Value 360 Group has created a platform that will allow independent writers and build a community of followers with their writing: Kunal Kishore Sinha

Value 360 Group has created a platform that will allow independent writers and build a community of followers with their writing: Kunal Kishore Sinha

He chats about completing 20 years in the PR industry, the evolution of the PR arena and more.

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Mumbai: The PR industry is fast-paced, competitive and developing, and the landscape is ever-evolving with social media and digital becoming a large part of campaigns and communication nowadays. Value 360 Communications founder & director Kunal Kishore Sinha recently completed two decades in the quick-paced PR arena.

In a tete-a-tete with Indiantelevision.com, Sinha elucidates about his journey in the industry, about Value 360, how the PR industry has evolved, on the issues that affect the industry, as a member of the PRCAI his role in making the PR industry a better place and much more.

With a history of building start-up brands and working with global leaders, Value 360 Communications has emerged as a preferred holistic communications and growth partner for brands across sectors. Along with being the founder and director of Value 360 Communications, Sinha is also the co-founder and COO at ClanConnect.ai, Value 360 Group’s influencer marketing platform and the founder of Popkorn, its digital creative agency.

A believer in the power of technology, Sinha is on a mission to create new and exciting use cases for technology in communication. Through ClanConnect and Popkorn, he is unleashing the power of comms tech to transform brand building and communications. He is currently the vice president of the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI).

While a communications consultancy is known for the ‘brands it serves’, Sinha believes in making Value 360 Communications recognised for the ‘brands it creates’. Apart from a driven entrepreneur, Sinha is also an investor, with investments in several innovative start-ups like Rooter, Foodjam, and Fyre.

The public relations company, Value 360 Communications, was incepted in 2007 to offer a resolute, practical, and measurable integrated communications programme. In April 2017, it entered a joint venture with an independent global communications company, LEWIS. The company has bagged more than 200 accolades. Having carved a unique niche for itself in the PR and communications landscape in India, Value 360 Communications expanded its presence to Singapore in August 2020.

Edited excerpts:

On stepping into the PR industry and taking up entrepreneurship

My experience in the PR industry started with a Bangalore-based boutique firm, India Relations. After this, I went on to work at two mid-sized firms. During these stints, I worked independently and realized that I enjoy having conversations with clients, closing deals, and servicing them. After working for a good amount of time, I realized that entrepreneurship was my true calling. This is where the seeds of Value 360 Communications were sown.

On your journey in the PR industry

As mentioned above, I worked with three agencies of varying scales before starting my journey as an entrepreneur. Before starting Value 360 Communications with Gaurav Patra and Manisha Chaudhary, I ran a PR firm called precision PR for a short period. Then, we established Value 360 Communications with the aim of building a high-growth, sector-agnostic agency. The agency started amid a global economic slowdown, which taught us to see opportunities in times of adversity.

Initially, we started working with several internet start-ups like Snapdeal, OLX, and GoIbibo, which brought us into the limelight as the agency of choice for start-up brands. We went on to build several new-age brands like Paytm, Droom, Urbanclap, and Practo. Gradually, as we continued achieving scale, we gained traction across categories and sectors among large corporate businesses and start-ups.

As the years continued to pass, we reoriented ourselves and evolved with the changing times. With Popkorn, ClanConnect, Value, and upcoming tech-led entities, we are now on our way to becoming a formidable brand that cuts across domains.

On Value 360 entering into a JV with Lewis in 2017

The JV with Lewis helped us expand our services to a large extent. Since the partnership, we have been catering to a lot of global clients to fulfil their requirements in India. It has also helped us expand our ambit for clients who want to enter international markets.

On your landmark achievements uptil now

There have been several milestones that have made this journey worthwhile over the years. Signing our first client that evolved into a Unicorn – Snapdeal – was one such milestone. We partnered with the company when it was just a deals and coupons website, and we saw it grow from strength to strength while contributing to its evolution. Every marquee client that has been a part of our portfolio (MG Motor India, Audi India, Paytm, Lufthansa, Angel One, Zoomcar, Groww, etc) has been a stellar achievement for us.

