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ABC television’s Media Watch program is going to start reporting bad tactics and activities of the PR industry from next year.

A theAge.com.au’s article has quoted Jonathan Holmes, reporter with ABC TV saying that he hoped to ‘expose the more egregious antics of the industry that all too often tries to sway, or mislead, or simply stonewall journalists who are trying to do an honest job’.

He said the public relations industry permeated government and business at every level and exerted undue ‘influence these days on what we read and hear and watch’.

It is unlikely that the program would cover the Indian PR industry but definitely this is one landmark development worth taking note of. Such a media program were to start in India, I wonder how many funny antics of PR agencies will be exposed.

PR agencies with black practices, beware.

Tech Tags: pr public+relations india

Allow the heading to the writer’s preoccupation with twisting words to make an impact. No inference to the non-aligned movement the headline is triggered by the recent news of Hanmer & Partners selling out to MS&L. Before offering comments and views, let me try to quickly put this development into some context:

- With Perfect Relations also in serious marriage talks, the big 3 of Indian PR firmament will sooner or latter be foreign owned.

- Unlike dating (affiliations, partnerships and representations) which was prevalent hitherto and which meant there was no control transfer, the preference this time around seems to be marriages (buyouts/acquisitions)

- The firms at the time of selling out were doing very well for themselves

- India was one of the largest potential markets for PR across the globe where none of the global networks could make a significant dent and which was ruled by indigenous PR firms till very recently

So what is really triggering the change? Here is my two cents of hypothesis:

- Global networks are in a hurry to have a foothold in the Indian market what with all the hype around India and they are willing to pay a premium or play ball

- The Indian management of the firms see the future better as part of a larger network (aka advertising)

- The valuation offered is attractive and it is tempting for many of the founders

- At the level of Prema Sagar /Sunil Gautam there may not be many dreams left to conquer in the Indian context and if just needs a good offer on the table to clinch the deal

The next logical question is what are the various factors and arising implications?

- One of the factors that was behind indigenous firms ruling the roost was the uniqueness and complexity of the Indian market which I strongly feel even today the big networks do not understand well (for most of the top brass of global networks the experience of India is limited to attending big summits in Delhi or Mumbai or having breakfast/lunch/dinner at five star venues with the Indian top brass of big PR firms or atbest presentations/reports being churned out). Does this mean many are taking the risk and walking down the aisle simply because of the importance of the market

- Will this means Indian PR industry aligning itself to the global model and globalizing itself faster than happening currently? This is a tough question and from whatever little have learned from working with the big networks, there will be some learning and some best practices borrowing but there is no denying the fact that locals will continue to hold sway in the area of understanding of the local market

- Will it mean global work practices becoming prevalent? My answer again is mixed because global work environments need global scale revenues; With most Indian clients still not willing to open their coffers and not comfortable with the man-hour billing model, it is going to be a long haul

To summarize,

- Do not see great changes in the industry because of the development except interms of ownership and additional benefits accruing to the respective firms

- If many of the remaining big PR firms choose to adopt a different path, it might still mean we do not walk the path of advertising where there is only one agency of worthy size that is still independent

- India is not an easy market to crack for PR and global networks need a lot of time to crack the local market

- There are other large global PR firms which are preferring to go solo (Fleishman Hillard, Text 100, APCO to name a few) or take different paths which again might see the PR industry not walking the advertising path

- The choice is primarily of the team at the helm in many of these PR firms and their interest levels in sustaining their success stories.

The best bet is to wait and watch and see how the whole thing shapes. As a footnote, let me place on record that have immense respect for Prema and Sunil Gautam and infact have sought advice from Sunil on a couple of occasions for my own firm. As regards global networks, I have friends and contacts in most of the global networks and we do work with many of them at varied levels. Am bit of an insider as well to these developments and my comments have to be hence treated as purely personal and that of me as an industry professional than an agency owner.

Xavier Prabhu is a leading writer, speaker on PR in India. He runs PRHUB, a fast growing integrated communications firm and he can be reached at Xavier@prhub.com

Tech Tags: pr public+relations india

One interesting and debatable news today is about Cricket Australia deciding to charge the media for distributing the pictures of its current series.

We have always heard of TV channels fighting for exclusive broadcasting rights to telecast cricket matches, bidding huge amounts of money against one another. So this announcement seems like something that was bound to happen and so you wonder what’s the big deal anyway. On the other hand, yes this will cripple free and fair media reporting and money, not journalistic skill, will decide who gets to report what.

What’s your take?

Tech Tags: pr public+relations india Cricket Australia

Esha Broadcast Monitoring, as a first in India, is launching a monthly Television Coverage Monitoring Report service, where they will monitor and compile coverage reports of how a particular brand, corporate, or spokesperson of a particular organisation has been visible in the television news channels or any other television networks on a month to month basis. They will also provide comparison of coverage achieved by a particular company in a month vis-a-vis its competition.

