September 2017

Marking yet another feather in its cap, Concept PR has bagged the prestigious Fulcrum Award 2017 as its executive director B N Kumar has been felicitated as PR consultant of the year for the agency’s social communication campaign.

Fulcrum organizers commented: With over four decades of experience as a media professional, BN Kumar, Executive Director Concept PR, has pioneered social communication as an effective tool to talk about issues of social concern from conserving water to self-defence for women and from educating the girl child to environment protection.

Fulcrum Awards jury members Nandini Chatterjee – Executive Director and chief Communication officer PwC India – and Mukund Mudras – Founder Heckyl Technologies presented the award to Kumar.

“Coming as ...

HP Reports ‘Diversity Challenge’ Results, Edelman Falls Short On Minority Representation

The report tracks how HP’s five marketing agencies measured against their 12-month targets to increase the number of women and US minorities working on the business.

NEW YORK — One year after HP CMO Antonio Lucio (pictured) directed the company’s marketing agencies to take steps to improve diversity, the company has published the results from those efforts.

The report published today tracks how HP’s five marketing agencies measured against their 12-month targets to increase the number of women and US minorities, not only on account teams, but also within creative and account leadership. Because HP consolidated its PR work with Edelman shortly after issuing the directive last year, Edelman is the only PR agency featured in the report that also ...

Chairman Ashish Bhasin’s keen online focus has put Dentsu Aegis Network second in India

Hindu Business Line

In a world going digital, Ashish Bhasin, chief of Dentsu Aegis Network, is almost an anomaly when he’s at home. Each morning, he’s up with the lark, pacing about till the newspapers arrive. Then, he ploughs through three or four dailies “from cover to cover”. “I’m one of the few people keeping newspaper readership going,” he laughs.

Move from home to office and it’s a very different scenario. Bhasin has up-ended decades of advertising rankings and turned Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) into India’s second-largest agency overtaking IPG by building enormous online muscle.

DAN will close 2017 with billings of approximately ₹6,000 crore, he says, and digital will contribute a sizeable chunk.

“Some ...

Brand experts reveal how communication can influence public opinion

Everything Experiential

At the recently held 10th anniversary celebrations of EEMAGINE, the annual convention for event industry by Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA), a panel discussion on ‘Transforming Public Opinion’ witnessed participation of communication stalwarts like Sanjay Nigam, COO Perfect Relations, Roma Balwani, President Group Communications, CSR & Sustainability, Vedanta Group and Sonia Huria, Senior VP and Head – Communications & CSR, Viacom 18. The session was moderated by Yamini Singh, Executive Editor, Everything Experiential.

The panelists highlighted the role that ‘public relation’ plays in building and sustaining brand image. Stating that communication is a practice that involves both art and science, Sonia Huria of Viacom 18 said, “Communication is actually a marriage between art and science.” ...

I believe we are a mid-sized agency in India: Srija Chatterjee, MD, Publicis Worldwide India

Financial Express

From rolling out Marcel in the country to the merging of Publicis Ambience and Publicis Capital to form Publicis India, it has been a busy year for Publicis Worldwide India.

From rolling out Marcel in the country to the merging of Publicis Ambience and Publicis Capital to form Publicis India, it has been a busy year for Publicis Worldwide India. Srija Chatterjee, who joined Publicis Worldwide India from MullenLowe Singapore earlier this year, reveals how the agency is in revamp mode. She speaks with BrandWagon’sShinmin Bali about the ambitious growth plans of the agency, making pitches a habit and the need for an entrepreneurial spirit. Edited excerpts:

After spending time in Singapore, you took up a role in India after quite ...

Text100 Withdraws From Lenovo Pitch After 12 Years As Lead PR Agency

Next 15 firm will continue to support Lenovo local market work, as technology giant narrows global agency search

NEW YORK — Text100 has ended its 12-year relationship as Lenovo’s global corporate PR partner, after withdrawing from the technology giant’s big-budget agency review.

Text had previously handled global corporate duties along with the PC and data center business groups. The relationship stretches back to 2005, when Lenovo acquired the personal computing business of key Text client IBM.

The agency will continue to handle local market work for Lenovo. The current agency search, revealed by the Holmes Report last month, aims to consolidate global corporate PR and product PR for the company’s various business groups, along with specific ...