Further, growing from a venture being run by six people to seeing hundreds of professionals growing and learning within Value 360 Group is extremely rewarding. Similarly, our geographical expansion within and beyond the country, and also increasing our number of offices has been a rewarding experience.

Finally, expanding our services through tech integration is something that has brought us ahead of the curve. It is exciting to see how we have been able to reorient ourselves with the evolving industry, with the expansion of our tech and digital capabilities through ClanConnect and Popkorn.

On the kind of challenges you have been facing ever since you stepped into the PR industry

A major challenge I initially faced was with respect to being responsible for establishing a new company from the ground up. I never thought about how challenging it would be to focus on everything, including tax compliance, payroll, recruitment and 100 other things.

Moreover, since we started our business in 2007, we had just begun to scale when the stock market crashed in 2008. What followed was a frantic effort to grasp every opportunity that came our way. Luckily, we made some right decisions and ended up working with a lot of internet start-ups like Snapdeal, Practo, Urban Company, and Zoomcar, thereby successfully overcoming those initial hiccups.

On the learnings and lessons that you have imbibed along the way.

These 2 decades of my life have taught me many things. The most crucial, perhaps, was the need to build genuine relationships with people in and even outside of the industry. Many opportunities were opened up for me only based on the relationships that I have forged over the course of my career.

I also learned the importance of going out and getting recognized for your work is equally, or even more important than doing good work. Hard work is important for a brand to grow, but it is also essential to get validation from eminent leaders and juries to become a key part of the industry.

Finally, I have recognized that if learning stops, one will eventually become obsolete. If you are to gain and retain a leadership position in the industry, it will all come down to adapting to the changing times, technologies, and processes. Otherwise, you are bound to be replaced.

On the PR industry evolving over the past two decades

The PR industry has undergone several phases of evolution over the past two decades. If I look back at my 2-decade journey, there’s been a significant transformation every five years or so. Before 2007, the content was controlled by the media, wherein PR professionals built conversations for brands through the voice of media professionals.

Then, in 2008, Facebook paved the way for social media to become an avenue where consumers could connect with brands. We started using combinations of traditional and new media to devise campaigns. In 2013, data came into play, and we leveraged data-backed insights to map consumer behaviour, sentiment, and response to campaigns to streamline our strategies.

Now, technology has taken the industry by storm, and we’re seeing agencies leverage platforms like webinars and podcasts, along with influencer activation, to create strong and authentic conversations. We now have the ability to layer traditional PR methods with new media and solidify brand messages across different yet complementary channels.

On ClanConnect offering disruptive services in the influencer marketing space

ClanConnect is a SaaS-enabled platform that uses the power of AI to connect them with suitable brands. Its algorithm identifies several touch points and historical data like past campaigns, engagement rate, follower quality, etc., to select the right influencers for brands. Aimed at democratizing the influencer marketing space, ClanConnect also allows influencers to manage multiple campaigns with useful tech tools, helping them establish themselves and grow as entrepreneurs.

On data-driven influencer marketing becoming a hygiene service offered by most influencer marketing agencies today, and making ClanConnect stand out

Data-driven influencer marketing is not just a hygiene service. Regular influencer marketing platforms do not have access to historical data that can help influencers find the right brand campaigns and vice versa. Our approach towards ClanConnect is very different. It is a creator-first platform which is supplemented with very strong tools for brands. We help creators not only with brand partnerships but also with running their businesses through the platform. As a SaaS-enabled platform, we are a hub for creators that allows them access to the most comprehensive data sets and tech tools to build their empire.  

 On Popkorn evolving with the digital ecosystem taking a spin since the pandemic crept in

Popkorn is doing some exceptional work, like India’s first social live commerce campaign with H&M and a comprehensive campaign for VietJet. We have onboarded brands like Sunglass Hut, Evocus, and Urban Company. We are also working with some traditional businesses like Triveni to help them become digitally relevant. We are bullish on our contribution to both new-age consumer-facing brands as well as legacy brands that are looking to foray into the new media.

