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Sophistication Vs Substance
2008-02-10 15:02:00
The article had multiple triggers the most recent being the question a BBA student of a leading college in Chennai posed post my presentation at a national seminar on entrepreneurship. After my presentation which dwelt on how and why I became an entrepreneur and what are my goals? her question was on the lines of ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Sophistication Vs Substance", url: "http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/02/sophi stication-vs-substance.html" });

Days of Information Overload and Insight Scarcity - Crack Research Tools fo
2008-02-07 19:31:00
Militant as I sound, it must be the general pall of slow down in Bombay, IPOs tanking, doomsayers with the recession din, the taxi strike, the weather, and the general non happenings of the week. The only things that I am a little excited about are some tools for research that I have had a chance to play ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Days of Information Overload and Insight Scarcity - Crack Research Tools for PR Commandos!", url: "http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/02/days- of-information-overload-and-insight-scarc ity-crack-research-tools-for-pr-commandos .html" });
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Seeking tomorrow?s leaders today. Do you have it in you?: Thursdays with Tu
2008-02-06 19:44:00
It?s the time of the week again and I am back at drawing board ready to paint the picture with keyboard and fill it with colors of my thoughts and imagination of my love for PR. This week, I missed many exciting moments by not being available on my GoogleTalk, not being regular on my ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Seeking tomorrow?s leaders today. Do you have it in you?: Thursdays with Tushar", url: "http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/02/seeki ng-tomorrow%e2%80%99s-leaders-today-do-yo u-have-it-in-you-thursdays-with-tushar.ht ml" });
More About: India , Public Relations , Today , Tomorrow , Leaders

Readers? Review Time! What?s Your Feedback on India PR Blog?
2008-02-05 19:46:00
Hello Readers ! Are you people there? What’s your feedback on the India PR Blog? If you have reading our writings for some time now, your feedback will be valuable to us. So instead of brainstorming among ourselves, we thought we might have an open floor with the professionals in the Indian PR industry i.e. you and ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Readers’ Review Time ! What’s Your Feedback on India PR Blog?", url: "http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/02/reade rs-review-time-whats-your-feedback-on-ind ia-pr-blog.html" });
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HELP FIND a Story!
2008-02-03 15:13:00
  This is apart from the usual Communication theories that I write about and it concerning us in everyday life?something that we all could do with?we all in the PR profession.  And this ?something? is called simplifying the message?still not getting it, eh?!  Okay, here goes: This came to me from a close friend of mine ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "HELP FIND a Story !", url: "http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/02/345.h tml" });
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Specialist vs. Generalist PR, Independent vs. Global Network Player, Consol
2008-01-31 21:54:00
This post seeks to address the genesis of PR Firms in India, their move towards specialization, and then back towards a generalist positioning. It further seeks to explore the interrelationship between global and organic Indian outfits and motives for their speedy polymerization. Finally it seeks to draw parallels in trends between the state of the ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Specialist vs. Generalist PR, Independent vs. Global Network Player , Consolidation Imminent for the Indian PR Industry!", url: "http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/02/speci alist-vs-generalist-pr-independent-vs-glo bal-network-player-consolidation-imminent -for-the-indian-pr-industry.html" });

Philosopher?s guide to an effective everything: Thursdays with Tushar
2008-01-30 19:45:00
At a recent communication seminar where I was speaking on social media, a beautiful lady participant asked me about how one could go about writing a blog. She believed that she is not a good writer and if I could give her few tips on writing? I told her that I would write about it in ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Philosopher ?s guide to an effective everything: Thursdays with Tushar", url: "http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/01/philo sopher%e2%80%99s-guide-to-an-effective-ev erything-thursdays-with-tushar.html" });
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How your Corp Comm Head could help your company feature in the Fortune list
2008-01-28 19:58:00
A strong correlation has been observed between a company?s corporate communications and the company?s ranking on Fortune magazine?s ?World?s Most Admired Companies? list. The professional background, communications priorities, and inter-organizational relationships of the corporate communications head are also indicators of the ability of a corporate communications department to make a positive impact on a company?s ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "How your Corp Comm Head could help your company feature in the Fortune list - The Rising CCO study", url: "http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/01/how-y our-corp-comm-head-could-help-your-compan y-feature-in-the-fortune-list-the-rising- cco-study.html" });
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PR - Setting an Agenda for Change
2008-01-27 18:18:00
We as Public Relations professionals need to do beyond story pitching and disseminating press releases?garnering respect from peer group or rather the industry would not be so difficult then?albeit respect is not the topic today. We are to be blamed I think sometimes for the way people perceive us, to some extent for sure. We limit ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "PR - Setting an Agenda for Change ", url: "http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/01/pr-se tting-an-agenda-for-change.html" });

