| Category | Stories |
|---|---|
| Competition | 11 |
| Industry | 12 |
| The PRactice | 1 |
Competition
Microsoft replaces Edelman with Genesis Burson-Marsteller, Perfect Relations to handle consumer businessedit
Microsoft India has taken on Genesis Burson-Marsteller instead of Edelman for its’ PR mandate, while Perfect Relations will continue to handle part of the work. Both decisions come after a competitive review that has lasted several months and included pitches from the top PR firms in the country.
Genesis will be handling the corporate citizenship and enterprise business for Microsoft India, while Perfect Relations will handle consumer. It was not immediately clear which agency would handle the b2b business, earlier handled by Edelman.
Before Edelman took over the mandate in 2014, Hill+Knowlton Strategies handled the mandate for Microsoft. Hill+ Knowlton in turn had taken over from Genesis 6 years ago.
Microsoft is one of the top PR accounts in ...
Microsoft India Parts Ways With Edelman Following PR Reviewedit
One of India’s key communications mandates will be split between Genesis Burson-Marsteller and Perfect Relations.
NEW DELHI — Microsoft India has parted ways with Edelman following a competitive review of one of the country’s key communications assignments.
Microsoft has chosen to bring in Genesis Burson-Marsteller to replace Edelman, which had led the account since 2014. The decision comes despite Edelman’s global Microsoft relationship, and follows a pitch that involved some of India’s top PR agencies.
Edelman had previously led the Microsoft India’s consumer, B2B and corporate/citizenship remit. Perfect Relations, which also plays a role on the business from its Gurgaon office, has also been retained following the review.
Confirming the decision, Microsoft India corporate communications and citizenship director Gayatri ...
Weber Shandwick India appointed as communications partner of PSI Indiaedit
Following participation from leading agencies within the country, Population Services International (PSI) India has appointed Weber Shandwick India as its communication partner.
Established in 1988, PSI India complements the efforts of the Government of India in priority health areas of maternal and child health, sanitation, tuberculosis, family planning, and gender-based violence. Using PSI’s market development approach and targeted social behaviour change, PSI India works to address market failures in the public health space across the country.
As communication partners, Weber Shandwick will be responsible for work with a specific focus on areas such as Healthcare, Sanitation and Family Planning for PSI India.
“For us, it was all about finding a communication partner that understands us ...
MSL India announces new leadership roles in video, social and contentedit
MSL India, Publicis Groupe’s communications and engagement firm, has further enhanced its integrated communications offering by hiring specialised talent for its video, social and content divisions. It has hired Ashish Mehrotra from Culture Machine, Urvashi Pant from Femina and Ankita Chawla who’s worked with NDTV, Webchutney and Wunderman in the past.
The new hires will enable MSL to provide its clients with platform as well as format-specific content expertise.
Mehrotra who joins as the chief video officer will lead the in-house, national multimedia production team.
Chawla, chief of social voice has more than a decade of experience in copywriting, digital marketing and social media management.
Pant, chief content officer will lead the national content practice at MSL ...
Are we media ready?edit
A byline by BN Kumar, Executive Director at Concept PR
I do not need to attend workshops on press release writing,” said the vice president of a PR firm when she was told that she missed a training session. She obviously ignored the unwritten dictum that the process of learning never ends.
Then we often come across senior PR professionals writing essays for Press Releases! Their argument is: Let journalists write what and how they want, we only provide facts. This where all these PR professionals are wrong, totally.
Everybody talks about it and nobody does anything about it. Similarly, all talk about being media-friendly and conveniently ignore the need to practice what they preach or believe. Being media-friendly is not just about making friends ...
Nucleus PR bags the mandate for premium biscuit maker Unibic Foods Indiaedit
Unibic, premium cookie maker has awarded Nucleus its PR mandate, in India, after a competitive multi-agency pitch. The fast-growing company has prestigious clients like Touchkin, TeaBox, Baggit, Langoor, Mediacom on its roster. Unibic is a proud addition to the same.
Nikhil Sen, managing director, Unibic Foods India Pvt.Ltd said, “Nucleus is a great fit for our PR requirements. The young team brings in fresh ideas along with seasoned industry experience that will strategically enhance our media presence through a well thought out plan. We look forward to working with them.”
