Last night the Kings XI Punjab made another killing! Shaun Marsh produced what some would colloquially describe as giving a right walloping and Yuvraj Singh followed through with more arson on the pitch; the two are the cynosure of all eyes in the cricket world in India, the Commonwealth continents and many points further.

This wasn’t always the case, suddenly a team that was for long an underdog is making huge waves. The IPL analogy is no different, it came from nowhere and took over the house, and those in the marketing and PR fraternity who were watching the wind speed and its direction are smiling, while the laggards are now wringing their hands in furious frustration at the massive opportunity loss.

A few months have passed since the marketing and PR landscape got hijacked by IPL, the usual heavy-lids marketing and PR veteran, already bored to death with the monotony of the hot summer, mistook it for a flash in the pan, many weeks later it was still there refusing to go away like a bad nightmare, rocketing TRPs and bringing in eyeballs by the truck load for competition; the ones who got on the band wagon are laughing to the brand bank, the ones that did not have conceded defeat. The ’serial shock’ gave all channels a huge scare and the war moved from the pitch to the air waves as the IPL tsunami sucked all eyes to a single channel away from the staple ’soap and serial’ diet!

Team sponsorships that went a begging are now worth their weight in gold and next season; by all means, do please expect to see the phenomenon of inflation translate to cricket sponsorship. In these incredulous times of USD 130 for a barrel of crude oil, why should inflation be confined to steel, onions and cement?

The fight for eye balls has been won by mobile companies, banks and FMCG companies being the usual suspect that also ran and got some successes. The losers were car and bike companies, ringed in first by the RBI triggered, inflation killer, CRR measures, that squeezed the already flat credit situation. Across packed stadium; the howls of delight and screams of incredulity submerged the Bloomberg story reporting how this had been the lowest growth in the last 10 quarters for India.

As crude oil price insanity triggered troubling visions of more tax and ‘cess-upon-more-cess’ crowded my radar, the oil companies were slowly sinking and losses were being reported first time in the current quarters of these public sector behemoths. As ministries quibbled over customs, excise, luxury tax and oil stabilisation funds, the screams of cricket hooliganism in stadiums kept growing louder, so much more dignified than the marauding Chelsea club fans in England that would shame Genghis Khan but the days are not far! Welcome to the Indian version of the superbowl!

As stories got pitched to the print, television and online spaces and the pickled brain of the now smiling senior PR types picked up the sweet stink of plugs a headline or byte away, agencies were being whipped to leverage the sponsorship investment and brand types were churning websites and campaigns by the dime across outdoor, print and online; search or ad word. Here in this very fertile climate unnoticed a bevy of writers, television anchors and producers were taking birth.

In the text message histrionics of Shah Rukh Khan and Vijay Mallya’s tantrums, the hugs of Preity Zinta and the exploits of Ness Wadia with the Punjab Police hijacked dinner and tea time conversations across the homes and offices of the unsuspecting consumer in a heady brew, without alcohol, nicotine and caffeine. Healthy I thought!

In this entire din, the lessons have been many and things have changed forever in sports marketing and PR. The heady mix of entertainment, blaring team songs and not to forget the introduction of cheer leaders in a morality stricken nation, helped tone down changes that would have otherwise not gone down well.

I am talking about the erosion of nationality as the basis for cricket teams. Questions about how ex-team mates will reconcile their fury and belligerence once IPL is over and things are back to normal for the Indian, Sri Lankan, Australian and many other teams. Of course and then unlearning all that when the next IPL starts. In the confines of Wankhede, Eden Gardens, Mohali and many other cricket stadiums, the energy was electric and someone watching the same show on TV would never understand the fury of the music, the hysteria whipped up by the cheer leaders and the crowd as it chanted favourites or booed down others.

The good change that has again gone largely unnoticed like the bad is the new faces that have got the opportunity to play with the reigning cricket gods. Good for India and good for cricket and definitely good for brand endorsement, marketing and Public Relations!

As I wait for the semi-finals, I doff my hat to LK Modi and despite the large headline in a prominent Indian newspaper harking back to a real or imagined misdemeanor 20 years ago in a foreign country, life in India after IPL will never be the same! They are obviously trying to get back at his temerity in bringing in IPL Media Guidelines in the usual petty and spiteful style characteristic of the large egos of the rather spoilt Indian press fraternity. Long live IPL!

