Have you sent your entry to the Asia Pacific PR Awards 2007? The last date of submission is August 24, 2007 and the awards will be presented on November 14, 2007 in Hong Kong.

Now in the seventh year, the awards hold much significance for Indian PR agencies as the name is much well-known in the Indian market and secondly because of its geographical relevance. The awards are open to PR consultancies, solo practitioners and in-house departments from all countries in the Asia-Paciic region (including Australia, Japan and New Zealand).

Last year, the sole winner from India was Ogilvy Public Relations in the ‘Corporate & Public - Corporate Communications’ category for its campaign ‘Plural Power to Rural India: Bringing the World Home to Rural India’ for Amararaja Batteries.

Here is the snippet of the campaign from the PRAward2006 supplement:

The ‘Plural power to rural India: Bringing the world home to rural India’ campaign was supported by Amararaja Batteries (ARB) India and Amara Raja-Johnson Controls
USA, a leading player in the Indian automotive battery sector.

All activities in line with the launch were aimed towards strategic imperatives of
information availability and usage, communication, documentation of success stories and leveraging this success provided for Amararaja Batteries’ corporate reputation.

Let’s hope we get home trophies this year.

To get more information on the awards, visit the awards site here.

So finally here are the results of the 1st Unofficial Indian Public Relations survey.

We have Text 100, Ogilvy, Perfect Relations, IPAN, 20:20 Media, Lewis PR, Bluelotus, Genesis, and Vaishnavi being voted by participants as the agencies with the best working culture.

Under the agencies with the worst working culture, we have Perfect Relations, yes again, Corporate Voice, IPAN, Genesis PR, and Prism PR.

Category with the highest number of votes received for the salary package for a trainee per month is Rs. 5-10k, for a Jr. Executive and an executive is Rs. 11-15k, for a Sr. Executive is Rs. 16-20k, for a Manager is Rs. 26-30k, and for a Director is Rs. 50-60k.

An average salary for a VP/ Branch Head is Rs. 1-1.5 lac, lowest being Rs. 50k, and highest being Rs. 2 lac. An average salary for a CEO I Rs. 2.5-3 lac, lowest being Rs. 70 k, and highest being Rs. 24 lac.

Read on…

Best PR agency one has worked in and why.

• 20:20 - culture, people, management, growth, exposure, mentors, HR, great role models who respect your views
• Text 100 - professional culture
• e,Lexicon - strategic insight on PR
• Perfect Relations - they raise upto the client’s expectation and deliver their service in style and in time, professionally managed organisation
• The PRactice - exposure and opportunity to grow is good
• Hanmer&Partners - freehand given by the mgmt, scope for initiatives, absence of strict adherence to hierarchy
• AceBrandwidth & Pulse - allowed to learn very fast and grow, challenging working environment compared to a big agency - hence one need to grow to survive
• Ogilvy PR - as they treat brands pretty much the same way they do in advtg, think brands think insights, think insights think ways of influencing people with the relevant insights, one of the rare agencies that tries to ensure every activity on brand leads to a “sum of more than the total”
• Vaishnavi - good clientele, great pay package, and freedom at work
• Also, ISRO, National Dairy Development Board, Anand - freedom to conceive and implement various PR activities specific to the needs of the organisation

Worst PR agency one has worked in and why.

• Perfect Relations - bossy culture, didn’t like the existing culture in the organisation
• Genesis - on New Holland Tractor account, agri business and the target customers - farmers - do not match with stilettos clad girls; also absence of culture, people, management, growth, exposure, mentors, HR
• Percept Profile - initially there were only 2 people in Delhi
• Hanmer&Partners - very unprofessional, very biased
• Corporate Voice - terrible work atmospehere, unnecessary interference from management with no responsibility taken by them, undue pressure on employees

What is a good salary package for a trainee per month?

• Below 5 k - 32.26% votes
• Rs. 5-10 k - 64.52% votes
• Rs. 11-15k - 3.23% votes
• Rs. 11-15k - 3.23% votes

Salary package for a Jr. Executive?

