Such kind of strategy is very short term and in the end the winner is likely to be the brand leader. If you have great value proposition for your brand, why not highlight it instead of trying a backdoor entry to fight your enemy. To me spoof campaign is like a Lion attacking an Elephant from behind and not fighting head on. The other drawback of fighting your enemy in this fashion is diluting the equity of the brand and eroding market share as you cannot overnight shift brand loyalist with such tactical campaigns.

You can debate through PR and write ups on who is right and who is wrong but to me the victim is not the brand leader. Normally spoof campaigns are tactically used to arrest the growth of its closest competitor when two big brands rule the market. If you are not close to your market leader this is sheer waste of creative energy and money.

To conclude Spoof advertising will only help the brand leader with FREE PR.

January 29 every year is observed as “Newspaper Day by Indian Newspaper Society (INS), the apex body of India’s advertising and media industry. On this day in the year 1780 India’s first Newspaper “The Hickeys Bengal Gazette” or “The Calcutta General Advertiser” was started by James Augustus Hicky, an Englishman. The Gazette, a two-sheet newspaper, was specialised in writing on the private lives of the Sahibs of the Company.

He dared even to mount scurrillious attacks on the Governor-General wife, which soon landed “the late printer to the Honourable Company” in trouble.

Hickey was sentenced to a 4 months jail term and Rs.500 fine, which did not deter him. After a bitter attack on the Governor-General and the Chief Justice, Hickey was sentenced to one year in prison and fined Rs.5,000, which finally drove him to penury. These were the first tentative steps towards independent journalism in India.

January 29 also has an another significance. It is also a Day observed by Advertising Industry as “Indian Advertisement Day” that is because the first advertisement was published on this day in Hickeys newspaper. Since then January 29 every year is observed as Indian Newspaper Day as well as “Indian Advertisement Day”. That is how Indian advertising began. But it is sad to note such a significant day is totally ignored by many Indian media.

It is not just Newspaper day. There are many other significant days such as the  WORLD AMATEUR RADIO DAY(April 18), “NATIONAL PUBLIC RELATIONS DAY(April 21)”, WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY(April 23), “WORLE PRESS FREEDOM DAY(May 3)”, SPORTS JOURNALISTS DAY(July 2), WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY DAY(August 19), WORLD TELEVISION DAY (November 21) and other.

PRINTERS DAYS(February 24)

The year 2003 is marked by a new direction to the activities of all the Printing associations of printers in India when 24th February, the birthday of Johannes Gutenberg, Father of the Art of Printing, was declared as Printers’ Day. This is being observed across India. This was an opportune moment for Delhi Printers Association(DPA) to fulfil its moral obligations to the society, especially the downtrodden people with meagre resources.

Since 2003, on 24th February, DPA has been organising free general health, eye, heart and dental check-up camps as well as langar for workers and general public. In addition, educational tours to big printing units are also organised for students of local printing technology institute

WORLD AMATEUR RADIO DAY(April 18)

Each year on the anniversary of its founding, 18 April, the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) marks World Amateur Radio Day. On this, the 78th anniversary of its inaugural meeting in Paris, the IARU dedicates World Amateur Radio Day to the radio amateurs, educators, and administrators who use Amateur Radio to support technology education in the classroom.

Despite the Internet and cellular phone, Amateur Radio continues to attract people world-wide by providing free international communications and friendships. Because it does not need pre-established supporting infrastructure, Amateur Radio reaches into every corner of the world – andeven into space.

The IARU is the worldwide federation of national Amateur Radio organizations representing radio amateurs in 158 countrie

NATIONAL PUBLIC RELATIONS DAY(April 21)

According to Public Relaitons Society of India(PRSI) April 21, is a red-letter day in the history of Indian public relations. It is because the National public Relations Day is celebrated on this day all over the country since 1986. The First All India Public Relations Conference was organised in Delhi on April 21, 1968.

WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY(April 23)

By celebrating this Day throughout the world, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright. 23rd April is a symbolic date for world literature for on this date and in the same year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla
and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. It was a natural choice for UNESCO’s General Conference to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY(May 3)

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed World Press Freedom Day in 1993, following a recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 1991. World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every year on 3 May worldwide. It is an opportunity to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to
pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty. It serves as an occasion to inform the public of violations of the right to freedom of expression and as a reminder that many journalists brave death or jail to bring people their daily news.

The way the media influences thought and action and its capacity to foster dialogue, understanding and reconciliation was the focus of discussions at a UNESCO conference marking World Press Freedom Day 2009, which concluded inDoha (Qatar) on 2 and 3 May, 2009Celebrating the Fundamental Principles of Press Freedom

SPORTS JOURNALISTS DAY(July 2)

We all salutes the Sports Journalists on the occasion of the World Sports Journalists Day on July 2 for the pizzazz they add to their articles that entices us to read even after watching the event live on the TV. Sports journalism is an essential element of any news media organization. Sports journalism includes organizations devoted entirely to sports reporting. Sports journalism has been traced all the way back to the time of 850 B.C.E. when the great Greek Homer wrote about the first known draw in Wrestling, as Achilles raised the hands of both Ajax and Odysseus in victory. The sports of wrestling, throwing, boxing, and racing were all wrote on in early Greece.

It all started when various sports journalists assembled at a game show during the twentieth century. World Sports Journalists Day took place during the Olympic Games at Antwerp in the year 1920. The requirement and plan for uniting sports journalists from the entire globe firstly took place from this event. The International Sports and Press Association (AIPS), a body was established in the year 1924 while Olympic Games took place in Paris Why World Sports Journalists Day celebrated is to urge members of the sporting media to strive for excellence in their professional work.

One should grab hold of every opportunity to use sport as a vehicle for world peace, and to be fair and impartial goal. World Sports Journalists Day is the responsibility as journalists to set an example to the world. A journalist can add value not only to the world of sport, but to the world at large – to culture, to peace, and to good values.

WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY DAY(August 19)

The World Photography Day is celebrated every year all over India ever since the India International Photographic Council first celebrated the World Photography Day on 19th August 1991. It is also observed by many Press Photo Bodies, Department of Public Relations of several state governments in India as Press Photography Day also and Photo Journalists are given away awards for the best professional work. Photojournalism is an art of news communication by visual image. Photo Journalists have been disseminating news through their eye catchy visuals. You know a picture is worth thousand words.

NEWSPAPER BOY DAY

Early morning at about 5am or so the time when most people will still be lying in bed the Newspaper Boy’s work starts. He pics up the papers and delivers at several homes. Can you enjoy your morning tea without a newspaper? If he is just late by few minutes you will wait for him. In olden days these carriers of newspapers were the employers of the newspaper. Today they are little merchants of their own. Different countries observe Newspaper Boy Day on different days. There is no special day dedicated for them universally. In America October 4 has been set aside as The Newspaper Boy Day.

WORLD TELEVISION DAY (November 21)

Telivision is an important medium. World Television Day that was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996 to encourage global exchanges of television programmes focusing on peace, security, economic and social development and the enhancement of cultural exchange. On December 17, 1996, UN General Assembly proclaimed November 21 as World Television Day to commemorate the date on which the first World Television Forum was held earlier that year. The day recognizes that television plays a major role in presenting different issue that affect people.

UNESCO recognizes the significance of television broadcasting as a primal means of communication and a standard gateway of information for the masses, most importantly in least-developed countries. Television plays an effective role in disseminating information and knowledge and serves a powerful tool for reflecting and shaping human conditions and aspirations.

There could be many days such as Cartoonists Day, Editors Day and other relevant to Media and Public Relations industry. Such information can be passed on to me or posted in your comments to this article for the benefit of others.

Public Relations stepped right into the jaws of Advertising last week …and came away unscathed, actually enriched.

