The last session for 2020 by PRPOI brought alive an interesting conversation with panelists Pooja Thakran, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications & CSR, Honeywell India & HTS Global, and Puneet Gupta, GM, Corporate Communications, INOX Leisure Ltd.
The 32nd episode highlighted a lot more elements beyond just applying best practices from Global teams. We delved into how communicators survived a tough and unexpected year, adapted to continue creating impactful campaigns, drove impressive initiatives, enhanced employee engagement and communication within the organization.
Here’s encapsulating some takeaways from the hour-long conversation with the esteemed panelists.
PR and Corporate Communication teams have moved on from those yesteryear simple press releases, faxes, putting together paper clips, following-up with media to attend press conferences. The ballgame has completely changed, as we become more empowered today.
The emergence of Paid media, earned media, shared media, owned media – offers many more platforms for storytelling, controlling the narrative, shifting the dependence on earned media. Thanks to social media platforms, digitization of news, and the use of new technology.
Today the landscape is larger than ever, where our audiences are beyond just journalists. No longer the concept of breaking news exists. In fact ‘Twitter’ has become the new ‘newsflash’, rather than the new ‘Google’!
Additionally, we have a long way when it comes to measurement, moving away from Ad-value to metrics such as tonality, messages received, industry trends, positive stories, some pro media versus not so pro – in-depth analysis, and valuable insights with the available data.
Most importantly, as far as brands are concerned, innovation has taken the center stage. It has been a key influencer on how they are telling their story. There is so much more to any external engagement event today; not to miss out that brands have become far more empathetic during these times.
There is absolutely no denying that it’s been a tough time for everybody and there has been a higher need for engagement. Teams are collaborating better across various teams within the organization. Understanding the crises, what it means to the business, and addressing varied aspects – all this has made it quite intense for communicators. But what’s worked is the ability to be able to pivot and adopt change, to find a fine balance with work and home.
Whilst we all have been learning all about the new digital platform, the emphasis on ROI grew bigger. COVID or lockdown seems to have been the biggest chapter in crisis management for the whole industry. This dawned the realization of how communicators are integral teams for any organization today.
Digital customization, going local, building regional importance, like local languages for all global movies – this is what makes audiences sit up and notice brands.
Engaging with local and regional influencers across sectors helps cut across through the audience’s mind space.
India is all about many countries within one country, making communicators explore possibilities of what and how we need to drive the campaigns. Look at the new channels, see the messaging – going to mass or one set of audience in the changing dynamics – is how one approaches implementing best practices.
Today, it’s a good combination of the media-mix, tailoring messaging for the right audience, picking appropriate communication channels, all in all for creating an impact on the ground.
Both the speakers shared recommendations to upskill and some insightful trends to look forward to, on the road to 2021.
You can tune in to the video to watch the complete interaction or catch glimpses of the snippets from the Instagram page of PRPOI.
The above article is by special arrangement via a collaboration with PRPOI.