As Adfactors PR marks 20 years, co-founder Madan Bahal talks PR, memories, philosophy and more

In the early 90s’ as the Indian economy opened up, the Adfactors leadership came to an important realisation. That if they were to keep pace with the rising institutionalisation of the financial markets in India, the communication tools for their clients would have to evolve beyond their current offerings of financial advertising.

Therefore, born out of the need to respond to the new market challenges, Adfactors PR was launched in 1997. This year, the firm turned 20.

Says Madan Bahal, co-founder and managing director, Adfactors PR says, “On one hand, we had to evolve our offering, on the other hand we had the example of PR success stories with firms such as Clea, Perfect Relations, Genesis and Sampark PR. This inspired ...

Zee Entertainment names Genesis Burson-Marsteller communications partner

Genesis Burson-Marsteller, a public relations and public affairs consultancy, has bagged the public relations mandate for the global content company, ZEE Entertainment. From a consumer outreach programme perspective, Genesis Burson-Marsteller will work to position ZEE as the entertainment destination and the powerhouse of creativity by following a strategic and customised communications approach across its various brands. While the Mumbai office of the consultancy will be spearheading the relationship, the expanse of work will spread across India, including key tier-I and tier-II markets. Handling the diverse bouquet of channels across movies and general entertainment in multiple languages like English, Hindi, Marathi, Bangla, the team from Genesis Burson-Marsteller will work closely with the team at ZEE Entertainment to ensure seamless ...

Save little hearts … Give life a chance!

It is World Heart Day on Sept 29th – a day to create awareness about heart issues. This usually springs up thoughts about cholesterol or heart attacks or open heart surgeries and such – everything associated to an adult facing heart issues.

Now let me share my story.

Tragedy in my life opened my eyes to a stark reality. A reality I wish no one should ever face.

Like many expectant mothers, I too was eagerly awaiting my life-changing experience – that of being a mother and all that came with motherhood. And indeed I did have that life-changing experience for more reasons than one.

I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl on Feb 7th 2016. And with my ...

CBSE scan on Ryan murder – Second child death in chain run by BJP leader

The Telegraph

CBSE scan on Ryan murder

– Second child death in chain run by BJP leader

Police stand guard at Ryan International School during a protest in Gurgaon on Saturday. (PTI)

New Delhi, Sept. 9: The Central Board of Secondary Education today set up a two-member fact-finding committee to probe yesterday’s murder of a seven-year-old student at Ryan International School, Gurgaon.

The Union government-controlled board had taken no action last year after a six-year-old pupil drowned in a tank at a Delhi school run by the same group, whose managing director Grace Pinto is a national secretary with the BJP’s Mahila Morcha.

The Gurgaon school, where Pradhyuman Thakur was found with his throat slit yesterday ...

Publicis appoints two new VPs for Account Management and a Creative Director for Delhi

In a bid to strengthen and grow its business operation, Publicis has appointed Krishnendu Paul and Amitabh Sreedharan as Vice President- Account Management and Prateek Suri as Creative Director. Paul and Sreedharan will report to Ravpreet Ganesh, Executive Director, whereas Suri will be reporting to Nitin Pradhan, Head of Creative.

Armed with 17 years of experience Paul has been associated with organizations like Lowe Worldwide, JK Helene Curtis, JWT and Ambience Darcy in the past. Sreedharan joins in from McCann, where he was the Business Director. During his 16 years of experience in the industry, he has worked in McCann, Scarecrow and Ogilvy.

Commenting on his new role, Paul said, ‘’It is an honour to be part of an ...

Weber Shandwick And Tin Man Top 2017 Global Creative Index

Weber Shandwick has returned to top spot in the 2017 edition of the Global Creative Index, marking the second time in three years that the Interpublic PR firm has ranked first in the Holmes Report’s annual benchmark of creativity in the public relations world.

The sixth edition of the Global Creative Index analyses entries and winners from more than 25 PR, digital and marketing awards programmes from around the world over a 12-month period. This year, the formula was revamped to take into account the expansion of ‘public relations’ work across multiple categories at advertising-oriented shows such as the Cannes Lions, with the methodology favouring agencies designated for ‘idea-creation’.

That helped Weber Shandwick prevail at the top of the ranking ...

Don’t friend me on Facebook, Twitter is fine though says senior news agency journalist

A story about the interview by PTI of Pratishtha Kaura, associate manager, Text100

Reviving my role as the ‘PR journalist’ on a lazy Saturday, this time I was in Central Delhi for another edition of “The Journalist’s Interview”. It was time again for me to probe into the love-hate relationship of journalism and PR industry – the two industries that work together, live together but also rant together.

