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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 ... More About: Public Relations , Future
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 ... More About: Public Relations
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... More About: Predictions
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... More About: Campaigns , Rescue
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... More About: Public Relations , Public , Success , Campaign , Relations
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... More About: Power , Tips
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,... More About: Bloggers , Speak
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... More About: Professionals , Fess
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... More About: Success , Campaign
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... More About: Indian , Predictions , Firms
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... More About: Workplace , Resolutions , 2008
Writer/Sr. writer
2008-01-03 08:07:00 Writer/Sr. writerBangalore, Karnataka, IndiaJan 3, 2008 More About: Writer
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... More About: New Year , Year , Resolutions
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... More About: Tips
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... More About: New Year , Plan , Year
Top 12 posts at India PR Blog in 2007
2007-12-29 14:29:00 We have some good developments at India PR blog in 2007. Firstly, we have the India PR Job Board launch that is used by many leading PR agencies and read by hundreds of PR professionals today. Then the formation of India PR Blog writer's team with PR professionals and journalists from across organisations, formally to be announced soon, came as a significant milestone that is pushing the blog as an industry platform for free and frank discussion.Among all the posts at this blog in 2007, we have some posts that stood out from the rest in terms of readers' participation and page views. These are the top 12 PR posts at India PR Blog in 2007, one for each month:January 2007:15 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.February 2007:Corporate Blogging - Making a strategic approach: Should your organisati... More About: Posts
Media Trends - 2007
2007-12-25 19:41:00 This time of the year is naturally devoted to some introspection of the past and reflection into the possibilities that the future would bring. We can look forward to glossy anniversary editions of magazines, the catalogs of ?the best and the worst? developments in the newspapers and panel discussions on TV on the? celebratory and grievous moments? for 2007.Since there will be all this and more to assimilate, I promise to keep this post on my learnings and observations on media in 2007 as brief as possible.The Fall of Simplistic Media Relations and the Rise of Space CrunchThis report in the Business Standard on the record number of product launches this year corroborated what I have been experiencing in my daily media outreach as a Public Relations professional. While in the past 2 years we have seen an increase in the number of newspapers, magazines and TV channels, this increase is hugely outpaced by the number of brands in the market today. Given their new presence in the space a... More About: Trends
Future PR Communication Models
2007-12-21 07:33:00 We have learned through experience or through academics that there is basic simple model of communication. Here, you have a sender, who creates the message then you have the receiver who receives the message. There are 5 key elements that define a communication process:Source ? the originator of message, codes the messageMessage ? a set of signs and symbolReceiver ? the message intended to, decodes the messageChannel ? a means of communication or accessNoise ? any form of disturbance (physical, psychological) that can disturb the original contents of the messageThe above is the Linear Model of Communication which was constructed by Shannon & Weaver, 1949. The communication is successful, only when the receiver gives feedback in a particular form of communication.Basic models of communication were based on one-to-one (letter writing) or one-to-many (speeches, television broadcast) form of communication. Since then models of communication evolved into something more complex, only ... More About: Models , Future
Policing The Media; Is Regulation Required Or Is It Another Retrograde Atte
2007-12-20 19:35:00 At a time when the India Media is racing ahead and projected to growing faster than the Indian GDP, as much as twice in some recent reports, our world suddenly seems on fire with the news that Indian media stings may soon require oversight to determine if such a sting is indeed in public interest as well as being able to stand true on the test of entrapment.The venerable Delhi High Court was rancid when it asked whether the media was carrying out sting operations or ?stinking operations?.The state of affairs has come to such a pass that in disposing off a petition on the now infamous sting telecast by private TV news channel in August, the court suggested that the information and broadcasting ministry constitute a three-member committee and all TV channels should seek permission from it before airing any sting operation. The suggested panel is proposed to have a retired high court judge and two officials with the ranks of additional secretary and additional commissioner of police.Th... More About: Regulation , The Media , Etrog
Thursdays with Tushar: The Affair continues...
2007-12-19 20:09:00 In the last week's post we discussed about basics of public affairs and how it is becoming more relevant in recent times. This week, we will take our journey forward and discuss about the various tools being employed to manage this socio-political equations.Every organization has a different view towards how to manage this set of stakeholders and many of them devises the system which works best for them. Organizations do active lobbying, offer sponsorships, deploy code of conduct, some even pay bribes, offer consultation (directly or through industry bodies), sometimes practices voluntary self-restriction or even go for legal remedies in order to manage the socio-political stakeholders. We will discuss about all these in a step by step method.During my past experience, I have worked with an organization which followed a very strong 'code of conduct' and believed strongly in consultation and voluntary self-restriction if needed. I have also worked with an organization that strongl... More About: Affair
Thursdays with Tushar: Digital tools!
