COVID-19 has disrupted sectors across the globe and most organisations have revamped their strategies to Reboot, Reinvent and become more Resilient to face future challenges. The communications business will also need to pave its path to discover new ideas, rethink/unlearn some of the old tactics and tools and create new magic. Sharing these five tips that can help to sharpen your focus and build competitive advantage:
- Segmented Communications: PR professionals need to deep dive to understand the key target audience, know the decision maker as well as the influencer for the organisation’s products, services and solutions. To elucidate, it is not enough to know that CIOs are the TG for an IT services company, one should know if the decision maker is the CFO/CIO, also map the key sectors that the organization is targeting to acquire new customers. Hence, it becomes imperative to have a targeted communications programme with a defined target media list that connects with both the direct target audience, as well as the influencers, should be the key objectives of a PR programme.
- Digi-Comm Tools: With the accelerated adoption of digital channels, it has become imperative for a PR professional to incorporate digital first thinking and recommend integrated communication campaigns. Some of the renowned brands have launched new products/variants on Instagram and also through influencers. Data/Research driven narratives also resonate with consumers in the B2B and B2C space, many brands have mapped the evolution of consumer behaviour before and during the pandemic.
- Business Models 4.0: During the pandemic, organisations have faced multiple challenges pertaining to their brand reputation. For instance, creating a digital safety net with positive articles and news reports is becoming a key priority for brands where the negative chatter on social media is high. Thus, PR consultants are now recommending clients to opt for traditional plus digital PR. Also, we are seeing a surge in new age start-ups that need a turbo-booster for making funding or milestone announcements to create visibility amongst the key stakeholders. Here is where some of the firms are offering PR on the go as a service where the organisation is engaged on a project basis to provide a media visibility jab.
- Building SME (Subject Matter Expertise): Organisations want to engage with communication consultants who have an in-depth understanding of their business, industry, peers, and policy. Hence, PR firms are creating niche business units with sectoral experts who can seamlessly understand the client’s business, its challenges, and provide an appropriate communications solution.
- Be Thinkovative: Last but one of the most important factors are to keep up the spark of creativity and innovation even if it means to think of the smallest moment marketing idea or a contextual CSR idea that is aligned to the business objective. Even incremental thinking like including Key Opinion Leaders/Subject Matter Experts to build category awareness and create authentic campaigns are few things that will add immense value to clients.
I am eager to know your thoughts/feedback/perspective on the above and how you and your team members are rebooting for designing futuristic PR strategies.
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
Richa Seth, Group Head at AdfactorsS PR - Asia’s leading PR agency, in the Corporate 3 SBU. She has been instrumental in creating and executing award-winning integrated marketing communication campaigns for large, mid-size companies and start-ups in B2B & B2C space, across sectors such as technology, education, real estate, infrastructure, manufacturing & engineering, finance, etc. Richa has successfully counseled brands for corporate reputation, product PR as well as crisis management.
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