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), New Delhi.
More details (including location map) at: http://delhibloggers.in
Registration (free): http://wiki.delhibloggers.in/delhi-bloggers-meets or mail to ajay@ajayjain.com

AGENDA (updates at http://delhibloggers.in)

12:30 PM - Registration Starts
1:00 PM : Introduction & Sponsor Slots
1:30 PM : Significance of stakeholder collaboration in blog and new media space: Ajay Jain
2:00 PM : Blogs/New Media and Corporate Communications: An interactive session moderated by Rajesh Lalwani
2:30 PM : 3:00 PM : TEA BREAK
3:00 PM : Blogs/New Media: Tips for Beginners & Advanced Users: Amit Gupta and Abhishek Baxi
3:30 PM : Blogging in Hindi & Regional languages: Ashok Chakradhar
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM : Open House: Working together and growing in the future
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM : Structured Networking
6:00 PM onwards : Bonfire & Chitter-chatter

Tech Tags: PR public+relations india

Only 2.5% of Public Relations agencies in India focus on ‘Consumer touch PR’, while 84% execute the ‘white & pink paper PR’ focused on media relations. This is according to a recent survey conducted among 216 PR agencies in the country by Harish Bijoor Consultants.

(A far reality from what most PR firms portray or should be doing!)

That’s Harish Bijoor, Brand Expert & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consultants Inc. speaking at the 29th All India PR Conference organised by PRSI at Chennai. Harish also emphasised on the need of infrastructure development in India becoming more sensitive to the people and how planning needs to be done bottom-up and seamless in its involvement of all consumers and it is in this key area that PR needs to play a more strategic, long term role.

Are the other speakers at the Conference echoing similar opinions? Are we all just press release pushers, and need to ideate and manage programs more that involve the end-consumers directly? Maybe in the guise of the ‘infrastructure development’, the theme of this year’s conference, there is a greater message that is seeking out to reach to the entire PR fraternity. Let’s see.

Dr. Ghosh, in his presentation titled ‘Beyond 60, From entropy to symphony’, highlighted the need to move away from the previously ‘exploitative’ relationship with nature to a more ‘enriching relationship’ in the future. “The possible 21st century model,” he said, “does not lie in aping the developed countries since the world is now gradually changing its infrastructure model and therefore the solution does not lie in following what the world had done 50 years back. There needs to be a fundamental shift in perception from urbanisation to decentralisation, linear application of technology to convergence, hardware driven to humanware and software driven, consumption driven to conservation driven and from isolated infrastructure initiatives to more holistic ones and it is this awareness that PR needs to create.”

Another guest speaker at the first session of the conference was Prof Atul Tandon, Director, Mudra Institute of Communications. He highlighted that the key need of PR is to build a degree of national pride in our infrastructure and to educate people. The education he said had to cover several aspects such as creation, maintenance and preservation of infrastructure. The audience also got to view a few communication campaigns on infrastructure funds and the awareness campaigns on preservation of our infrastructure. Ironically, most of them were Government initiatives, which we blame so often for poor infrastructure!

The first day’s sessions at the PR conference were definitely some food for thought for PR practitioners and other stakeholders alike.

Picture Source: The Hindu.

More than 250 PR professionals from across India and abroad will meet at the upcoming mega PR conference - the annual 29th All India PR Conference from December 13-15, 2007 at Green Park Hotel, Chennai. Yup, it’s a three day Woodstock, where the networking will flow free and sharing of ideas and PR guru mantras will be the order of the day. The beer and the entertainment will flow in the evenings.

The theme for this year’s conference is ‘infrastructure’. The PRSI site explains - The gains of infrastructure development will be seriously affected if there is failure or delay in its continued progression; failure or delay could affect the lives of the common man and, indeed, GDP growth. PRSI members believe that there is need to take the subject of infrastructure development beyond industrial boundaries, to impress its importance to as many as possible. However, such an exercise is best carried out in a non-technical manner. And that can be achieved by using PR as a tool and as a platform to deliberate upon the subject.