Smoking is making the Indian PR Workplace Unhealthy and Unproductive!
2008-01-24 22:34:00
This afternoon at lunch, I could not help sporadically eavesdropping into a conversation between two girls sat at lunch, at a table adjacent to mine, in a restaurant in downtown Fort that I tend to frequent for mid-week inspiration. I didn’t really intend to but the profanities yelled on the cellphone and the incessant chain ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Smoking is making the India n PR Workplace Unhealthy and Unproductive!", url: "http://www.indiaprblog.com/2008/01/smoki ng-is-making-the-indian-pr-workplace-unhe althy-and-unproductive.html" });
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Future of Indian News TV & more PRedictions for 2008: Thursdays with Tushar
2008-01-23 20:17:00
Mesmerising! I did some crystal ball gazing myself for the India n News Television and couldn?t find any other better word to describe the future of the great Indian News Soap Opera. It?s so much of fun to watch news on any of our news channels. It has all the twists and turns, which gets delivered ...
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CSR - The New Age Mantra
2008-01-21 03:36:00
CSR - The New Age Mantra With the Standard Chartered Greatest Race just over, it won’t be a bad idea to delve into CSR and PR…Say wot? Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is the most discussed topic in the alleys and crossroads of communication these days…and why not? Most organizations one knows is indulging in ...
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Indian Automobile Marketing Gravy Train; Where's PR in The Game?
2008-01-17 19:34:00
I am writing this fresh from my trip to the Auto Expo 2008 in New Delhi, and what a trip it turned out to be! New Delhi in all its winter glory, the excitement in the air made it easy to ignore the traffic nightmare and the smog.The parties, the awards, the models and the car models all made for a very heady trip.Tempted as I am to offer my opinion about the Nano, all I can proffer is that while it might be great PR for a prototype to get such turgid hype, I'd much rather reserve my comment when hype translates into sales as and when the rubber hits the road, one lakh or not.What I am not going to do is plug for the automobile manufacturers and their new models as that has been done to death but instead talk about the hype surrounding the automobile industry and the mechanics of its construct.The key orchestrators of this construct are the usual suspects, yes, the marketing types who practice every well honed trick in the book for eyeballs with their bevy of deep pockets that fund ...
More About: Marketing , Indian , Train , Game , The Game