As I wait for my interviewee in the newly built cafeteria of PTI Office, my eyes wander towards the mellow walls covered with distinct stories across the field of art, science, sports, politics along with iconic pictures of APJ Abdul Kalam, Arundhati Roy, Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen. As I contemplate looking ...

Individual Achievement SABRE Award For Genesis Founder Prema Sagar

The Homes Report

Indian PR pioneer and Genesis Burson-Marsteller founder Prema Sagar will be honoured with the Individual Achievement SABRE Award in Hong Kong on 14 September, at the seventh edition of the Asia-Pacific SABRE Awards.

Sagar receives the award as GBM celebrates its 25th anniversary. Founded as one of the India’s first PR consultancies, GBM remains as relevant as ever, even as other firms have fallen by the wayside. Sagar explored the firm’s history and progress in a recent Echo Chamber podcast, which also highlighted the high proportion of Indian industry leaders that began their careers at GBM.

“Prema is extremely passionate about quality and excellence,” explains Ford India president and MD Anurag Mehrotra, perhaps the most successful leader to emerge from ...

Citizens’ Awards Announced for Homegrown Indian Companies

PRNewswire

India Honours initiative has been made possible with the help of pioneering technology by The Award Republic in collaboration with internationally acclaimed PR firm, Weber Shandwick. A champion of democracy, the Award Body is powered by the world’s largest online consumer research engine – Adytude.

Who are the true heroes of the Indian economy? Is it fancy multinational brands or huge Indian giants with deep pockets? No, these are the Goliaths – fighting the market war from a position of power.

The real heroes are the smaller brands. A maker of ayurvedic medicine here, a brand that manufactures soaps there, a company that specialises in stationery supplies; these are brands that have succeeded against all odds. Often the vision ...

Industry

Faber Castell assigns PR mandate to PG Communication

Campaign India

Stationery brand Faber-Castell has recently assigned its PR mandate for India to PG Communication. The agency has been tasked with providing strategic communications services to strengthen the Faber Castell brand in the country.

Cohn & Wolfe takes corporate director plus brief from Edelman and hires Three’s Riley

PR Week

Cohn & Wolfe’s London corporate has won a global brief with Cambridge International Examinations previously held by Edelman, with a director from its agency rival also one of two new hires to the team.

The agency’s corporate team hired Edelman director Gary Cleland, a five-year servant of the firm, in May. Cleland has also worked for MHP and written for the Daily Telegraph.

The team has this month hired Kate Riley, who was previously lead corporate affairs advisor to the CEO of mobile operator Three, having previously worked for EDF Energy, Lloyds Banking Group and a forerunner of the agency MHP.

Its brief with Cambridge International Examinations, an educational programme and qualification provider that is part of the ...

Celebrating clear-cut learnings at #PRAXIS6

Just back from #PRAXIS6 hosted in the Pink City, which was designed to converge all aspects of communications together so that the community can learn, share and be inspired.

And, #PRAXIS6 had us enthralled in the ‘C’ circle. The integration of Content, Creativity and Community, which encircled the theme – Beauty of Communication.

Every year, we have watched this unique gathering honoring a new generation of storytellers, while rewarding the brands, firms and craftspeople to lead the way. It was no different this year. “PRAXIS6 exceeded expectations, and is by far the best networking event for the communications business in India. The number of new faces took me by surprise,” observed Aseem Sood, CEO, Impact Research & Measurement.

...

Corporate communications veteran, Narahari K.S. receives Fulcrum Lifetime Achievement award for 2017

The organizers of Fulcrum Awards, PRomise Foundation (organisers of PRAXIS) and PRmoment.in (a leading online magazine for PR professionals) announced the winners tonight at a well attended gala dinner in Jaipur. The awards included a slew of inidvidual awards honouring life time achievement awardee, Narahari K.S as well as the contribution of practicing individual professionals at the consultancy and in-house level. Here are the final winners and their profiles:

Life time Winner

Narahari KS

A seasoned corporate communications professional with over thirty-six years of experience in the field of communication he started his professional journey in sales as the sales manager at HMT Limited and later moved to communications. During the course of his noteworthy career in PR, ...

