We Have Always Remained A Start-Up At Heart: Prema Sagar, Genesis BM
Counted amongst the pioneers of the organised Public Relations sector in India, Prema Sagar, Vice Chair, Burson-Marsteller Asia Pacific & Founder, Genesis Burson-Marsteller has been witness to the immense transformation that public relations has undergone in India.
From handling media relations to a complex role of managing brand identity in a world that is hyper-connected, Prema Sagar opens up about her two-decade-plus journey in the profession, her vision for Genesis BM and the future of PR in this exclusive interview. Edited excerpts:
How would you describe the shift in PR practice that has taken place over the last 25 years?
In the last 25 years, the industrial landscape of India has changed drastically. From the opening of the …
2018 is the year of our people: GBM’s Prema Sagar on her incredible 25 year PR journey
Over two decades ago, Prema Sagar sat at the Park Hotel at Connaught Place, on the brink of her journey in PR. From running a printing business, Sagar moved to PR and Park Hotels was one of the first three clients for Genesis PR, all serviced by just three people that made up the company.
In December 2005, Burson-Marsteller acquired Genesis Public Relations, one of the first such acquisitions in the PR space in India. While there are still a few large independent PR firms in India, the era of international takeover might just be over, Sagar says, “ It’s going to be difficult to acquire now, if you do, look at the cultural fit first”.
As GBM marks …
Genesis Burson Marsteller wins Sabre award for work with Medela
Punjab News Express NEW YORK: Burson-Marsteller, a leading global strategic communications and public relations firm, today announced its Indian operation, Genesis Burson-Marsteller, won a 2017 Global SABRE Award for its campaign with Medela called Back to Work. Presented by leading industry publication The Holmes Report, the Global SABRE Awards celebrate superior achievement in branding, reputation and engagement and recognize the 40 best PR campaigns in the world. The awards were presented at a ceremony during #PRovoke17, The Holmes Report’s Global PR Summit, in Miami on October 25. Back to Work ranked ninth out of the top 40.
Back to Work with Medela – Medela, a breast pump and nursing accessories manufacturer, found that many Indian women …
NetApp Hires Text100 To Lead Asia-Pacific Brand Transformation
SINGAPORE — NetApp has hired Text100 to lead its Asia-Pacific PR duties, as the data storage company looks to step up its brand transformation effort across the region.
Text100 has been appointed as Asia-Pacific lead agency out of Singapore, while also adding local market remits in Australia/New Zealand and Malaysia. The new business, worth an estimated $500k per year, extends to Text100’s seven-year relationship with NetApp in India and displaces Asia-Pacific incumbent Weber Shandwick.
Separately, it is understood that NetApp has retained incumbent firm H+K Strategies after reviewing its PR mandate across EMEA.
In Asia-Pacific, Text100 will report to NetApp regional CMO Charles Manuel, in a bid to strengthen awareness and advocacy of NetApp’s new brand narrative across 13 …
Publicis Groupe grew by 3.9% in India in Q3 2017
Publicis Groupe grew by 3.9 per cent in India in the third quarter ending September 30, 2017, down from 13 per cent growth during the second quarter. The company had recorded 0.4 per cent growth in India in Q1, said the French advertising giant in its earnings release for Q3 2017.
Publicis Groupe’s consolidated global revenue in Q3 2017 was 2,264 million euro, down 2.2 per cent from 2,315 million euro for the corresponding period in 2016. Exchange rates had a 93-million euro negative impact, i.e. the equivalent of 4.0 per cent of revenue in Q3 2016. Net acquisitions contributed 16 million euro to revenue for the period, i.e. the equivalent of 0.7 per cent of …
NEWSEdelman appoints MullenLowe’s Ranjit Jathanna as chief strategy officer for APAC
Global public relations firm Edelman has appointed Ranjit Jathanna as chief strategy officer for what it dubs “client programming” in a newly created role.
Jathanna, who previously held the CSO role at creative agency MullenLowe Singapore, will be tasked with handling business relationships, setting the strategy and managing the Edelman client team, across Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa.
He will report to Rupen Desai, Edelman’s regional executive vice chairman.
Prior to joining Edelman, Jathanna worked at MullenLowe in Singapore for two years, overseeing global strategy on Unilever’s brand Lifebuoy.
During his 18-year career, he has worked across Lowe’s offices in China and India, and also had a two-year stint at DDB in the Middle East.
“Strategies now need to be …
MMRC appoints PR agency without e-tender process
The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), which is executing the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 underground corridor, has hit another controversy in appointing a private PR agency without floating any e-tenders despite the state and central government making it mandatory to conduct an e-tender for projects more than Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh to maintain transparency.
Documents accessed by DNA under the Right To Information (RTI), Act, 2005, reveals that MMRC-appointed Genesis Burson-Marsteller, a public relations agency, to handle media and communications for MMRC by calling quotations and not conducting e-tendering process for the appointment. However, MMRC claims there was no breach of transparency in the appointment of the PR firm.
A Government Resolution (GR) by the Government of …
Concept PR Bags Fulcrum Award
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
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 …