2007-12-19 19:33:00 Dear Sir, I am working with one of the India's leading PR agencies at the Sr. Executive level. Now we all are hearing about the next wave of Public Relations being digital communications/online PR or the digital PR; could you help me to understand on the various tools of digital or online public relations? - PratibhaDear Pratibha:You asking us a question on this blog is the power of digital PR. Don't you agree? Okay, I have just one suggestion to make - please read through our blog and you will become an expert of digital PR. In fact, one of my previous posts on the same subject would give you some ideas to begin with and there were quite a few posts on the subject available on our blog from my fellow contributors. But since you have asked this question, let's discuss about how it all started and where it is leading to.All through the 20th century, most of our communication was using old media vehicles and in a monologue form. It was a top down approach (even today we follow that... More About: Tools , Digital
To call over phone or to email ? that is the question
2007-12-18 20:20:00 I briefly debated internally before writing this piece - do we the campaigners of the communication age actually need to discuss something as mundane as a phone call and an email. I mean standing at the footsteps of a virtual revolution that will potentially change our business interactions (as it already has our personal ones), do we still need to discuss if we have got the basics right?My instinctive sense from observing the everyday use of these basic tools is ? YES. We often see people around complain about the ?delay? caused in taking action due to email ping pong. And there are those who spend hours over phone trying to persuade and ?explain? but the party on the other end, ?just doesn?t understand?! (It would be worth sharing similar experiences that any readers of this post may have had and actually help explore this theme better)Most of us haven?t read text books on email and phone etiquette and manage reasonably well, following invisible guidelines based on our judgment an... More About: Phone , Email , Question , Call
Top PR goof ups of 2007
2007-12-18 19:44:00 Who could forget the incident of Microsoft PR agency sending off the spokesperson briefing document to the journalist instead of the client by accident? Don't worry, we have an Indian version of it as well. Ok what about that one about the YouTube video of rats in a Taco Bell?Shel Holtz has picked out the PR and marketing gaffes from the newly launched Money magazine's annual '101 Dumbest Moments in Business' list. Check them out. Quite a few lessons to be learnt from our global PR counterparts' misadventures: #8?A YouTube video of rats frolicking in a New York Taco Bell gets millions of views. #16?Microsoft PR agency Waggener Edstrom sends a 12-page dossier on a Wired contributing editor to the Wired contributing editor. The less-than-flattering dossier, calling the editor ?tricky? and ?sensational,? was meant to go to Microsoft executives. #17?Redux is warned by the FDA to rename its energy drink, which was called Cocaine. It was renamed to Censored, then NoName. #21?Th...
Calling the Best PR Agencies in India: The Profiling Project
2007-12-17 20:24:00 The PR Agencies page is one of the most viewed pages on India PR Blog. The page lists major PR agencies in India.Since the India PR Blog is read across the blogosphere, it can be a good platform for PR agencies to be seen by prospective clients and partners across India and abroad. Also, it is a good way to expose your agency to potential employees, young and experienced, who are just entering the PR industry.Till now, we have been listing only the names of PR agencies. This doesn't provide much information to any reader. They are only sent to the respective PR agency websites.However what if we include some basic information on the page itself in about 3 paragraphs. The information could include:1. Your current clients2. Your expertise areas3. Branches across India4. Key people5. Awards won/ key projects handled.6. Your agency logo7. Contact informationAll you need to do is send us the information to editor@indiaprblog.com. Like before, we are not charging any money for this.But i... More About: Project , Calling , Profil
Calling HR consultants: Using India PR Jobs Board to reach out to potential
More articles from this author:2007-12-17 19:50:00 We launched the India PR Jobs Board six months back and since then, there have been 25 job postings, more than 4000 views, and more than 150 applications.The most popular posting was that of CMCG India on Aug 30, 2007 that was viewed 175 times and had 18 candidates applying for the job. The second was of K2 Communications on July 25, 2007 that was viewed 123 times and had 11 candidates applying for that job. The third most popular job posting was from brand-comm on Oct 30, 2007. It was viewed 112 times and 12 candidates applied for that job.Some of the other organisations that have used the job board so far are LINOpinion, 20:20 MEDIA, Dag Communications, Text 100, Aarohan Communications, RockeTalk, P'zahn Consultants, India News Communications Ltd., Finesse PR, Corporate Voice | Weber Shandwick, Imprimis Life, PRHub, and IPAN.Not bad. But it could have been better.When we launched this job board, we focus more on HR professionals from PR agencies and corporates to post jobs and ma... More About: Calling , Reach 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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