The term Public Relations was first used by the 3rd US President, Thomas Jefferson in 1807 in his Congress speech. Before that it was termed as Media Relations or Propaganda. It’s nothing but informing, persuading, influencing & convincing the target audience. The words of Daniel S Boorstin is a classic narrative of PR -” Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers “
The first newsletter and newspaper were originated from Germany in the 16th Century. There were a lot of ancient forms and practices in this area like Julius Caesar’s using this to spread his biography, poems, messages of his military successes to boost him as a hero. The success of Hitler’s propaganda campaign prompted Franklin Roosevelt to create a group of “Top Ten ” in 1940 to start working on the US model of propaganda and this was the foundation of PR. Since then PR has started to progress & develop to a modern, dignified and essential portfolio. After World War 2 PR was recognised as a full time profession in many countries of the World.
In India too in the early days, the people with journalism background, were the pioneers in Media Relations. In the 80’s International Advertising Agencies like Ogilvy ventured into this area with their Ogilvy PR. But since they were focusing more on their core area of advertising, they couldn’t do much. In 1986 Charanjit Singh, a PR professional working with a German company started the first organised PR company in India – Core PR. In 1991 Indian market was opened removing restrictions by the then PM P V Narasimha Rao & FM Manmohan Singh with their reforms popularly known as LPG ( Liberalisation, Privatisation & Globalisation ). A lot of reputed International PR Agencies ventured in. Indian Agencies also came up in India as a result of this like Lexicon PR, Adfactors, Sobhagya, Concept PR, PR 24×7 etc. especially with the spurt of public issues. ,But the global slowdown added with the crisis due to the Satyam Computers fraudulent manipulations were a big blow to the PR industry. It was the question of ethical reporting, credibility & trust. A lot of PR companies had problems of survival & growth., With the Digital era PR Industry again came back to focus & forefront .and the latest concepts like image management & reputation managements etc came to limelight.But the major shortcomings were the .lack of skilled man power, professionalism, leadership crisis,and the lack of proper awareness.
In 2012 Public Relations Society of America ( PRSA ) redefined PR as ” Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their publics ” The terminologies like Corporate PR, Strategic PR, etc became more popular…In the US a person is exposed to 4000 to 10,000 messages every day. most of these were ignored unless you have a personal interest in it.The real challenges of a Brand are – staying consistent, differentiating against competition, continuity of customer experience and keeping themselves on top of the mindset of the consumer.Market research will help you to identify this effectively, so that you can build awareness & trust among the stakeholders.
India has the World’s second largest internet users after China with 570 internet connections and an annual growth of 13%It has overtaken entertainment industry in 2019 and print. A study on advertisement spent on various media in 2019 shows that TV has 42%,Digital 30% and Print 20%.On an average an Indian spends 4 -5 hours in Social Media. 54% of Indian population is below 25. Only 9% is above 60The content in the internet influences the lives of the people more than anything. The ideas projected through images, texts & videos have a strong foundation and influence on the mind & behaviour of the stakeholders. Still 2/3 rd of indian population doesn’t have access to the internet or smart phones. India definitely has the potential to become one of the top markets in the world with more penetration in the Internet.Digital is the future and has a lot of career opportunities, increasing influences and multi dimensional activities..Social Media Communication or Digital PR is gaining more significance now. It’s cost effective, subjective and selective. You must identify & understand the target audience and then monitor your industry to position your brand correctly. Then you must engage the audience by creating stories spinning around the brand, testimonials and something they value.Finally you have to measure the results. to ensure that your task is successful in convincing the stakeholders you were able to keep your brand on top of their mind.
Advertising is considered as a paid publicity but PR is an earned publicity, In advertising you tell people how great you are. But with publicity, others sing your praises. The Nielsen Global Survey in 2014 on CSR in 60 countries across Asia pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America and Africa revealed some very interesting findings. According to the study PR is almost 90% more effective than advertising. 52% of consumers buy products after ensuring that the brand is committed to positive social and environmental impact,
Gift wrapping is the latest Mantra of PR. The classic example is Apple and Steve Jobs. All the people behind the curtain know very well how Steve Jobs used to keep the journalists in good humour and to take the best advantage from them. That’s the reason still Apple retains its credibility and value even after 10 years of the death of Steve Jobs thanks to his PR efforts. Integrating different communication channels is the new normal. Media Relations, Digital PR, owned, earned, shared and paid media relations, online reputation & image management, PR supported by research & data, content creation & promotion etc must be integrated. Create relevant, interesting & current content and promote it through the owned, earned & paid channels to keep the image on top of the mindset of the stakeholder. It’s observed in most of the successful PR campaigns that the PR agencies are effectively deploying 49% on earned media, 20 % in shared, 19% in owned and 12% in paid media..The focus must be on transparency & authenticity and elimination of fake claims & messages. The game is changing. It’s going to be technology driven. with more focus on AI and Big Data analysis to provide 360* value propositions to the client. .