Commenting on the new win, Tarunjeet Rattan, managing partner, Nucleus said, “We are delighted to work with Unibic Foods. The team brings to the table insights that aim ...
Aircraft engine giant Pratt & Whitney India hands PR mandate to Avian Mediaedit
Global aircraft engine maker, Pratt & Whitney, has awarded its’ public relations mandate to Avian Media following a competitive multi-agency pitch.Avian Media will be responsible for developing and managing strategic communications to amplify key messages and deliver successful campaigns for Pratt & Whitney (P&W) in India. The mandate includes reiterating P&W’s strengths and commitment to India, promoting technology leadership and innovation as well as building advocacy among relevant stakeholders.
Subir Moitra, head of marketing and communications for Pratt & Whitney in India, said: “We look forward to working with Avian Media in successfully driving the Pratt & Whitney story in India. We are especially focused on India as it is the world’s center of excellence for Pratt & ...
Publicis Communications relaunches Arc Worldwide in Indiaedit
MUMBAI: Paris-based multinational advertising group Publicis Communications has re-launched in India its global brand activation and experiential shopper agency, Arc Worldwide.
Arc will work closely with all Publicis Communications India agencies, such as the Leo Group, Publicis Worldwide (including Marcel), Publicis Beehive, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, and MSLGroup, and their roster of clients. Arc was initially launched in India in 2007, but served largely as a digital agency.
“Arc Worldwide is a critical piece in our ambition for Publicis Communications in India. Arc will create more momentum for our ‘Power of One’ platform,” said Saurabh Varma, chief executive officer, Publicis Communications India, and Leo Burnett South Asia. In 2016, the Publicis Group consolidated its operations in India, ...
Small circle of PR is becoming smalleredit
An article by Roger Darashah, CEO of Adfactors
In the 1990s, at the beginning of my PR career, brands dedicated themselves to communicating with and engaging a core set of, usually, knowledgeable and well-informed influencers. In those days, no respected account executive would be far from a copy of BRAD, the industry’s eponymous media directory listing titles as diverse as Open Wound Monthly, to Uninterruptable Power Journal (yes, they both existed as subscription print magazines). BRAD was a ‘5kg media bible’, which reflected a world where – no matter how esoteric your product or service – there was certain to be a print publication somewhere dedicated to it.
But the world has changed; the last copy of BRAD was published in ...
Adfactors Leads 2017 SABRE Awards South Asia Shortlistedit
NEW DELHI — Leading Indian independent Adfactors dominates the shortlist of finalists for the South Asia SABRE Awards, which will be presented at the awards ceremony at Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai on July 27.
Adfactors is shortlisted 27 times, more than any other agency. Other agencies with multiple finalists include MSL (13), Avian Media (10), Genesis Burson-Marsteller and Edelman (nine), Text100 (eight) PR Pundit and Value 360 (six). In-house teams shortlisted multiple times include Godrej, Viacom 18, and Flipkart.
Meanwhile the prestigious CEO of the Year honour will be awarded to State Bank of India chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya, who led the bank through demonetisation.
The winners and certificate of excellence recipients will be announced at the awards ceremony. Tickets and tables for ...
FleishmanHillard India recognised At Cannes Lions 2017 For ‘Free a Girl Movement’edit
FleishmanHillard (FH) India, a part of Omnicom Group Inc., has been recognized along with J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for the Gold Direct Lion-winning entry for Free a Girl Movement’s “School for Justice” campaign.
The “School for Justice” campaign, which is an education program, helps take survivors of sex trafficking out of prostitution and into prosecution. It was aimed at getting taboo topics around child prostitution discussed openly in the Indian society and amongst the media; thereby encouraging dialogue about the long-standing issue plaguing society.
FH India handled the PR and social media components of the campaign locally. From creating awareness about the burgeoning issue of sex trafficking through ...