The Cannes International Advertising Festival – yes, the festival is still called the ‘Advertising’ Festival – recognised the changing dynamics in the industry and introduced the all-new PR Lions this year.

I was invited to be a member of the global jury, participating in a well-established judging process is a well-established template, culminating in a slick award ceremony. I came away with the experience of a life time.

Eight thousand people usually trek to Cannes every year to attend the Cannes International Advertising Festival. Although this 56th year saw ‘only’ 6000r delegates for obvious reasons, the Lions continued to lure the creative genius within the world of communications worldwide.

So much to learn and such little time. The Buzz was all pervasive, people from across the world and across disciplines, super experts sharing super new learnings at super sessions… all superbly impressive within the simply super-duper French Riviera.

There were more young and less middle-aged, more creative and less client servicing, more ad persons and hardly any PR folks – and yet a delightful bonhomie.

What did I learn?

The world has changed – while changing further at an incredible pace.

The idea can come from anywhere – advertising, PR, direct, promotions, you name it. And let’s stop cribbing about it not being a PR idea. The Idea wins.

I also know that Creativity flows from the young and free. So from hereon you are the King of Rock – not MJ.  So let’s see it floowww……

Excellence in execution is key to success – using surround sound – digital, traditional media, email, event, grassroots, you name it.

Traditional PR is alive but often not relevant, insufficient, does not reach audiences as quickly as digital does. Often digital leads, traditional media follows – almost always.

What did judging throw up?

We didn’t win. We didn’t make it to the preliminaries.

Why? Because of the above. And, we didn’t stand out among those who had a simple idea, executed brilliantly.

A great deal to learn.

Australia’s ‘The Best Job in the World’. It also won the PR Lion for the Travel, Tourism and Leisure sector as well as the PR Lion for the Best use of the Internet, Digital Media and Social Media. And if that was not enough, it also bagged the Direct Grand Prix as well as the Cyber Lions Grand Prix in the Website and Interactive Campaigns category.

Out of 400 plus entries that were shortlisted down to 30 plus, the PR Lions were awarded to a total of 15 campaigns (not counting the three won by the Best Job in the World) across the various categories. These included Australia’s ‘Earth Hour’; Japan’s ‘Yubari Resort’ and ‘Love Distance’; Lebanon’s ‘Khede Kasra’; Portugal’s ‘World’s First Ephemeral Museum’ and ‘Selling Hope’; Switzerland’s ‘Zurich’s Being Sold’; Costa Rica’s ‘Bring Back Peace’; Brazil’s ‘One Thousand Casmurros’; UK’s ‘Beautiful Game’ and ‘Pig’s are Worth It’; and USA’s ‘Honey, Let’s Lick the Problem,’ ‘Guiness Rally,’ ‘The Great Schlep’ and ‘Protecting Futures’ .

The jury were selected from 15 countries and Lord Tim Bell from the UK was the President of the jury.

Although none of the 10 entries that were submitted from India could bag a PR Lion this year, I have no doubts that this will change in the coming years as the Lions not only recognise the importance of public relations in the communication mix, they also fill the aspirational need for a well recognised international award platform.

Beyond the awards, the festival was a sea of learning from super sessions featuring super experts such as Steve Balmer of Microsoft, Eric Schmidt of Google, Biz Stone of Twitter, David Plouffe of Campaign Manager, Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, Fernando Vega Olmos, Creative Chairman at JWT who gave a delightful talk on ‘Mother Crisis’, and many, many more.

The one common element that emerged all through the festival was that creativity does not spell complexity. A fact borne by the winning campaigns, which were all about a simple idea that was executed well to make a real difference.

And the other key learning: there is no hiding from the digital tidal wave more.

For more details on the excitement at Cannes, check out Ashwani Singla’s Postcards from Cannes on his blog. I’d love to hear what insights you took away from the blog.

