had trusted him and shared their personal mobile numbers with him.
To understand this, I had posted a query titled – ‘Refusing to share media contacts with clients’ on Indian PR Forum and few LinkedIn groups and the result was quite intriguing. The discussion took shape into a very interesting and a healthy debate, where three groups were formed, one which believed, no matter what, media list should not be shared at any cost, while the other group debated that there is no harm in sharing a media list as sharing contacts does not mean sharing relationships. On the other hand the third group took a neutral stand and argued that there should not be a thumb rule for sharing or not sharing the lists, it would depend on the kind of relationship and trust you share with your clients. Surprisingly the debate drew interests from very senior professionals from India and many other countries.
The reasons put forward by the first group (who are against sharing the list) had valid arguments to put forward and which certainly did not seem absurd and childish (as I had first thought). BN Kumar, from Concept PR, opines, “Media contacts are developed with a painstaking work over the years. The lists with personal numbers are properties of the agencies. The entire process of media relations depends on the contacts that the agency or client develops. Clients’ job becomes easier once they get the media lists with contact numbers. That’s where the sense of insecurity creeps in and in many cases clients do not renew their contracts with agencies once they get the lists from agencies.”
Tarunjeet from Nucleus PR, adds that “A lot of journalists trust the PR professionals with their cell numbers that are to be used only during emergencies and absolute desperate conditions. Somewhere, with aggressive clients this message, despite reiterations, is lost and they start getting calls for events for the CEOs son’s birthday, or to a press conference wherein the client is trying to make a personal connect. This not only spoils the relationship of the journalist with the client but more so with the PR professional and the entire agency as a whole for all their clients.” While Owuoche Elizabeth, Associate Account Director – Silver Bullet PR, Kenya, says, “As a PR consultant I would like to have the upper hand, I want the client to come to me! I want the journalist to call me to set up opportunities with the client; I need to protect my role as the middleman.” Abha Azad at Finese PR, New Delhi, asserts, “The issue is: why the list is required by a client at all if it is working with a consultancy? If you have several points of contact, the media relations activity by itself becomes a problem. If the client starts to approach the media on its own, which I presume is why he/she is asking for the list, then an external/independent Consultancy is seen as an extraneous body which will delay the “response time”. I mean “why approach them if I have direct contact!!!”, would be the typical thought process of the media.”
The second group (who believes that agency should by all means share the media contacts) questions the basic fundamentals of the agencies. Vikas Kamboj, Associate Director at Indian Staffing Federation, Noida, says, “It seems that some agencies are stuck in some sort of time warp, where lists were the prized possessions. It just shows utter lack of sound knowledge about Public Relations as a profession. A consultancy, is about ideas and the insights they bring on the table about the publics (where media holds the major share of the pie) who matter.” Chet Wade, MD, Dominion, Richmond, Virginia, believes, “The value is in the relationship — as well as understanding what each media member and outlet finds interesting / valuable. A media list is like a lump of clay. You can find them anywhere. What matters is how the artist works on it. Good communicators are artists at defining a good pitch. I am on the corporate side, but I would not have a problem sharing contact lists with a client if I were on the agency side.”
Harshendra Verdhan, Manager – PR at Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited, is of the view that, “Agencies need to understand that it’s not only contacts but the trust and bond with client is what matters. You have to be transparent with the client. If I am in the industry from many years than it is certain that, even I will have contacts, which will help me to procure the list if the agency denies. Agencies should understand the fact that they have a wider role to play.” While Kunal Karn is of the view that, “PR agencies have to grow a bit from being just a media agencies and playing a role of coordinator between client and journalist. There are many strategic roles that a PR agency can play for its clients.” Nayna Banerjee, Head Corporate Communications at Rabo India Finance Limited, had a straight answer, “If having a list is the only strength an agency has………..time my friend to look for the next one.”
