Indiantelevision.com Team

(30 May 2006 7:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Rediffusion DYR Public Relations has formed a strategic planning division in its current outfit, to create and implement specialised tools to achieve desired public relations (PR) objectives for its clients.

"When clients look for a strategic partner in their advertising agency, why shouldn’t they do the same when it comes to their PR agency," said Rediffusion DY&R Public Relations group president Lokesh Tiwary.

"Increasing parity in products has unfortunately been accompanied by increasing parity in brand messages and advertising. Today, you can barely tell one advertisement from the other! Given this context, there is a steady realization amongst clients across the board that powerful brands can be built via public relations; and thus the need to invest in a strategically developed PR Program. They want their PR campaigns to work harder and expect their PR consultancies to be proactive in providing strategic counsel," he added.

In order to reorient itself toward this new mission, the agency has seen several changes over the last few months.

Shantanu Kumar has recently been appointed as general manager, strategic planning. An account planner from Bates Enterprise, Kumar carries with him over seven years of experience having worked on clients such as GM, LML, GSK, Daewoo, Sony and Tata Tea.

Rediffusion has also begun the process of further developing their proprietary tools, which are used to professionally plan, implement and evaluate PR campaigns.

"Till now clients have always gauged the effectiveness of a PR campaign by the quantity of coverage received. While salience is important; ‘the message’ is perhaps even more important. We have introduced tools to uncover insights and study consumer trends; a process, which has greatly helped us in getting to the root of the communication challenge and thereby devising effective strategic programs for our clients. Much like in advertising, there is a growing need to think brand, think positioning and think communication strategy in PR; and as a team we have made tremendous progress in a very short time," said Kumar.

According to an official release, the results have already started showing. The agency has picked up over 10 businesses over the last two months – AOL, Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian version of Sesame Street- to be aired on Pogo and Cartoon Network later this year, Kohler, Amore, Plexus Technologies, TDI, Interactive Entertainment, Nippon to name a few.

"Our business gains over the past two months have already contributed to a growth of over 25 per cent, and we’re only half-way into the year! We should be looking at closing the year with a topline growth of 50 per cent over 2005. But what is more heartening is the response that we have received from our existing clients. The added value that we are providing is fast helping us in becoming our clients’ business partners in the true sense. The agency commands tremendous goodwill in the industry, having partnered with several prestigious clients over the years, and the primary task ahead is to build on this and create an enviable brand in the communications industry," said Tiwary.

In order to match up to this growth, the agency is on an aggressive hiring spree. Senior and mid level appointments are being made in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore.

"We are consciously looking at people who share our perspective, because our challenge is to create an atmosphere which breeds unmatched thinking while retaining a keen focus on unparalleled deliveries," he added.