We are in a new era of Public Relations. In the last few years, the importance of reputation management has taken a sea change. More brands and clients, especially from the leadership teams, are viewing Public Relations from a close range. The industry has undergone a radical change with the advent of social media, which has to a large extent changed the approach to Public Relations. We have a relatively new and young audience that we need to face in the coming years so there are bigger challenges for brands and PR practitioners, who have to be more agile and proactive in their thinking to draw up business solutions for clients.
In our exclusive weekly column –
PR Conversation – Adgully interacts with leading business leaders and obtains their exclusive views and insights on the various trends in the PR and communications industry.In conversation with Adgully,
Tarunjeet Rattan, Managing Partner, Nucleus PR, speaks about her 20 years of experience in the communications field and how she has witnessed the evolution of the role of PR, PRPOI’s role in upskilling the PR industry, the key challenges and rewards she has faced in transitioning from working in top agencies to co-founding her own PR firm. Additionally, she shares insights on how PR agencies can tap into the audio revolution to effectively reach targeted audiences and craft compelling brand stories.
With over 20 years of experience in the communications field, how have you seen the role of PR evolve, especially in terms of adapting to new media landscapes like digital and social platforms?In the last 20+ years that I have been in the industry, I have seen the pre-Orkut era to the social media boom to ChatGPT takeover communication mediums as each generation finds their own voice and mediums that they express themselves on, but seldom take over the role of the communicator. Not that attempts have not been made. Not that each change has not come with a now familiar rant of how ‘PR is dead’. Not that these have not challenged the PR profession to adapt and evolve.What has remained constant is the need for a smart communicator who can translate sentiment and messaging on both ends of these evolving communication mediums and tie these together to create a strong brand reputation. But the definition of this role itself has changed.With each change, the role of PR professionals has evolved. What was restricted to being involved in the activation stage and press coverage has now transitioned into communication consultants who use their unique skill sets to craft narratives with smart storytelling as they connect the dots that create a strong bedrock for brand reputations to be built on.PR now enjoys a seat in the boardroom, where the impact on reputation and its subsequent impact on the company’s bottom line is taken into consideration at the start of an idea and not as an afterthought. The role of the PR leader has also undergone a considerable change over the years. From just leading the media coverage charge, they are now responsible for overall communication narratives and building bridges across digital, traditional, new age weaving them together to create and propel the brand reputation into the next phase of growth.
PRPOI was established as a voluntary, free platform to upskill PR professionals. How do you see the importance of such communities in shaping the future of the PR industry in India?The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one. Knowledge to upskill must be freely available to all if the industry has to evolve and maintain pace with the entire world of communication that is evolving at a breakneck speed. This is the bedrock on which the entire community of PRPOI has been established. Over the years, we have kept the industry updated through in-depth sessions, workshops, meetups, freewheeling chats, discussions, live sessions both online and offline along with blogs, courses and sessions offered by other communities and industry updates from our media friends to ensure upskilling is just a click away.When we started this community more than a decade ago, industry professionals took this with a bucket of salt. Over the years, this has been reduced to a spoonful of salt (we now aim to make this into a pinch). While we advocate upskilling and several professionals have taken advantage of it to save their jobs, get promotions, upskilling agency roles and find new jobs there has also been a considerable push from the PR community to stay ahead of the curve and upskill to maintain relevance which has benefited both the brand ecosystem and PR industry.Over the years, new communities have emerged as the vertical attracts new professionals who are motivated to advance the conversation which is essential for keeping discussions relevant and fostering continuous growth and innovation. They are going to become essential for the growth of the industry as each generation of professionals finds its groove in its own community. All of these communities will coalesce into the overall well-being of the industry.
Nucleus PR has been a realization of your entrepreneurial dreams.What are the key challenges and rewards you’ve experienced in transitioning from working in top agencies to co-founding your own PR firm?It has been a learning experience. My entrepreneurial journey has been one of self-discovery and has challenged me at every stage to grow and evolve to the next level of growth. But if I were to trace challenges that pushed me towards specific points of growth, these would be:
- Individual – Realization that being an individual performer is less important than learning how to work with people where I invested in myself to help myself understand how to handle and work with people across various professions.
- Company – Learning that running a business is about much more than just knowing the profession which pushed me on a path of learning where I enrolled in mentorship programs to upskill and create a network that supported and pushed me to grow out of my comfort zone.
- Industry – The refusal of many in the industry to invest time in upskilling themselves and the utter frustration of the teams across at the lack of relevant talent led me to create PRPOI and introduce workshops and sessions that helped them garner real skills.
Having worked with leading agencies and handled PR for MNCs across sectors, what strategies do you believe are essential for successful PR campaigns in today’s diverse and dynamic market?PR campaigns that hit the mark almost always have these five key elements: focused customer-centric approach; understanding, accepting and acknowledging the changing preference of the customer; continuous study to pick relevant learnings for the next growth spurt; evolve and keep pace with changing customer mediums of communication; keep a finger on the pulse of the generation on a global scale.
With the growing popularity of podcasts in India, how can PR agencies tap into the audio revolution to effectively reach targeted audiences and craft compelling brand stories?If you thought podcast popularity is about the audio... then you are wrong. It is now all about the video that accompanies it. The snippets on social media platforms along with the video-fication of podcasts is what is drawing viewers, advertisers and guests to the medium.While there are a lot of them that exist in the country at this point, a lot of them are still trying to break even. The best way that the PR community can leverage this is by understanding which brand partner makes the right fit for a specific podcast and which ones should actually start their own. End of the day, it should fit into your overall brand narrative.
What advice would you give to aspiring PR professionals who are looking to make their mark in the industry, especially those interested in entrepreneurship and starting their own agencies?While there are so many that exist, this industry has the place and appetite for still more. I mentor a couple of new entrants every year, helping them identify the pitfalls and avoid them tactfully, hoping they can benefit from my experience instead of being baptized by fire and storm. The three bits that I always insist they consider before starting up:
- Choose your agency model and stick to it for at least a couple of years before deciding you want to pivot or switch.
- People management is going to be the key muscle that you will need to flex every single day. It will test you to the limits.
- Systems and processes, however boring they may sound, need to be put in place if your agency is going to have a fighting chance to grow.