But the most compelling and convincing arguments came from our third group of friends (the neutrals), who believed that there cannot be a blanket rule or agency policy for sharing or not sharing media coordinates. Aarif Malik, Vice President at Madison Public Relations, says “I’ve rarely refused to give away a media list, but before just giving out the list, I would like to seek two answers from the client, Why does the client want the media list? And what kind of details in the list? This helps me to understand the purpose behind the request. However, asking for contact details in the list is a different ballgame altogether. I’ve given such lists as well, but then they’ve turned out to be an indicator of an unpleasant situation building up between the client and the agency. If the agency is under-delivering, then the agency has to buck up. But if the client is doing that despite no fault of the agency, then I for one usually feel a little insulted. But again, that doesn’t stop me from giving contact details of media because I want the client to experiment himself / herself and realize that the agency has not been under-delivering. I’ve realized that once your client does this, you usually end up getting the client on your side.”
Sourav Das, Corporate Affairs & Communications, Cairn India, points to a scenario where the Corporate Communication team is built with Ex-Agency professionals. In such a scenario, if Agency declines – corp. cormm teams do it themselves – but at the end of it there is bad blood that remains. He says, “Database is not equal to relationships. So the agencies need to shed insecurity and focus on the core – building images (for clients and for themselves), but at the same time one needs to use judgment as to whom they are sharing their database. It should be shared with people who know the PR etiquettes, sensitivities and fine nuances of this profession. Tarunjeet from Nucleus, suggests a heart to heart chat, she says “You need to take the time to do this. After this if it does not work then by all means end the association. But if you cannot take the time to build the trust then maybe both you and the agency are not suited for each other.”
Anshuman Chakravarty, states that, “Every effort has a value and a price- even collecting media database”, from a client side if you ensure a “contract” which enables you to get media contacts, I think that’s the best way forward.” While Muyiwa Akande, Media Manager at Mediacraft Associates Limited from Nigeria, very beautifully explains, “I really don’t see anything odd in sharing media contacts with clients. The demon is always in the details, the popular saying goes. I believe media relations are an integral part of PR but it is not all of it. As PR consultants we need to constantly raise the bar in areas like strategy development, cutting-edge advisory services, creatively “disruptive” ideas, et al. Even if the client has all the media contacts, he will still need our services if we develop competencies in the above mentioned areas.”
The arguments can go on forever as each one of us will stand by our own understanding, but after dwelling into so much detail of the issue, I have come to a conclusion that a media list prepared by an agency is its proprietary possession and no one should force them to share, unless clarified through a contract at the beginning of the relationship. While at the same time, agencies should not see all clients from the same view point, if such a request does come from a client, then the agency’s decision should be based on their understanding, relationship and intentions of the client making such a request. If you do not see anything wrong, then there is no harm in sharing and expecting the client to reciprocate in the same manner.
Clients on the other hand also need to understand their responsibilities and know for a fact that competing with your partners will eventually only bring discontent and loss of opportunities for both sides. Clients should give due credit for the agency’s work and as far as possible communicate with the media through the agency.
I urge you to read through all the comments on http://www.vikypedia.in/2012/02/26/who-owns-the-media-list/ and check what the pulse of the industry is saying…
To comment on this post, please visit www.vikypedia.in
Brands in their mission to reach out to their target audience adopt numerous marketing tactics, some unique and many tried and tested. Today’s Brand Equity talks about how Nokia tried to regain their market dominance in the dual-sim category by adopting differentiated marketing strategies to reach out to non-urban audiences. It used bikers under ‘Nokia Blue Brigade’ to rally small towns of Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It relied on street plays or Nukkad Natak in a massive way by reaching out to 575 towns and villages across six North Indian states by roping in Lok Kala Sanstha from Chhattisgarh,. In these Nukkad Nataks, a group of artists would enter a crowded market area and enact a comedy play, which smartly weaved the benefits of dual-sim handsets into the script. This was followed by demonstrations of the device and also prizes for those who purchased on the spot. The company was able to sell over 5300 dual-sim handsets on the spot. In rural Maharashtra, it spread awareness using torch rallies, with 75-1100 people participating. In cities like Delhi, Jaipur, Lucknow and Bhopal the company ran digital and radio campaigns, inviting twins to launch their brands and become their brand ambassador for the day. In Delhi, Nokia’s Twins Day Out’ festival saw 63 pairs of twins coming together, which helped them enter the Limca Book of Records for organizing the largest gathering of twins in India at a single venue.