PR industry in India grows 18% to reach Rs 1, 315 crore in 2017: report

LiveMint

Digital, social media and content-driven campaigns contributed 29% to the revenue of PR firms to reach Rs1,315 crore in FY2017, says PRCAI report

New Delhi: The public relations (PR) industry grew 18% to touch Rs1,315 crore in FY2017, according to a report titled ‘State of the Industry Survey 2017’ by the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI).

Digital, social media and content-driven campaigns contributed as much as 29% to the revenue of PR firms.

A survey, conducted among 36 public relation companies and 28 corporate communication teams of various companies in India, between July and August this year by FeedbackBusiness Consulting, shows that the industry is expected to continue to register double-digit growth, reaching Rs2, 000 crore by ...

The Fulcrum Awards Winners 2017 are here!

The organizers of Fulcrum Awards, PRomise Foundation (organisers of PRAXIS) and PRmoment.in announced the winners tonight at a well attended gala dinner in Jaipur. The awards night saw over 600 professionals in attendance from the communications business, the largest such gathering of communicators in India . A jury of 18 eminent communications leaders, chaired by Balaji P, Vodafone decided the winners through rigorous online and offline judging. This year onwards ‘The Fulcrum Awards’ has partnered with PwC as the process reviewer, a first for any communications industry awards in India.

The ceremony kicked off by honouring Narahari KS with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. The evening saw compelling campaigns compete for the gold, silver and bronze in the 11 sub-categories for technique ...

Fake news making rapid migration from politics to corporate world says Rob Flaherty, CEO, Ketchum

Not a week goes by without fake news circulating via WhatsApp messages, strident Twitter hashtags and Facebook shares. At the moment, such bytes of messaging are largely about political and social areas. But, Rob Flaherty, partner, chairman and CEO, Ketchum , believes that fake news is, “Making a rapid migration from politics to the brand and corporate world.”

Flaherty, who is on a visit to India, spoke to PRmoment India about fighting fake news, Ketchum Sampark’s future growth plans, the gift that is the advent of social media, CSR plans and what companies should do during a promoter-CEO spat.

Fight fake news with media literacy

Outlining the shape that fake news takes for corporate and brands, Flaherty said that ...

Government: The new PR hive

An article published recently caught my eye. It spoke of how the government was considering taking on board a leading public relations firm from UK to grow tourist inflow into India. The firm, it was said, will also be entrusted with the task of conveying the correct information to sustain the perception of a safe India in the mind of Britishers who chose to travel.

It then struck me. The government indeed, has seen value in warming up to a Public Relations firm. The need to build a bridge in between, transmit targeted information to reflect the right spirit, have finally been felt by public functionaries. And the scope of PR in the government arena has unfolded as ...

Pradipta Bagchi takes over as Tata Sons Group Chief Communications Officer

Tata Sons today announced the appointment of Mr. Pradipta Bagchi as group chief communications officer. Bagchi will report to N. Chandrasekaran, executive chairman of Tata Sons in his new role.

A professional with over 25 years of experience in business, media and communications, Bagchi has been the global head of corporate communications for TCS since 2005. He was also responsible for designing key thought leadership initiatives as well as designing TCS’ engagement on global platforms.

N. Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons, said: “Pradipta brings extensive experience as a communication professional. As the group chief communications officer, he will play a key role in driving seamless communication experience across the Tata group as well as create engagement ...

Girish Balachandran launches On Purpose, aimed at social change communication

Girish Balachandran has launched a new communications consultancy to drive social change in India. The firm will work with brands and organisations to help define brand purpose and deliver campaigns to effect change in attitudes and behavior towards social causes.

‘On Purpose’ has been conceived to bring more courage and compassion to the way in which brands view their world and the people they impact. We want to use the power of communications to change the world, one brief at a time,” said Balachandran, managing partner at ‘On Purpose’.

The firm has signed on seven clients, since it began work in the early half of 2017, and is working on assignments including addressing childhood obesity in India, assessing and addressing ...

PRCAI and SCoRe launch Certificate Programme in Public Relations

The Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI) have partnered with School of Communications & Reputation to provide an Advanced Certificate in Public Relations for communications professionals and aspirants. The part time programme will run over 10 weeks (starting 24th October) with nearly 60 contact hours, and take participants through fundamental know-hows and technical applications of practicing Public Relations.

The inspiration of designing such a programme came from a realisation that an increasingly high number of communications professionals (and often students) were found to be expressing interest in PR. While some want to make a career shift into PR, some want the exposure to be able to add more value to their current profiles.

