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PR SHORTS.

For quick snapshots on the leading stories and superstars across the global PR industry.

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PR Shorts

UNAVAILABLE Brand! Vs. AVAILABLE Product

The pandemic-stricken consumer has snatched the crown from a product’s brand equity and handed it over to its supply chain

With the narrowing of product/service differentiation, what a customer buys is maily dependent on availability in the retail shelves. Physical distribution management, as a part of the marketing channel, has always been critical in achieving the sales volumes of any product. The same is true for the essential commodities the shoppers flocked to buy during the pandemic. Due to the risk of infection in crowded places, shoppers adopted premeditated, planned shopping. The frequency of shopping trips reduced drastically in contrast to the pre-COVID-19 period. The next shopping trip is not on the horizon for another week or longer as it could happen on the same day or at the most, the next day earlier. Hence, distribution management for assured availability for the preferred stock-keeping units (SKUs) has been crucial. The recent health crisis and the lockdown has reinforced that improving distribution is a vital source of strategic power for the manufacturers.

Has official communication lost credence?

Amazon’s non-clarity on TikTok ban blurs the demarcation between official and unofficial communication

Amazon says that it will not ask employees to remove popular social video-sharing app TikTok from their mobile devices, despite sending an email calling for workers to delete the app earlier on Friday. As first reported by The New York Times on Friday, Amazon asked employees to remove TikTok from their mobile devices, citing security risks. An Amazon spokesperson told The Verge on Friday that the email was “sent in error.” “This morning’s email to some of our employees was sent in error,” the Amazon spokesperson said. “There is no change to our policies right now with regard to TikTok.” “Due to security risks, the TikTok app is no longer permitted on mobile devices that access Amazon email,” the company said in the initial email to employees on Friday morning.

Edelman bags Marcomm duties for Qualcomm India

Edelman to exploit its deep sectoral knowledge and prior win-win synergy with global tech brands to drive "thought leadership, stories of innovation and excellence across platforms

Wireless tech giant Qualcomm has consolidated its Indian marketing and communications remit with Edelman, following a competitive review. Edelman India will oversee brand, corporate, creative, and digital communications for the technology company. Avian WE previously oversaw India communications, but recently landed global PR duties for Qualcomm rival Intel. The marketing assignment was previously handled by Gauge. Qualcomm India head of marketing and communications Anand Subbiah told PRovoke that Edelman is tasked with driving "stories of innovation and excellence across platforms." Qualcomm recently announced its new Snapdragon 690 processor which aims to bring 5G to phones at more accessible price points. “We look forward to bringing our integrated communications & marketing capabilities, creative and digital skills to drive thought leadership for Qualcomm," said Edelman India CEO Rakesh Thukral.

Lenovo’s Shonali Chakravarty strengthens Data Team

Shonali, besides spearheading the data team’s internal & external communication efforts across APAC region, will also provide strategic oversight and business support

Adhering to its “practice what you preach” policy to uphold women leadership while promoting a diverse workforce high on gender balance, Lenovo has recently taken a major recruitment decision. The computing giant’s Data Center Group for APAC region, has hired Shonali Chakravarty as the Head of Communications. Shonali, an alumnus of K.J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research, specialises in Marketing Strategy, Public Affairs, Corporate Communication, PR, Stakeholder mapping and Advocacy building. She brings almost a decade long experience handling challenging leadership assignments for globally renowned brands across different verticals and domains, including hospitality, manufacturing, transportation, public policy and financial PR. At Lenovo, Shonali will spearhead the data team’s internal & external communication efforts spread across the 13 countries of APAC, including India, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea. In addition, she will also provide strategic oversight and business support.

Now PGP-PR in just 10 months!

The Post Graduate Programme in Public Relations offered by The School of Communications and Reputation (SCoRe) endeavours to create future PR leaders from day 1

There’s good news for those aspiring for a dazzling career in PR. The School of Communications and Reputation (SCoRe), a premier institute located in Mumbai and dedicated to the development of education & research in PR and reputation management has announced its 10-month long programme – Post Graduation Programme in Public Relations (PGP-PR). The programme will be offered online through video conferencing. Besides providing fresh graduates with experiential hands-on mentoring and coaching, the programme will also inculcate in them a PR mind set, by exposing them to real campaigns and opportunities under the professional guidance of veteran PR industry leaders, which allows them to think like a PR consultant from the first day.

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“Actual buyer” in a capsule moment

Varying attention spans across both traditional and digital media has changed the advertising discourse towards audience attributes

Measuring the efficacy of advertising spends will become even more critical for companies as they navigate their recovery, given that there will be significant pressure on their cash flows and liquidity positions. How can the various M&E segments respond to these enhanced requirements on attribution? How can measurement become timelier and more precise for brands? These issues were taken up for discussion on Day 2 of the virtual FICCI Frames conference in the session titled ‘Attribution at the forefront of Conversation’. Moderated by Ashish Pherwani, Partner, Media & Entertainment Advisory Services, ‎Ernst & Young, the panellists included Tushar Vyas, President, GroupM; Sunil Lulla, CEO, BARC India; and Soum Paul, Founder & CEO, Home Screen Network.

Tute Consult’s decade-long experiential story-telling

Combining new-age media and traditional PR to narrate impactful and agile bespoke stories

On a rainy day 10 years ago, in the course of a conversation with three of her friends over pizza, Komal Lath scribbled down a few notes for an entrepreneurial venture on tissues. One thing led to another, and that’s how Tute Consult was born. She says the initial eureka moment was the easy part. What followed next was a set of challenges ranging from explaining the company’s name and how to pronounce it, to why do clients need PR, among many others. “I gave myself three months to figure whether I could do it and deal with the anxiety of not getting a stable paycheck at the end of every month. There was a lot of hard work – from changing five trains a day to attend meetings across the city and saving costs by walking to office whenever possible to working out of a pigeon hole where my team played “elbow-nics” with each other – the initial days involved all of this and more,” she says.