While big brands like Nokia have time and again demonstrated their marketing skills time and again, there are other lesser known brands like Tata Housing in a more serious category like Real Estate try to innovative and differentiate themselves by adopting unique strategies. Recently when the company launched a low-cost housing project in Ahmedabad, it roped in Bhawai performers from Ahmedabad theatre group to enact a song-drama act in a beautifully scripted story creating awareness about the launch of the project. The Bhawai performance was initiated at the launch press conference itself and was then played at various busy streets and malls of Ahmedabad. In another instance the company roped in Mime artists to announce the launch of the project in its press conference.
Such disruptive techniques used by brands in building their brand image goes a long way in creating that top of the mind recall amongst its target audience in today’s cluttered marketing space. “Disruptive marketing is not a bag of tricks, but a well-grounded approach that requires a strong constitution to do things differently and distinctively. You are not expecting something when you get to see something. That’s disruptive. And it makes you think about the brand. It is a bit of hodge-podge at times and critics have often felt it could damage the brand’s carefullybuilt reputation of consistency and reliability, but it actually delivers the goods,” comments Future Brands CEO and MD Santosh Desai, in an article of Tahelka magazine.
There are many such examples of ideas that make the brand tick, please share if you know of any and how we can integrate to drive some PR mileage as well.
Recently I had an opportunity to visit the newly opened office of Adfactors PR, one of India’s largest PR agencies and was amazed seeing the magnificent set-up. It seems that it is probably the largest single location office of a PR agency, anywhere in the world. The office boosts of all modern amenities that one would wish for, such as a library, a cafeteria that can accommodate 100 people at a time, a fully equipped gymnasium, indoor games facilities, yoga training, a doctor on call, a green zone in a large open terrace and most importantly an inhouse banquet hall for press conferences, specially designed keeping in mind technical requirements of the broadcast media. The new office reflects the confidence & conviction of one PR agency in the future of the PR business in India and certainly a matter of pride for the Indian PR industry.
Unarguably the PR scene in India is going through a huge transformation. Just about 15 years back, only couple of so called PR agencies operated armed with their fax machines and had employed few foot warriors, who’s job used to distribute press releases on behalf of the clients they were servicing, either by personally meeting the journalists or faxing the same to them. Today India has become one of the most sought after market for the world’s biggest names in the PR business. Most of them have already entered India few years back or finalizing their plans to foray into India.
This has brought the wave of change in the Indian PR business; many independently owned PR agencies either merged themselves with their International partners or have been acquired completely by the international biggies. The message was clear either raise your standards or leave the business. Clients going global and MNCs entering India, demanded more strategic inputs rather than just media clippings.
At one hand international PR agencies bring in more theoretical, data and analysis driven approach and on the other hand there are independent Indian origin agencies bringing in their strong understanding of India’s socio-economic-politico culture of Indian and long experience of working with the Indian media.
Many International PR agencies have been in India for over a decade now, but only very few could make India their profit center (ofcourse not comparable to their other office in US and other developed markets). Some of the reasons could be that it is very difficult to come to terms with the retainer fees offered to them by Indian clients, which largely hovers around 1 Lakh to 1.5 Lakh barring only handful of clients who pay in the range of 5 Lakh to 10 Lakh. Another reason could be that Indian companies gauge their PR success based on their visibility they get in the media, while international PR agencies focus more on strategic business outcomes, but if the strategy, ultimately does not deliver into visibility then it does not make any sense to the Indian clients. Large volume of clients (about 80%) are comfortable paying the retainer fees in the above 1 to 2 Lakh rupees, which is too small as compared to their international payouts, which is in the range of minimum $15000 to $20000.
On the other hand select independent Indian agencies have not only survived the global meltdown and takeover wave but have also grown stupendously when the world was going through the extended downturn. They are not only growing but are also investing in strengthening their offerings and talent base.