PRedictions for 2008: Thursdays with Tushar
2008-01-16 19:54:00
Last week was very busy for me. I attended the ABCI Awards ceremony, cheered for friends, met people of all sizes and shapes, made new friends and created couple of enemies too in the process! I am getting more and more fascinated by the news in 2008 . My love for news has increased it seems. The ?Nano? effect grabbed many headlines and gave many opportunities to new age Narads (Narayan! Narayan!) ? In fact, it gave me an opportunity to coin a new celebrated word: ?auto expo?sure. Oh darling! Sunita, it seems that you are not worried about our health. First, you do not want cola companies to kill germs in our bellies and now you are hell-bent on not allowing ?Nano? smoke to kill the deadly mosquitoes as well! Shame on you! Sunita. I empathize with your self centric syndrome but, please allow others to use some airtime on TV News channels too. There are many of my clients waiting in a queue. I think somebody is showering all her ?Mamta? on you.Well, promise is a promise! I am not refe...
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Looking for advocates for your campaigns; Tinfinger comes to the rescue
2008-01-14 19:47:00
Are you looking for a brand ambassador for your client? Or thinking of inviting a celebrity to your event? Or compiling a list of celebrities? Till now, it's mostly done on the basis of how many names you and your colleagues can come up with.Rest assure. Web 2.0 is on the rescue with Tinfinger. This is a search engine for famous people. You can check out its directory as well to view over 650 categories of famous people. Tinfinger also lists down the recent news that any particular famous personality has been getting in the media. You can submit profiles of famous people to its directory as well.This is one good resource for PR professionals. The Indian celebrities category lists at the moment around 35 people, which means nothing. But considering that this service has just started, it's worth a wait and watch. Maybe when the number comes to around 500, then it will be a gem.Now what about Indian resources? Are there any sites?Celebrities in India is one find where you can find li...
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Measuring the success of a Public Relations campaign - II
2008-01-13 19:48:00
The next level of measuring PR effectiveness is whether the target audience groups received the messages directed to them. Have they they retained and understood the message that was intended too. Walter Lindenmann labels this level as Outgrowths.This level of success of public relations campaign will depend on immediate reaction that you will receive or you desired to receive from target audience. The best example is getting our event listed in the events and listings section. A press conference would not be a ideal event to be listed in this section. Listing would be recommended for a children's workshop in a book store. The outgrowth would be the number of participants for the workshop. Event participation would be the measurement tool.The other forms of Outgrowths are:Dip stick study: A dip stick study in the form of the recall of the particular brand, corporate or spokesperson vis-a-vis the competition. Which is the top of mind brand recall for the media in a particular indust...
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PR helps create Voice of Reason
2008-01-13 14:26:00
Taking it further from where I left it the last time, Stalagmite Theory could well be how Public Relations slowly progresses towards creating opinions and influences mass values. According to Stalagmite theory, mediated experiences induce long term effects that are very difficult to measure. Fair enough..I wouldn't delve into measurements and evaluation of PR now anyways, since that almost is a topic worthy of its own space and discussion. Meaning theory and Cultivation theory are two most significant theories. In today's blog I stick to Meaning Theory, one of the theories of Stalagmite Theory.We all are aware that every little byte of information, every little ink and sound of media delivery is an experience by itself and each one of us is absorbing it, consciously, sub consciously to create our own versions of how the world is and appears to be. That is basically the formation of an opinion, the molding of our thoughts by so called external sources to create a point of view.Now,...
More About: Voice , Reason , Create

Thursdays with Tushar: The power of seven: Tips to become a successful Publ
2008-01-09 19:40:00
We are back to business. Year 2008 is full of news. Our blog is also making waves with great contribution from young and energetic writers. I see lot of involvement and interactivity from our readers too. The cricket and its racial monkeys to wild dogs, the cricketer with highest integrity and the cricketer who is still figuring out whether monkey is an animal or some race! BCCI?s late awakening, comparison of current president versus the previous one and so on? It is indeed a good news year so far and we have just crossed ten dates on our calendar. I thought of writing annual PR horoscope for the benefit of our readers, but you will have to wait till next Thursday for that. I have given a task to a dear friend and well-known astrologer. She is currently busy gazing at crystal ball and reading tarot card for us PR wallahs!I am keeping my promise about continuing our affair with public affairs and giving out few tips about how to become successful public affairs professional. Well, p...
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Blogging and New Media event in Delhi
2008-01-09 19:34:00
As a PR professional, would you be interested in understanding a little more of what is happening on the blogging and new media landscape? Would you like to talk to this community face to face?The Indian blogging and new media landscape has been highly fragmented so far, with little information available on who is doing what. In an effort to bring this community under one roof, the recently floated Delhi Blog and New Media Society is organizing a meeting of all stakeholders in New Delhi on Saturday, January 12, 2008. The event is sponsored and supported by 20:20 Media and Microsoft.The expected audience will include professional/part time/fun bloggers, fringe/yet-to-start bloggers, PR/corp communication professionals, blog/ new media/ social media consultants and service providers and mainstream media. The event is open to all, and there is no registration fee.When & Where: Saturday, January 12, 12:30 p.m. onwards at 31, Shivji Marg, Westend Greens Farms (near Radisson Hotel), N...
More About: Event , Blogging , New Media