“In most communications roles ...

Dentsu launches CLab for celebrity endorsement and sports marketing

LiveMint

New Delhi: Advertising firm Dentsu Aegis Network on Wednesday announced the launch of celebrity endorsement and sports marketing agency CLab. It will be headed by Haresh Nayak, managing director, Posterscope Group, Dentsu’s out of home arm.

The 12-member strong entity will deliver solutions that range from brand endorsements, integrations, property and content creation to digital associations and sports marketing offerings including in-stadia branding, image rights, associations, activations, live events and appearances.

Headquartered in Mumbai, CLab will also operate in Delhi and Bengaluru.

“Today several of our clients invest huge amounts of money to establish their brand image with the help of celebrity endorsers. This is often done on gut feel. We hope to bring a data based, scientific approach ...

About Praxis 2017: The Beauty of Communications – Integration of Content, Creativity and Community

PRAXIS has come a long way since its inception in 2012 and this week all roads and flight routes lead to Jaipur. At the 6th edition we will have a dozen international speakers flying all the way from as many cities, from as far as Chicago, St Louis, Seattle, New York, Paris, London, Madrid, Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. We also have special addresses by Indian stalwarts from Coimbatore, Mumbai and Bangalore.

A unique feature about PRAXIS is the passion of not repeating venues, speakers and the live act. This is not easy but we have figured it is not impossible either. So, you will never see a corporate communications or consulting professional a second time on ...

Over 36 partners come forward to support the sixth edition of PRAXIS

Amith Prabhu

Six to the power of six seems to be the unwritten theme when it comes to partnerships. These include six of the Top 10 firms, two iconic media brands and several young consultancies besides ancillary companies.

India headquartered Adfactors and Value 360 have come forward to be Platinum partners for the third consecutive year. The latter has been supporting the summit since its inception and as part of its 20th year celebration will be a title partner at the event venue. This year we have offered our regular Platinum partners the option on a rotational basis to be a Presenting partner for an additional investment.

Leading Indian firms that are partnering the summit consecutively are Avian Media and Media Mantra as Gold Partners. Silver ...

Customer engagement, cyber intelligence firm Verint India renews Galvanise Communications mandate

Galvanise PR, an integrated communications firm specialising in technology has been awarded with the India PR mandate for Verint. Verint is a global leader driving actionable intelligence through analytics tools.

Commenting on the win, Shalini Singh, CEO, Galvanise Communications said,” Winning back Verint comes has a huge testimonial to the team’s ability to engage through relevant storytelling. She further added, “At Galvanise we believe, good stories and the right presentation of the stories are the heart of a PR campaign. We go a step forward in understanding business needs and the market, grasping our client’s objectives and translating them to ambitious and creative PR strategies.’’

Martyn Riddle, marketing director Asia Pacific and Japan, Verint commented that, “ ...

CK Birla Group appoints Swati Bhattacharya as brand and communication head

The CK Birla Group today announced the appointment of Swati Bhattacharya as group brand and communication head. Swati Bhattacharya is responsible for CK Birla Group’s communication and brand strategy and will help shape the company’s narrative as it moves towards the next chapter in its story of value creation. Swati comes to CK Birla from General Motors India, where she had served as vice president of corporate communications. She was earlier vice president- corporate relations, public affairs and branding with Ingersoll Rand and head of corporate relations at Agilent Technologies prior to that.

Commenting on her appointment, Swati Bhattacharya said, “I am pleased to join the CK Birla Group, one of India’s oldest and well-respected business houses. The Group’s enriched ...

Porter Novelli

Weber Shandwick And Tin Man Top 2017 Global Creative Index

That helped Weber Shandwick prevail at the top of the ranking ...

The PRactice

Is reputation loss due to data loss a CEO’s biggest PR nightmare?

Zomato, Verizon, HBO, Yahoo; just some of the brands in the news for data breaches in recent years.

Yours may have been one of the 500 million tweets sent everyday or perhaps you logged on to a fitness app, used your bank app for a payment or checked on one of those irresistible, “ Which Bollywood celeb you would marry’, quizzes on Facebook.

With apologies to Sting, “Wherever you go, whatever you do,” data is watching you. We leave bits and bytes of our life on the internet leaving us vulnerable to data misuse. Which is why companies, especially data heavy companies, face the huge challenge of keeping our trust as they handle our most sensitive and ...

Reputation Today 100 Most Important Professionals – 2017