The good news in all this is the opportunity for Indian talent and the promise it holds for thousands of PR professionals working across India. At the end of this tug-of-war, there holds a bright future for Indian professionals to learn and grow in the highly elevated professional organizations. While PR markets across the developed world is at a very matured level, India holds a lot of promise for the business to grow by leaps and bounds. But it is also true that there is an urgent need for investing in the quality of talent available in India.
Your views on this will be highly appreciated. Please visit www.vikypedia.in to post your comments and feedback on the above write-up.
Hi Friends,
I plan to work on an article on the annual get together/AGMs conducted by PR agencies for their employees. For this I require inputs from two sets of respondents
1) The management representatives of the agency, who plan these AGMs
2) Employees of the agencies, who have attended such AGMs in their current or earlier agencies
Questions for the Management Representatives
1) What are the objectives behind hosting an AGM for employees?
2) What outcomes do you expect from the AGM
3) Are the expectations met post the AGM
4) Any interesting incident/learning derived from any of the AGMs that you share in detail?
Questions for the Employees
1) With what objective you attend the AGMs organized by your agency?
2) How do you think the AGMs help you in your working?
3) Any interesting learning/incident that you can share about the AGMs you have attended in your career
Please share the responses as frankly as possible and as soon as possible
India is still a very young and developing PR market as compared to the other developed economies in the world, brimming with a talent pool of fairly young professionals. About 40-50 thousand professionals work in this sector either in PR agencies or form a part of the internal communications team. The demand for PR professionals is increasing with every passing day as many foreign companies are looking at India as an important profit center and even domestic companies are now waking up to the importance of reputation and positive brand communications. Many international PR firms have made beeline into the country and domestic PR firms are expanding & growing or merging with international PR brand.
On the other hand, while there is demand for PR services in India, the reputation of the reputation management profession is heavily tarnished. It is not in the list of top 10 choicest professions for youngsters. Media do not respect PR pros and the feeling is mutual in most cases though both are vital to each other. Strategies do come out from the caps of top notch agency leads but die out before delivering any significant media visibility. Proactive PR is an ugly looking animal who we don’t even want to touch and are happy doing glorified post man’s job of conveying client initiatives to the media.
Have we ever wondered that, are we ready to take on the humongous growth that will soon enter India benefiting the Indian PR sector, will the clients trust us to manage their reputation or there will be a birth of new set of businesses who will walk away with opportunities meant for us, like it happened with Social Media business? The problem probably lies at the bottom of the pyramid – our own young trainees or junior executives who frontend the client and even the media.
I would like to know from the senior members of the team what training they actually offer to the new joinees.
I can safely say that only handful of agencies must be having some processes to address some or only few points mentioned above. The moment the trainee joins in, probably the first task given to them is to disseminate a press release and follow-up on the same. Three drastic damages can result from this
1) Before even starting the relationship with the media, the trainee in most cases spoils it and the perception stays in the particular journalist’s mind for the rest of his career as a joke.
2) The brand of the agency is miss represented and
3) Finally the spillover happens on the entire sector’s perception i.e. all PR guys are idiots.
Please don’t think that I am putting the entire blame on our youngsters, not at all, they are rarely at fault. It is the fault of the way we operate and do business, the way we choose talent and nurture them.
Let’s analyze why this happens:
1) Agencies in most cases are under paid and hence the concept of dedicated resource, who will invest time in researching and ideation, is very rare.
2) Every Account Manager (the most important link between the client and the agency) is over stressed, managing on average 3-4 accounts, which obviously leaves hardly any time for them to train their juniors. Also they themselves have been promoted to the position of an Account Manager after spending 3-4 years in the business without actually being trained on the fundamentals.
3) People above Account Managers, most of the time are busy running behind new business and better opportunities.
4) Everyone is only interested in one thing – COVERAGE, how you manage to get it is nobody’s problem
The problem may be even more deep rooted, lets mull over the following points
How are PR professionals recruited or brought into the system?
1) Ex- Journalists – Why – because they seem to have nose for the news, can understand story opportunities and may have already some connections with the media. They typically join at a level of Sr. Account Executive or Manager. Majority of today’s senior PR pros have come from this route, most have been successful barring few, who could not manage the pressure of client servicing.