• Below Rs. 5 k - 12.90% votes
• Rs. 5-10 k - 35.48% votes
• Rs. 11-15 k - 48.39% votes
• Rs. 16-20 k - 3.23% votes

Salary package for an Executive?

• Rs.5-10k - 12.90% votes
• Rs.11-15k - 45.16% votes
• Rs.16-20k - 35.48% votes
• Rs.21-25k - 6.45% votes

Salary package for a Sr.Executive?

• Rs.11-15k - 16.13% votes
• Rs.16-20k - 38.71% votes
• Rs.21-25k - 32.26% votes
• Rs.26-30k - 12.90% votes

Salary package for a Manager?

• Rs.11-15k - 19.355 votes
• Rs.16-20k - 9.68% votes
• Rs.21-25k - 22.58% votes
• Rs.26-30k - 25.81% votes
• Rs.31-35k - 22.58% votes

Salary package for a Sr. Manager?

• Rs.16-20k - 29.03% votes
• Rs.21-25k - 12.90% votes
• Rs.26-30k - 19.35% votes
• Rs.31-35k - 12.90% votes
• Rs.36-40k - 25.81% votes

(Here we have Rs. 16-20k getting the highest number of votes surprinsingly, lower than a Manager’s highest a boomer)

Salary package for a Director?

• Rs.30-40k - 38.71% votes
• Rs.41-50k - 16.13% votes
• Rs.50-60k - 29.03% votes
• Rs.61-70k - 16.13% votes

Salary package for a group manager?

• Rs.41-50k - 38.71% votes
• Rs.50-60k - 19.35% votes
• Rs.61-70k - 16.13% votes
• Rs.71-80k - 16.13% votes
• Rs.81-90k - 3.23% votes
• Rs. 1 -1.5 lac - 6.45% votes

(Again here, we have Rs. 41-50k getting the highest number of votes, lower than a director’s highest a boomer)

Salary package for a VP/ Branch head?

• Lowest quote - Rs. 50 k
• Average quote - Rs. 1 - 1.5 lac
• Highest quote - Rs. 2 lac

Salary package for a CEO?

• Lowest quote - Rs. 70 k plus
• Average quote - Rs. 2.5 - 3 lac
• Highest quote - Rs. 24 lac

Agency with the best working culture?

• Text 100
• Ogilvy
• Perfect Relations
• IPAN
• 20:20 Media
• Lewis PR
• Bluelotus Communications
• Genesis
• Vaishnavi

Agency with the worst working culture?

• Perfect Relations
• Corporate Voice
• IPAN
• Genesis
• Prism PR

Participants’ years of experience in the PR industry

• Under 5 years - 40%
• 5-10 years - 23.33%
• 10-15 years - 10%
• 15-20 years - 10%
• 20 plus years - 23.33%

Disclaimer: The results above are the outcome of the 1st Unofficial Indian Public Relations Survey that was conducted for experimentive purposes only in the Public Relations India Open Source PR blog from June 26 - July 25, 2006. The results are indicative of only the votes given by those 30 participants who visited this blog and chose to participate in the survey. These results might not necessarily reflect on the true workings, image, status, or ranking of any PR agency or other organisations in India. Readers who read this are advised to treat the results as opinions of some select PR professionals from the industry, who willingly shared their inputs on conditions of anonymity, and should be awared that these inputs might be subjective.
Also,

• Inputs from participants on the first two questions were removed if they didn’t provide valid reasons why they chose that particular agency.
• Agencies mentioned in the results of the first and last two questions are in random order.

My advice- just read it for kicks, smile, tell a friend, and don’t read too much into it. I wouldn’t have said this had we got hundred plus participants. But are these results all crap? Is there an element of truth somewhere in the results? We have many industry professionals with years of experience giving in their inputs to this survey. Maybe somewhere, there might be. I leave that to each reader. I have done mine.

All said and done, thanks a lot to all participants. We know at least you care about the industry.
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