I landed in Cannes as a member of a jury eager to lend my experience to selecting the best among the best for the inaugural PR Lions. I returned humbled by the learning from the vast pool of creativity, enriched by the knowledge and thirst for more.

(Reproduced with the author’s permission. Thanks, Prema for sharing this with IPRB – Editor, IPRB)

The industry had very few business magazines and dailies which devoted in promoting the agencies. Even the quality of paper in terms of reproduction and coverage was very limited but as time passed by, today, we have every newspaper offering a weekly supplement on marketing. But more often we only see the Ad Gurus being featured week after week with occasional appearance of some noted marketing pundits. I sometimes ask myself if it is really required to do so much of chest thumping to self promote, instead of showcasing great work and interesting case studies. Also two decades back, we had very few advertising professionals who were more concerned with their client’s work and their interaction with the media was limited. Today that has quadrupled and what we hear are quotes and sound bytes -  some relevant and some off the tangent. I am hoping this will slowly change as clients are today seeking more value for their brands through action and not words.

Give me a hardworking campaign any day:

Great advertising campaign examples and successful marketing case studies must be exposed in such papers without any doubt. This could be both Indian and international examples. These will really help the consumer, students from management schools, and prospects who are seeking to partner or join good creative agencies.

I still remember that many clients in today’s world candidly tell the agencies who pitch for their business – show me the piece of work done by the group which will work on our brand. They are not bothered about the work done by some of the (Patli Gully work) other branches for some accolades achieved in the form of awards.

A few years back, I had gone for a meeting to a client who had put us on notice. During the discussion, one of my senior colleague mentioned that we recently won some awards and some good visibility. The reply to this from the client was – you guys are great in building your agency but that does not excite us. Tell me what have you done for my brand so far and tell me what you can do in the near future.

Clients have become very smart and canny; let’s stop fooling them by doing PR for the agency and oneself. End of the day we must realize that our dal roti comes from campaign that delivers results and help building their brand.

PR is a must, over dosage will kill credibility:

There is absolutely no harm in doing genuine PR. But most of the times this does not happen. We have the maximum awards this industry offers and therefore to fill up the spaces of some of the marketing dailies just wait for either covering this awards function or getting quotes from the advertising experts. So much of awards on an ongoing basis have prompted some of the ad agencies not to participate or even if they participate look at only the selective ones. The over dosage of awards and repeatedly seeing the same mug shots and clichéd quotes has to a large extent diluted the interest levels and the credibility of the news that get published. On a global basis on advertising, we have just one or two magazines which have a tremendous equity and it covers this industry in depth with lot of substance and meat. It’s time we also move on the same direction to give our audience some quality and credible coverage, which can impart new knowledge and learning.

Lastly let me also salute this industry as this industry has built several brands over the past several years and has also built in several processes and business ethics. Also on the international front, we have made our stamp by creating world class campaigns.

If the stalwarts of this industry focus on the bigger picture instead of self promotion, it will definitely provide a boost to this industry and we will see more talent being attracted to the industry.

The excellence awards are given across various industries such as finance, banking, pharma, BPO, technology and software etc. What is disturbing a bit here is that the big agencies are not involved in creating communication on recruitment ads and you mostly find mid-sized agency do this of which some of them has become specialist in creating only recruitment-advertising campaign. The larger agency does not recognize this has a major revenue earner and exciting opportunity for their creative team to do inspiring work. Hence invariably designing the recruitment advertisement takes a back seat. I only look forward with the introduction of Pink slip awards we get to spot larger agencies also create purposeful communication with strong idea for their clients and brands in the area of recruitment ads. Lets also remember recruitment advertisements is one of the most powerful way of building the corporate image of the brand internally, externally and to the company stakeholders.