2) The second group is of graduates, with some PR qualification – Diploma or the most recent Degree in Mass Communications. 40% of trainee to Sr. Executive level comprises of people coming through this route. It is here that the sector need to work together in enhancing the quality of talent
The point I am trying to bring forward is that we don’t get the cream of the talent for our sector and whatever we get, we let them rot and leave them to learn and earn on their own
All this above in turn impacts the credibility of the sector. We are supposed to be the consultants for the clients and advise them on how he can improve and safeguard their reputation, but do we have professionals to meet the client’s expectations. We are consciously trapped in the vicious circle i.e. we cannot establish our importance and credibility and hence we cannot demand higher retainer fees, so we cannot afford better talent with aptitude and knowledge to understand consumers & market and hence lower level of client satisfaction.
And why are we not doing much to change the situation?
Because, we are comfortable with our typical “Chalta Hai” attitude. The business is running and is also growing thanks to the current economy. If few clients are unhappy, there are many who are living with it and few are not even concerned to know where their money is going. If few of them leave, new ones will come. Who really cares or should care other than the agency owners as each individual employee’s average tenure at the agency is maximum 3 years. So let it continue the way it is.
I know I have angered many and few may even agree but what happens with that? Will we change?
Share your views….
We all know and agree with the statement that “An effective Public Relations is communicating with all stakeholders of the company to seed preference, increase positive visibility and enhance reputation,” but how many us actually lives by this? We may discuss, ideate, debate, argue but finally will boil down to how many media clippings will we get?
But hold! I have starting to see some diversion here. Heard recently that Edelman India has acquired Cream Events, an experiential marketing and events company. As reported by Holmes report, the acquisition will enable Edelman to offer a broader spectrum of integrated services. Cream Events will continue to trade and operate as an independent brand and separate legal entity. Edelman is positioning the acquisition as a boost to its “public engagement” communications model, which centers on the development of creative content and media-agnostic ideas. The firm will be able to engage stakeholders through multiple communications channels, including traditional media (print and broadcast), hybrid media (blogs and online publications), social media, owned media (websites) and experiential activities.
Robert Holdheim, MD of Edelman India, is quoted saying “the acquisition will also boost the overall level of creativity of our programs,” and enable Edelman to access Cream’s celebrity and influencer management business, which adds another capability to the mix.
Experiential marketing is a discipline that employs cross-media promotional activity, encouraging two way interaction and direct physical immersion into a brand. Though it is a relatively young marketing discipline, but is growing rapidly because it ticks a lot of the right boxes. Compared to mass media campaigns, experiential events tend to communicate on a much more personal level, generate a deeper level of emotional engagement, result in better conversion rates, and all at a relatively low cost. This discipline is getting more buy-in from marketers as it creates a personal dialogue with the consumer, which they cannot ignore, not because they’re being forced into it, but because it engages with them on a personal level.
With growing fragmentation and saturation of conventional media outlets, consumers are becoming immune to messages communicated through them. Experiential marketing activities range from high profile invite only events to tasters at a local malls and market areas.
Our business today needs a paradigm shift — moving beyond media relations to “stakeholder communications.” There cannot be one-size-fits-all approach to public relations. PR must not be limited to a singular tactic in a much larger marketing campaign. Instead, come up with ideas that engage audiences directly. Experiential marketing may be just one more addition and not the only.
Of course not all brands/companies will have budgets to try out unexplored tactics but we can look beyond whenever possible, and the good news is somewhere it has started and am sure we will all slowly move towards the new era of PR, which is beyond media relations. Kudos to Edelman India for taking the first visible step.
Will be more than happy to hear from you guys on other initiatives taken by PR agencies that goes beyond media relations. Some examples and case studies will not only enhance our knowledge base but will also help us think differently.
I remember few years back when Social media was in its infancy and people were just catching up with viral world, many in the PR business believed that it’s their right to rule this new found media as they are the ones who have an understanding of crafting messages that could communicate client’s business to its stakeholders. Many senior professionals on the other hand went ahead and proclaimed that this is just a fad and will soon be bust just like a dot com industry.