On Popkorn creating an appropriate balance of digital and traditional advertising with its aim of being fast, forward and fun

Fast, forward, and fun reflects our combined ability and expertise that combines the critical aspects of traditional and new media. We have people with functional and longstanding experience in the digital space along with Value’s refined PR capabilities, allowing us to create a winning combination that delivers maximum value creation for our clients.

On the Singapore operations

We started operations in Singapore in 2020 and serviced 3 Indian clients, including Ferns & Petals, who were looking to expand in the market. The operation is still small, but seeing the way South East Asia is growing as a start-up hub, we are geared to expand our presence and cater to other regions like the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

On focusing on the Indian market

As of 2023, we have ramped up our focus on tier 2 and 3 markets. The region is ripe for disruption in the communications space, especially in state capitals and other towns. It is the right time for us to evolve into a comprehensive agency that serves not only national clients in regional markets but also regional clients. Thus, we will look at geographical expansion across these fast-growing centres.

On new launches, verticals investments etc.

Value 360 Group has created a platform that will allow independent writers and build a community of followers with their writing. They will be able to express their thoughts without editorial pressures and limitations while monetizing their content through subscriptions. In today’s digitally-native world, their content will be pushed out directly to readers’ devices. This has been a work in progress for the last two years and is likely to be launched in the second half of 2023.

On the issues plaguing the PR industry and you (along with your PR mates) fixing those issues

The major challenges that I have identified are:

The industry is growing at a massive scale, yet the inflow of talent has not reached the desired pace. While this mismatch is not being felt at the agency level so far, there may come a time when we face a collective talent crunch. As such, we must focus on attracting talent and creating excitement around the industry. PR needs to emerge as a mainstream profession that students aspire toward. Personally, I am in the process of developing a solution that will shed light on PR as a profession.

A lot of our work is still happening on the traditional side, while tech-led PR activities are seeing relatively slow adoption. There is a need to ramp up the focus on tech, like data analysis, to make tech-led PR a mainstream part of the industry.

The attrition rate in the entry-level and junior-level roles is worryingly high at the moment. This can impact the industry’s overall culture. We must address attrition at these levels, especially among the GenZ PR professionals just entering the fray.

Just like brands, people can also become obsolete if they do not upgrade to meet industry standards. There is a need to continually reorient our best talent and motivate them to upskill themselves to remain relevant in the long run.

On being a member of the PRCAI and your role in making the PR industry a better place

The PRCAI is geared up for several initiatives for the betterment of the industry. We are looking at partnering with players in the academic sphere to imbibe PR as a career option at the college level. We are also working on creating uniform policies to build the right culture within the industry. Several programs and initiatives are being devised to help train and upskill industry talent, including workshops, interactive sessions, and tie-ups with global bodies to bring in learning from across the world.

On the trends and innovations that we can expect to witness in the PR arena

The PR and communications industry has drastically transformed over the past two decades. The evolution was majorly championed by technology, which has disrupted most aspects of PR and brand building. From listening tools to monitor industry updates to using data to gauge consumer sentiment and even using new-age avenues like podcasts or creator-led content for pushing out brand messages, there has been a spectacular evolution of the industry.

On our part, we have already invested heavily in comms tech with ClanConnect and Popkorn, and will continue to develop new entities that will leverage innovations in communication.

On your vision for Value 360, ClanConnect and Popkorn

With the Value 360 Group, we are building an entity with the capability of creating comprehensive, integrated campaigns for our clients, imbibed with the best elements of traditional PR, influencer marketing, and digital creative services. We envision becoming a formidable comms tech group, leading the industry from the front in the years to come. Our strength lies in the fact that we are only in our 16th year of operations with a team of young professionals. We have time, the ability to learn and evolve, and the hunger to grow.