The Public Relations profession and industry in India, like many other industry verticals in the communication sector have been registering double-digit growth in the past many years. The projections available in the public domain indicates that the Indian PR industry is expected to register a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12 percent in the next few years. Although prospects look bright in the PR industry with a business turnover of Rs 1,800-2,000 cr is considered very modest for a country of India’s size and diversity.
It is well known that the Indian PR industry is mainly concentrated in the big cities of the country focusing mainly on a limited number of large clients. Except for a select group, a large section of the clients in the country still carry the notion that PR is nothing but getting a display in the mainstream media. The value of PR, henceforth, is counted based on the number of displays in the media. In many instances, clients also fail to distinguish between advertisements and PR. There is no doubt that ensuring the proper display in the media is an important function of PR. But that is not the only function of the PR.
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TOTAL COMMUNICATION
The PR industry and profession have undergone major changes to emerge as an integral component of the communication value chain of business and professional enterprises. The communication value chain, a crucial differentiator in shaping the competitive advantage of enterprises across the world, is determined by the product, services, personnel behind the venture, social and ethical commitments, and other variables. PR plays a crucial role in developing an integrated communication solution by incorporating such divergent variables. In management parlance, this is known as a holistic approach. The PR professional, like the system integrator, would help the enterprise to assimilate the marketing, branding, human resources, social and ethical messages into multiple avenues for communications and thereby projecting the unique personality of the enterprise. The PR campaign of Tropicana has been highlighted by many as an example of integrating such diverse messages into a singularity of purpose. The PR campaign message was simple; even 150 ml Tropicana provides 60 percent Vitamin C is needed for a day. To convey the same the beverage maker set up an interactive billboard with animated characters at a vantage point in London explaining the health benefits of Vitamin C capped by Tropicana executives dispensing 150 ml glass of the beverage. The campaign turned out to be a huge success in terms of branding as well as an increase in the sales volume of the product. Media research stated that 88 percent of the respondents claimed that they have bought the Tropicana product after seeing the campaign. I have mentioned this to highlight the importance of an integrated PR strategy. The Tropicana campaign was entirely against the ethos of treating PR in the single-module approach limited to ensuring the display in the media. In the Indian PR landscape, only a few companies are engaged in devising such an integrated communication solution as part of their PR strategy. It is imperative on the part of the PR professionals to initiate a paradigm shift as the single-module approach wouldn’t help in serving the communication needs of the client in the digital age.
PR IN ICT AGE
The PR profession and industry have undergone a paradigm shift with the onset of the information and communication revolution heralded by the Internet. A major fallout of the ICT revolution is the lack of control over the flow of information. Before the advances in ICT information flow was largely regulated and closely monitored as the number of stakeholders in the media industry remained limited. For instance, in the age of print media, the limited number of publications enabled the monitoring of the information flows an easy task. The same was also true in the case of radio and television media. The advent of ICT and digital media completely changed the media landscape and opened the floodgates of information flow. As the velocity of information flow scaled infinite heights monitoring the same with specifically designed algorithms became inevitable. The Indian PR industry cannot afford to remain oblivious to these paradigm shifts taking place in the field of communication. The advent of ICT-driven media platforms and devices have heralded new media habits such as people accessing news and views using mobile phones. In such a scenario the question before the PR professional is how to capture the attention of such persons to the PR campaign. How to deliver customised information as generic content when the people have the option to choose the content of their interest-only is something that deserves the serious attention of PR professionals in the country. Identifying the most appropriate platforms for delivering customised information is another challenge facing the Indian PR industry.
INDUSTRY STRUCTURE:
The Indian PR industry is marked by the presence of few very large companies accounting for over 32 percent of the business followed by large and medium firms claiming 30 percent. The smaller firms have a healthy share of 29 percent of the market while individual professionals claim around 8 percent. The ability to plan data-driven campaigns with graphics and videos has been identified as a key variable determining the success of PR professionals in the coming days by many of the industry outlook reports. The capability to provide verifiable feedback would also be an important feature for getting PR assignments. The feedback system becomes important in the background of the data analytics providing the success rate of a campaign reaching its targeted audience with accuracy. According to industry estimates, top PR firms are making investments in the creation of multimedia content, influencer marketing, research, insight, and planning. The three areas likely to witness maximum growth for the PR industry in the next five years have been identified as IT and Technology, Financial and Professional Services and Healthcare. Although industry leaders are bullish about the growth prospects of the PR industry in the country the lack of talent is a matter of concern for many. Talent dearth is especially rampant in areas of data analytics and storytelling.