While the PR leaders were still undecided over investing money and resources in the new media, our advertising cousins went ahead and set up subsidiaries to exclusively focus on the digital business and offer integrated services to their clients. In between there were some tech savvy or just opportunistic young and smart entrepreneurs who started their own standalone digital shops from a garage kind of a setup.
Today these standalone agencies, having started small, are the ones generating maximum billing and also have a very impressive client roaster. While PR agencies tried to pitch their content generation capabilities in driving engagements on social media, advertising agencies focussed on their creative side to engagement with their client’s audience. The standalone agencies tried to create a best of both world approach by poaching youngsters from both businesses and offering solutions that addressed most requirements of brands on the digital platforms.
PR agencies who then believed that Social media can only be driven by content and clients will be happy to sign their digital wings to take advantage of an integrated approach are still waiting for the windfall.
And now there is another wave of business approaching us or rather already created its need within the marketing environment and that is Content marketing. We always believed and spoke aloud that ‘Content is King’, but never actually went on to either monetize or build & enhance our content creation capabilities. The result of this is that again talented entrepreneurs have seized the opportunity and have successfully grown their content marketing businesses.
PR Daily recently reported that organizations’ are creating their own media outlets. Companies such as Dell, Coca-Cola, and IBM are creating what looks like—and in many ways is—a journalistic product. Clients hire these firms to churn out by-lined articles, white-papers, advertorials, blog posts, and even Facebook and Twitter posts. Some agencies even deliver high quality video content, given the growth of video sharing platforms.
These agencies have also been hired by many publications and have outsourced their special supplements and supplements promoted by their marketing departments. Also given the commercialization of media and increasing influence of paid editorials, this business is heading only northwards.
It’s high time now, that we start seeing beyond media relations and start looking at more strategic requirements of brand and marketing departments on the whole. There is no doubt that many PR firms have established in-house capabilities for content creation, but that is rather sporadic than a norm within the agency. It is imperative for every PR agency to atleast have desk (like in the publication house) to screen and edit every piece of content that goes out to the client or to the media.
If we don’t act now, even this business will soon slip out of our hands and we will continue chasing only journalists. And wait, even journalists have been shifting to these content marketing firms, rather than PR agencies for better prospects and pay packets.
– Appoints Palin Ningthoujam to spearhead the team-
Avian Media, a specialist communications consultancy appointed Palin Ningthoujam to spearhead its digital practice. The appointment will further strengthen Avian’s existing capabilities in the digital space.
With more than a decade years of experience Palin will be responsible for building the firms digital thought leadership, internal digital adoption and lead client strategy, execution and analytics. Besides, Palin will scout for opportunities to incorporate reputation management and digital marketing,
Nitin Mantri, CEO and Business Partner, Avian Media, said, ‘In today’s era when social media is transforming the communication industry globally, companies are opting for an integrated PR and digital approach for brands. Online reputation management holds the key to building prominence, popularity and preference for companies. Hence, it is crucial for us to strengthen our base with talented professionals who will reinforce our ongoing strategic focus on delivering successful digital campaigns for clients. Palin has the experience of working across sectors and we will use his rich pool of knowledge to steer Avian’s growth on the digital front.”
Commenting on his appointment, Palin, said, ‘Today, clients are looking at tighter integration of digital in marketing, communication and customer service initiatives with teams that understand business requirements, quality in execution and ideas with substance. My priority at Avian Media will be to work on these expectations and take the delivery a notch higher in the industry. Avian Media, with its strong leadership and passionate teams, has attracted good clients and industry accolades in the past few years. I believe this is the right place that offers the flexibility, creativity, and culture that will help me work towards industry priorities.’
Palin has led award winning digital campaigns for various organizations in auto, technology, food, and travel sectors. He founded the India PR Blog in 2006 which ranks among top PR blogs globally. He has also written extensively for leading US based social media blog, Mashable.com, reviewing and comparing online tools, and also has written for key blogs such as Desicritics and New Communications Review. He also founded the ‘Network of PR Professionals’ group on Linkedin, which is one of the most popular groups on Linkedin today with a current member base of more than 21,000 communications professionals.