There are more than 30 speakers and the list is impressive. Some of the sessions that should not be missed include:

a. Communications & PR in the Context, by Prof Atul Tandon - Director Mudra Inst of Communications - MICA, December 13, 5.30pm

b. Communications and PR - Critical Role in PPP initiatives, by Mr Rohit Modi, Chief Executive - Roads & Bridges, L&T, Dec 14, 9am

c. PR enabling City Infrastructure build-up - operations & maintenance, by Mr V Suresh - Director Aerens Golk Souk (Former CMD - HUDCO), Dec 14, 10.15am

d. Good PR aspects in enabling DMRC operations, by Mr Anuj Dayal - Chief PRO - Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, Dec 14, 10.15am

e. IT Infrastructure and PR / Communication Challenges, by Mr David Appaswamy – Chief Communications Officer, Sify Limited, Dec 15, 10.15am

f. Aspects of Rural Communications, by Mr R V Rajan - MD, Anugraha Madison, Dec 15, 1.15pm

g. PR in Co-operative Society, by Mr S.W.M. Rizvi - GM PR Hindalco Industries, Dec 15, 1.15pm

Also don’t miss out the PRSI Awards of Excellence on the third day of the conference for the best of House Journals, Bulletins, Brochures, Annual Reports, and Corporate Films and awarded to Corporates PR departments, PR consultants and advertising agencies.

So if you are an ambitious PR professional who believes in getting good PR training and networking with the key people in the Indian PR industry, we will see you at the event. Similarly for HR departments of PR agencies or mass communication institutes, sponsoring your young Account managers or students, in addition the top bosses, for such events could be one way of telling your employees you want to see them grow and get exposure.

This year’s conference is being hosted by PRSI Chennai.

I saw this post by Richard at the PR Place talking about expensive press stunts as a waste of money and made me think again about how we organise big media events here in India and do all of them really make sense.

Richard wrote that expensive press stunts are a waste of money which could be better spent on other PR activities. Whilst the quantity of coverage can be extensive, the type and quality of the coverage of poor.

His case study was a PR stunt organised by Motorola in which a PR pro was accompanying a mountaineer (Rod Baber) on his trip up Mount Everest to make the world’s highest mobile phone call. Even though Motorola invested a lot resources in the activity, some of the media didn’t mentioned Motorola at all and there were some negative coverage as well.

Back home, we organise all sorts of media events. Events can be simple, creative, and unique (without much expense) and the media can get interested in covering these. However, there are not many of such that we have heard of. These are particularly those few that are of mass appeal or of those subjects that are already topical and are being talked about among the masses at a particular time.

Then there are events for our clients’ product launches, VIP visits, office openings, anniversaries, etc. For such occasions, we help our clients invite celebrity movie or sport stars, and help organise fashion shows, stage skits, belly dance performance, musical performance, etc. in a bid to attract more audience and media. I even was part of a team once that organised a coyote ugly show for the launch of a bar.  Let’s see the pros and cons of organising such media events.

Pros:

1. Good media and audience turnout at the event
2. High number of media clips can be generated
3. Easy to ideate

Cons:

1. High investment - money, time, resources - if I’m not wrong, the cost of organising a basic fashion show at a 5 star hotel starts from Rs. 3 lacs onwards, excluding the fee of top category models.
2. Risk of losing the key message - The media might just focus on the event or the celebrity guest without mentioning the organiser or the product launched. In case it’s a celebrity, the media might just focus their stories on his/her personal and professional life rather than on his/her association with your client.

Now consider this, if I have client who is opening a showroom or a restaurant in Delhi and wants to get some good media publicity from the opening event, what would I advise him? If we invite a celebrity, I’m sure that many media will turn up to cover the celebrity. The flow of the event is simple - celebrity comes, smiles, and say something nice - and I don’t have to wreak my brains for it. Post the event, so what if we we get just one-word mentions in he media stories - ‘ So and so at the opening of new …….. at Delhi’ - that’s enough to create the desired buzz. But hey, the big question is would my client be willing to shell out Rs. 3 lac for the celebrity fee. Would the results be a good ROI for him?

Now if we don’t recommend inviting a celebrity or a fashion show, etc, what are the alternatives? Organising en event without these props, however creative it might be, might not interest the media much. After all, it is just a showroom/ retaurant launch.

This is just one basic scenario that I have talked about where inviting a celebrity or organising a big fashion show, musical night, etc. might seem like the only way out. These also work more small companies. The scenario might be different for bigger brands and bigger companies. In the case of Motorola, they had an option of not doing the stunt also. Any feedback from anybody?