Till now, we have been using TV monitoring agencies only when we get a coverage of a client on a TV channel and wants to have that clip recorded. This can be a refreshing change.

The second service Esha is introducing is an Online Media Monitor Report service, also a first in India. Online media they track includes online news sites and blogs. Of course you can use Google Alerts for this, but if you prefer new clips customised in your agency masthead ready to be compiled in your hard copy reports or forwarded to you client, here is one service you should look out to.

Tech Tags: pr public+relations india

The Association of Business Communicators of India has called for entries to its 47th ABCI Annual Awards. There are 40 categories comprising the print and electronic media in which Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards are given.

While most of the awards for the media, check out the Digital Communications awards that are given for ‘communications to an internal / external audience using digital media-on-line publications, websites, corporate profiles, interactive presentations, etc.’ You might want to recommend some of these to your organisation or to your clients.

We hear that the Vaishnavi management is set to open a new agency called Witcom to handle its non-Tata accounts.

So is this the answer to that tea-time joke among PR honchos about what will happen to the agency if Tata moves all its accounts to another agency?

Publicis Groupe of France is reportedly going to acquire India’s Hanmer & Partners and following this, the latter will merge with Manning Selvage & Lee and become Hanmer MS&L.

Hanmer’s clients include ACC, Network 18 (CNBC), Bharti Axa, Emirates, Enam, General Motors, ICICI Bank, ICICI Prudential, ING Vysya, LG, Religare, Tata Sky, BPL Mobile, Henkel and Discovery Networks, among others.

(Via CNN Money)

New York based lifestyle PR agency Peepul PR has opened its office at Mumbai.

The agency’s clients include Jet Airways, Coca Cola India, Cobra Beer, Birla Art International, and also web 2.0 brands such as Zoomin, Saffron connect, and PeekYou.

(Via PRWeek)

Welcome to PRPO – which stands for PR Process Outsourcing.

And this is how PR outsourcing is starting out – Text 100 has started a Global Resource Optimization Centre at Mumbai to cater to activities that can be conducted at any part of the world. These activities include online campaign management, analysis, report generation, information management, content drafting for case studies, opinion articles, spokesperson bios, general editing, proofing and formatting, secondary research, reviews, pitches, messaging workshops, etc. Right now, the work outsourced is among Text 100 offices.

This is something that is likely to go viral. So two predictions:

1.We will see many global agencies doing the same in their India branches. We have Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick, Genesis BM, Edelman, etc.

2.Big Indian PR companies like Adfactors, Vaishnavi, Perfect Relations, Hanmer & Partners, etc. will open specialised cells to cater to outsourced work from their global affiliates.

3.There might be a third category of specialised PRPO firms coming up to cater to global PR firms.

Then we will need a NASSCOM.

PR 2.0, social media marketing, or whatever name you call it is supposed to be primarily the domain of PR agencies. If you are a CEO of an organisation and wants to add the social media mix into your overall PR and marketing plan, you are likely to approach your corporate communications or your PR agency. Right? I don’t think so. And I’m not the only one talking about it. Here is Jeremy Pepper writing about how PR can lose the social media to the advertising folks because the latter have the ability to make things look more sexier.

He also wrote that when websites came into the scene years back, the PR folks ignored it and what is primarily a communications tool went to the marketing hands and today they use it mainly to sell products.

Out here in India it is mostly of this second reason that the PR industry is today seemingly losing the social media to the advertising industry. Most PR agency folks do not care less about the social media or are too busy selling stories to the newspaper and TV folks.

Ad agencies are taking advantage of this and some who are already looking at ad accounts of various MNCs are contemplating introducing social media marketing practices as part of their online advertising campaigns. These may include building applications, creating micro sites, blogs, and monitoring the blogosphere. Take the case of Quasar, a digital media solutions provider that is starting an online reputation program encompassing online ad campaigns, website and application development, and social media marketing. Read the news at Alootechie.

Another development is that certain PR professionals who are adept in the new media are opening their own specialised agencies, creating a whole new industry altogether. Take the case of Blogworks, a social marketing consultancy headed by a PR veteran, that has been instrumental in developing some good online properties.

Which are the PR agencies standing up now? We have heard about the supposedly famous 360 degree campaign of Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick some time back that was carried in a national daily and on national TV. But is that all? The supposedly big technology PR firms of India like Text 100 and 20:20 Media are quiet, instead of taking the lead in familiarising the industry of this development that has taken place in their specialised domain.

So while we all are busy selling stories to the newspapers and TV and boast of a fast growing Rs. 165 crore industry, other folks will come and quietly take over what could ever be the biggest growth opportunity of the industry.