Corporates ought to focus on creativity and original ideas:

In the 80s and in even in the 90’s corporates used print media with powerful communication to sell their companies to attract good talent. Since the only means of communication available was the daily press and business magazines limited space was allocated by media companies to release ads. Most publications earmarked some space and special dates in a week to release these recruitment ads and as a result the recruitment space was cluttered. Most of the appointment advertisements appeared in the supplements of the main issue in black and white for senior positions and you had the classified ads, which permitted companies to release ads for junior posts and walk in interviews.

The country is today in its growth path and industries have started flourishing across category and the need for quality talent is required on a continuous baisis. Earlier we had very few industries that used to advertise for manpower. That has taken a quantum leap and today the industry has grown leaps and bound beginning from BPO, Healthcare, Finance, Banking, Advertising, Media and Entertainment, Insurance, Software &Technology and the growing FMCG and Retail segment. All these up-and-coming industry are giving sleepless nights to the HR team and Search consultants, as there is a huge gap between demand and supply. The HR team is pulling all stocks and strategy to get the right candidate through various communication tools and headhunters. In doing so companies have forgotten the pivotal role and significance on the role of PR and recruitment advertisements, which has a strong pulling power for job seekers to respond. Companies now have realised this and are actively engaged in infusing newness with original idea and creativity on recruitment advertisements to beat the clutter and draw quality talents to their organisation. Also more companies are waiting for opportunity to get their companies covered on HR stories to supplement their image and credibility

What drives to create great recruitment ads?

If you pick up any newspaper containing recruitment ads you will notice high clutter and the paper is filled with a whole of lot advertisements without any differentiation. This has been the perpetual problem even decades back when we did not have job portals. Since most advertisements were in black &white it was all the more challenging for brands to shout and stand out. With the advent of colour the scope to increase one’s bandwidth in terms of creative opened up. To create great communication in the recruitment space the first and foremost objective is to speak truth to your prospects. You should not promise them the moon and disappoint them. Give a complete run down of the company right from its values, culture and the vision of the company. In your communication you must enlighten about the entire structure and the person to whom the prospect would be reporting in the work function. This is most critical as attrition rate invariably occurs due to lack of job satisfaction or the wrong chemistry with the boss. Many companies to create a strong image and build credibility release full-page advertisement to attract talent. This is one way of showing the bigness of the company and communicating to the prospects that we are a large conglomerate with strong guiding principles. Some MNC’s also try follow to create a design & grid with the right tone and style and use them as a template. This holds good if the post one is advertising for is at middle level. But it is always better to try and be different even within that template to catch your audience’s attention.

PR plays an important role in building credibility and image:

While through advertising you are able to get prospects to respond. It is PR with the help of stories in HR is what helps company to establish credibility of their company. Today more and more companies are looking for opportunities to be present on exclusive and industry related stories on HR topics. With huge attrition rate and shortage of talent , stories on HR has been keeping corporates on their toes to bring in attractive and friendly HR polices to nurture and retain talent. Being present in various articles and forums by brands is also being noticed by prospects to get better understanding of the corporates before one deicide to work with a particular company. Since HR is a very important tool in building the corporate image of any organisation companies needs to be more pragmatic and innovative in evolving their PR strategy to attract and retain good talent and thereby strengthening the equity of the corporate brand in the employment market.

Adds values to the corporate brand:

A well thought out communication for a recruitment ad has direct bearing not only on the future prospects but also the stakeholders, business partners and employees within the company. A good recruitment ad also builds credibility and image of the organisation so long as the company paints the correct picture and information of the organisation. The power of recruitment ads also helps in enhancing the position of the company in the prospects mind by maintaining the right style and tone consistently in their communication. This is where creative excellence for recruitment ads will play a major role as that will motivate clients to think out of box and get their brand across in the most unique and outstanding manner instead of churning out the run of the mill formatted ads. Any piece of communication to attract talent must exhibit a good career path to entice the job seekers to respond. If that promise is delivered through strategic recruitment ads we will be able witness more and more HR personnel pushing their communication partners that much extra to create advertisements and implement hard working PR strategy to deliver great value to the brand and motivate and attract quality talent to the organisation.