Compiling Indian Bloggers Lists for your clients - a newbie's guide
2008-01-08 19:55:00
As corporate India and the Indian PR industry wake up to blogger relations and many are now experimenting inviting bloggers to their corporate events and including them in their outreach programs, it becomes essential to develop a fine target bloggers list. Take it as another form of the media list that we are so used to.So today if you are handling a tech client, maybe you should know the names of the top ten tech bloggers in India. Likewise if you are handling an automobiles client, you should know who all are writing on bikes or cars. The list goes on with bloggers writing on healthcare, education, economy, current happenings, etc. etc.So how do we start compiling a list of bloggers? These are some of the good resources that I use and you might find them useful as well.1. Technorati - Here you will find Indian blogs listed according to their 'authority'- the standard Technorati way of ranking blogs primarily based on how many blogs link to a particular blog. This may not be the...
More About: Lists , Bloggers , Guide , Clients

Who should speak to bloggers?
2008-01-07 19:39:00
Even as blogs come into their own as media outlets, bloggers will continue to be a ?breed? apart. One of the implications is the ?one-size-fits-all? approach may not work with them. And the first thing companies need to do is identify the right persons internally who will engage with bloggers.During my recent visit to the BlogWorld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas, I listened to and interacted with Mike Prosceno, VP, Marketplace Communications (Blogger Relations), SAP and Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR agency in Silicon Valley. And they shared some interesting insights on this topic.According to Mike, bloggers are less interested in just the news; they are more keen on what we as companies are doing and why we are doing so. And there is a need to engage with them and have a 360 degree conversation. According to Brian, this means there is no place for a press release with bloggers; it has to go beyond this; while journalists are more interested in the news,...
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Are PR professionals just mediators?
2008-01-07 17:28:00
I know today is not my turn to write...but couldn't keep the contrariety and the dissension going on in my head...had to let it out and when the angst is related to all of us, I couldn't help feel that this was the right place.Public Relations is a part of the good old IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) mix and is nowadays considered to be the one of the most crucial elements for a successful communication campaign. PR is a part of the Media and A&M (Advertising and Marketing) industry and yet is not just treated as a step sister, but sometimes scum. As excited and honored I am to be a part of that industry and having grown and specialized enough to have some sort of an expertise in the profession, it saddens me when Media (Journalists) treat PR professionals as an interruption, just a watchdog who mediates meetings and interactions and says nothing at all, a coordinator for information almost only to be a delivery boy...it upsets me when media thinks that 'you' are t...
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Stalagmite Theory in Public Relations
2008-01-06 15:21:00
I would like to borrow a concept that is oft used for television viewership to Public Relations and I think it suits just fine. The concept is that of Cultivation Theo ry or the Stalagmite Theory. I quote "Black et. al. used the metaphor of stalagmite theories to suggest that media effects occur analogously to the slow buildup of formations on cave floors, which take their interesting forms after eons of the steady dripping of limewater from the cave ceilings above. One of the most popular theories that fits this perspective is cultivation theory."Cultivation theory (sometimes referred to as the cultivation hypothesis or cultivation analysis) was an approach developed by Professor George Gerbner, dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania.One of the core assumptions and statements of the Cultivation theory is that television is responsible for shaping, or ?cultivating? viewers? conceptions of social reality. The combined effect of massive televis...