Industry
These CEOs Are Going to Make a Difference by Singingedit
Vocal skills are perhaps not an essential quality for being a CEO. But in this case, they certainly made a difference. A group of CEOs took to take the stage as part of the Genesis Foundation’s ‘CEOs Sing for GF Kids’ event on 22nd July, 2017. Among the CEOs participating were Philipe Haydon, CEO of the Himalayan Drug Company, Sanjay Sarin, CEO & MD, Tata Coffee, and Suprotik Das, MD Nordstrom
Atul Ahuja, President, Learning Palm, singing his heart away.The Genesis Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that facilitates medical treatment for critically ill under-privileged children with heart disorders. The children supported by the foundation belong to families with an income of less than Rs 10,000 per ...
The Media Rumble beginsedit
Amit Prabhu writes about The Media Rumble:
On Friday morning, I made my way to the Bikaner House Delhi to attend an event whose time had come. I was wondering for the longest time as to why had no one bothered to build a conference of certain stature around news and journalists. I would have loved to create one but I realised that a practitioner would be better positioned to pull this off.
At the outset, I must say Hat’s Off to Sanjoy Roy and Madhu Trehan for pulling this off. Not only was it well organised – which is the look and feel but it was well attended by as well despite the heat of mid-July ...
SPAG founder Aman Gupta invests in new speciality communications firm Commwiseredit
Witnessing the growth in professional services segment along with changing needs of technology sector (Consumer and Enterprise), Aman Abbas who has spent close to two decades in PR industry announced his plans to launch specialist communications firm to focus on these sectors.Commwiser will initially operate from its office in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai and will follow up with expansion in South East Asia.
According to Aman Abbas, “Professional services sector in India is one of the fastest growing sectors and ranges across domains including accounting, legal, consulting, financial, human capital, technology and many more. That along with my personal passion for technology sector will allow ‘Commwiser’ to offer specialist knowledge and services to this sector.”
Commwiser, since its inception ...
Fuzion PR acquires digital newbie ‘SocialOCD’edit
Fuzion PR Pvt. Ltd. has acquired the recently set up digital media agency, SocialOCD to expand and strengthen its presence in digital and online arena.
With the investment of INR 5 Million, SocialOCD has become the first digital and social media agency to attract a funding within 3 months of its inception. “The acquisition will help Fuzion PR Pvt. Ltd. to move towards achieving its aim of being the pioneer in regional digital business in India.” said Mukesh Kharbanda, MD, Fuzion PR Pvt. Ltd. in a statement.
Fuzion PR Pvt. Ltd. has 14 offices in India with over 100 employees. Commenting on the acquisition, Kharbanda said, “The PR segment in India is expected to grow in double digits annually and digital ...
Siddharth Baad takes over as head of communications, Ahmedabad Universityedit
Siddharth Baad , who till recently was the internal communications lead at biopharma giant Biocon, has moved to Ahmedabad University as its’ communications lead. Baad, has over 13 years of experience in communications, across various communications verticals.
He has worked with Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Intas Biopharmaceuticals Limited, Anil Limited, Heubach India and Biocon Limited before joining Ahmedabad University. Siddharth Baad will be responsible for heading the communications team at Ahmedabad University.
Top Corporate Communication Teams’ Day-Outedit
The Reputation Today list of India’s 30 Top Corporate Communication Teams – 2017 was released in the first week of May. And, as a sequel, some leading teams got together to open up a dazzling dialogue on how Public Relations and Corporate Communications have evolved and what is trending today in this space.
On July 12, at the millennium city, Gurgaon, it was a peek into the looking glass, Alice in Wonderland style – with the spotlight on PR as the Top CorpCom teams had a Day-Out. Despite the cloudy skies and bumper-to-bumper traffic jams, more than 20 leading teams joined up, to discuss what was top-of-mind – corporate communications.
There were many reasons to cheer as the ...
Adfactors Leads 2017 SABRE Awards South Asia Shortlistedit
NEW DELHI — Leading Indian independent Adfactors dominates the shortlist of finalists for the South Asia SABRE Awards, which will be presented at the awards ceremony at Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai on July 27.
Adfactors is shortlisted 27 times, more than any other agency. Other agencies with multiple finalists include MSL (13), Avian Media (10), Genesis Burson-Marsteller and Edelman (nine), Text100 (eight) PR Pundit and Value 360 (six). In-house teams shortlisted multiple times include Godrej, Viacom 18, and Flipkart.
Meanwhile the prestigious CEO of the Year honour will be awarded to State Bank of India chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya, who led the bank through demonetisation.
The winners and certificate of excellence recipients will be announced at the awards ceremony. Tickets and tables for ...
MullenLowe Lintas Group launches new full-service agency, PointNine Lintas. Vikas Mehta named CEOedit
MullenLowe Lintas Group today announced the launch of its new independent full-service agency in India, PointNine Lintas. It will offer omni-channel marketing capabilities including creative (on and offline), PR, activation, experiential, social, media and digital transformation; all under one roof.
Why do emotions help in brand storytelling?edit
Coke or Pepsi? Domino’s or Pizza Hut. Samsung or iPhone?
When you have two products that are fairly similar in utility, taste and price, what is it that makes you like one more than the other.
Communication professionals, say that the difference lies on the ‘emotional connect’ you have with the brand. And at the end of the day, using emotions in brand storytelling, is what gives your story the extra edge.
Says Sujit Patil, head of corporate communications, Vedanta agrees, saying, “Marketers who have mastered this psychology of emotional connections are on the top. For me, a brand is nothing but a mental image of a product or service created in my mind. More the emotions attached, more ...
Mining giant Vedanta appoints Sujit Patil to head PR, veteran Roma Balwani set to retireedit
Vedanta has appointed Sujit Patil as head of corporate communications effective June 29, 2017. Sujit will lead all aspects of internal & external communication including branding, media management, social media, public relations and advocacy. Prior to joining Vedanta, Sujit was the vice president and head of corporate communications at Godrej.
Sujit Patil said, “I am indeed delighted and honored to join Vedanta and look forward to contributing towards further enhancing its brand, reputation and reach to a different level. Vedanta has delivered outstanding growth and value to its shareholders through volume, operations and strategy. The company is on an exciting growth path towards becoming the leading globally diversified metal & mining and oil & gas conglomerates with ...
The sanctity of Fulcrumsedit
Finally, the second edition of Fulcrums have witnessed numerous submissions and are waiting to be screened by the eminent jury. Last year as the Fulcrums made their debut, The Promise Foundation, of which I’m a Co-founder and Advisor played a subtle role of hosting them. This year the dynamics have changed where The Promise Foundation is a majority owner and has decided to bring in new rigour and discipline to the Awards. It is probably the only awards system in the world for Public Relations to have –
An independent and full-time Awards Director A Big Four firm as the Process Reviewer A strong jury that has close to zero conflict ...Rolls-Royce India hires First Partners for PR for India and South Asiaedit
Rolls-Royce India has awarded its PR and communications responsibilities to First Partners for India and South Asia region. The account was handled by Weber Shandwick in India earlier. First Partners founding partners, Atul Ahluwalia, Dilip Yadav and Santanu Gogoi quit Weber in 2015 after a long innings and subsequently started their own firm.
First Partners’ mandate is to develop and implement a strategic communications framework for Rolls-Royce India & South Asia by reinforcing the brand’s core values and strengthening its positioning amongst key stakeholders.
“India is a strategic growth market for Rolls-Royce. As we continue to grow our footprint in the country, we need a stronger focus on an effective industrial communication supported by a cohesive content-led approach. First Partners was aligned ...
The PRactice
Experience has always called the shotsedit
The Grand Bazaar, or Al-Madina Souk is one of the oldest and most difficult to navigate marketplaces in the world. It is also one of the most fascinating! Narrow alleys, 4500 or more shops, 2,500 or more interconnected rooms, a mosque, 19 fountains, several squares, 18 gates, shopkeepers, street sellers of different services, con-artists, and anything between 250,000 to 400,000 visitors, every single day! It goes without saying that very few visitors come here to buy anything in particular. Why then, do 91,250,000 odd tourists flock here every year?
Well, they come here for the Experience.
Since the beginning of time, experience has always been the deal clincher. Humans and all other creatures with sensory perceptions are pretty ...