Measuring the success of a Public Relations campaign - I
2008-01-04 09:25:00
We as Public Relations or corporate communications professionals are incessantly asked about the ROI (return on investment) on a particular initiative. What I've put together below could be a way to answer to that crucial question. We could actually look at it as three different aspects or phases of measuring the success of a particular public relations campaign.Three levels of measuring public relations effectiveness have been identified by Dr. Walter K. Lindenmann, Senior Vice President and Director of Research at Ketchum Public Relations. He labels the basic level ?outputs?, the intermediate level ?outgrowths? and the advanced level ?outcomes?. 1. Outputs measures message transmission and the initiative response 2. Outgrowths measures message reception with immediate reaction 3. Outcomes measures attitude and behavioral changeOutputsOutputs of a particular PR campaign will be with respect to the initiative that was undertaken; like that of a press release announcing a product la...
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Top 5 Predictions for Indian PR Firms in 2008
2008-01-03 19:40:00
These are heady days. As India moves forward with a constant surge, it?s pretty much never say never; be it the stock markets; the string of acquisitions hitherto thought of as impossible. Clearly it is a time for innovation led consolidation.The PR business as a microcosm of Industry and it too has had its share of innovation led consolidation too, and among the other notables have been a string of acquisitions, the latest being of Hanmer by Publicis. Things in general have been good with the entry of several brands as well as value corrections in revenues for most major firms or networks for existing business.2007 was a year of slow tectonic change, 2008 promises to have far greater velocity and the trends point to some trends that would go down as big shifts in my opinion:A Holistic Brand Experience Inclusive of Web 2.0 & Social Media PropertiesSocial Media in India has been a long time in the coming and 2008 will see a greater adoption of the social media and the whole web 2...
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Top workplace resolutions for 2008 (Thursdays with Tushar)
2008-01-03 19:31:00
Well, keeping my part of promise to come back to you with my reflections of 'Agar - Magar'. The moment I saw the play it reminded me of a question asked to me by Vikas almost a month ago. How many times have you landed in a situation like Peehu, where you are forced to choose something which you never wanted? How many times your leader (Boss, Chief, Sir - whatever adj. you may be using) has requested (ordered) to do something which you always ('never') wanted?So, what is the issue? Was the teacher right? or was Peehu right? I think they both were right in their own perspective. At one hand, the teacher was following established traditions and rules and on the other hand Peehu (in his second avataar) was challenging the teacher to be with him breaking all rules & traditions. Imagine, you are in a similar situation in a corporate life. What would you choose? Conventional wisdom of choosing what is there in the organisation's rule-book or unconventional courage to stand by wit...
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Writer/Sr. writer
2008-01-03 08:07:00
Writer/Sr. writerBangalore, Karnataka, IndiaJan 3, 2008
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Thursdays with Tushar: New Year, New Resolutions?
2008-01-02 19:38:00
We from India PR Blog wish all our readers a very happy 2008! I am taking a break this week from a series of Public Affairs posts we are posting. We will get back to the serious business from next week.Well, do not go by the heading of this post. I am not going to bore you with usual resolutions, which you might have read in almost every newspaper or magazine in the country. I am going to talk about a children's play I saw with my little tiger. The play was unique. It was adopted by Gulzar from some Japanese story. Agar - Magar was the name (if translated crudely it is 'Either - Or'!?). It had two endings for the same story.The story revolved around a teacher and his pupil named 'Peehu'. Peehu's mother was suffering from some unknown sickness which is killing people across the village. Teacher wants to go across the snowy mountain range and bring back medicine from a doctor which could cure the illness. Peehu decides to accompany his teacher in order to save her mother and oth...
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Top media relations tips from 2007
2008-01-01 19:32:00
Having a look at the top media relations tips from this blog in 2007:1. Best media relations practices by PR professionals: What is the best way to issue a press release? What time of the day do we issue a press release and on which day of the week? How do PR professionals pitch for a story and what are the most-preferred options? Recently we conducted an online survey 'Media Relations Best Practices' on this blog and it was responded to by around thirty PR professionals and journalists who are readers of this blog. Here are the results.2. 15 media relations tips by PR professionals and journalists: A list of select media relations tips from PR professionals and journalists who participated in the recent online survey 'Media Relations Best Practices' on this blog.3. Pitching to media - 5 key factors to keep in mind: What does it take to sell a story to a journalist? These are some key points gathered from interactions with the scribes over the years.4. Media pitching advice from...
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PR Plan for the New Year
2007-12-30 18:25:00
Am sure you are aware that with the year closing in on us, it was time for reviews and serious introspection. So we all got back to our drawing boards to review the year gone by for our Clients, work on Annual Strategies for the coming year and discuss the highs and lows with regards to plans, achievements and bloopers and at the end of it all we all were unanimous about one realisation that hit us... that clients were no longer willing to be satisfied with Vanilla PR.... not happy with the regular press conference, press briefings, press releases, one on ones et al...WHAT NEXT was the question they all asked! And thankfully since my Agency had always groomed us towards thinking 360 degrees communications and not just basic PR, we were happy and also anxious at the same time.Happy since we knew that that was coming and like I mentioned earlier, the Agency that I work for has always driven us towards working on Integrated Communication Stratgies... we were always made to understand n...
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