Slutwalk & all that

Rape is heinous and rapist should get the biggest of the punishments. Because this crime cripples someone psychologically for the rest of her life. I think this is worst than a murder. 


And like all other crimes, this should be prevented. 


When we go out of our homes for holidays, we don't leave it open and then blame it to thieves for ransacking our house. Even when we take all security measures, sometime thieves still outsmart the security. All the more reasons to be alert.


When we drive on the road, despite driving in lane and following traffic rules, we meet accidents. So we do stay alert. Why? To prevent a problem.


For every crime, there is a criminal. Of course criminals have to be caught and punished. But we have to take steps to ensure that we stay safe.


Slutwalk basically suggests that we will leave our house open and law enforcement agencies should ensure that no thieves should enter it. Amazing! isn't it?

An experience that made me feel proud

While traveling abroad, one thing that strikes you is the value that they give to human life. There are clear paths for cycling and no biker strays there; pedestrians can walk freely without a fear of getting into a pothole and when you are crossing the road, you can be rest assured that motorists would stop and would let you pass. 

Back in Delhi, if you are pedestrian, you can be rest assured that if you don't wait for the road to be empty, your next stop is going to be the hospital. Drivers (employed by the car owners) are in more hurry than their owners as if they only have to chair the meetings. Honking comes natural to us and we can do it even on the empty roads. All this becomes very frustrating when someone calls us one the oldest 'civilizations' of the world. Are we really civil?

By my disbelief in India's politeness got really shaken by a recent incident while I was driving down from Delhi to Varanasi. The highway is really a great one and in the middle of the night, I was comfortably doing around 140 km/h till the time I reached Etava, a small town about 170 km before Kanpur. On the highway, I got to know some accident had happened and few people advised me to take the wrong side as some other vehicles were also doing the same. I took the turn but that side was also blocked by a trucker. It was irritating as I was moving at a great speed and I had to cover a greater distance. But soon after I realized that the driver of the truck which met the accident got stuck up in the driver's chamber and was still alive. 

The truck drivers created that jam so that more people can gather and rescue the truck driver. 

Sure enough, few car guys gave the necessary lighting at 230 am on no moon night and many of us gathered to do the rescue operations. After three and a half hour of huge struggle, the crowd with the help of a police crane towards the end finally managed to take him out of the cockpit.

But this experience truly sobered me down. In a country when there is no system, we have to be the system. Its that truck driver that day, God forbid, it could be any of us another day. But we Indians do come out and help. And that's civilization.

PR agencies need to create more value for their clients

PR as a tool has got acceptance and acknowledgement of the industry and as a result, there are many takers of the services now. But what the agencies perfected in the last one decade has suddenly become ‘such a past century’ stuff. No, I am not saying suddenly Social Media takes over everything and traditional media is now a passé. The point is that PR by definition means reaching out to various stakeholders and create a positive image of a brand. And so far, most of the agencies are still stuck to chasing journalists to get one press release published or get that interview done. But they didn’t realise that even media around them has also changed dramatically and they care a crap about your press release.

Moreover, most of the clients know PR agencies as media relations agencies doing press release dissemination or ‘coordinating’ interviews/press conferences. So if it is only that, it can safely be called a commodity. The other day, I got a call from a client who was planning to do some activity and wanted to hire a PR firm. All he was doing was to collect quotes from different PR agencies. He didn’t seem to be interested in knowing what value a PR agency can bring to the table for his activity. We refused to give him a quote but many must have given. Then, he would compare various quotes and go for the lowest one. Exactly what we do when we go to buy vegetables.

So what are some of the things PR agencies should do that we can proudly call ourselves consultants?

First of all, we should clearly show the understanding of sector we work in. That requires detailed study of the sector and showcasing of some clear trends that are going to drive the growth of the sector. Some white papers or detailed report can follow this. What it does is to communicate that the agency understands that sector and PR strategy would be aligned with the sector expertise. MSL globally does this beautifully and their sector experts provides their point of view on current issues of that sector.

Understand client’s business completely, identify relevant influencers and create third party advocates for more authentic image making. This very well supplements advertising efforts as well and creates surround effect for the brand.

By way of example, Edelman globally does Trust Barometer, which gauges attitudes about the state of trust in business, government, NGOs and media. This gives clients the confidence that the PR consultant understands the ‘factors’ that drive trust and based on that, create strategies to improve trust on the brand.

PR should not only support the existing programs but also should be able to create ‘Programs’ which are linked with business and practical to do. These programs should be relevant from ‘environment/eco-system’ point of view and should be able to create media interest on their own.

Last but not the least, media targeting has to be focused and research oriented. Who likes those calls when the caller sells you the product first and asks your name later?

The question is that clients don’t pay enough and therefore agency economics doesn’t allow you to hire people from big business schools, invest more time on one client and so on. I think it boils down to how much value you provide to your clients so that they pay you more?

PR agencies need to invest in it as going to the next level would require efforts, investments and patience.

Why am I here?

Well, first of all, thanks for coming to my blog.

As its name suggests, I would want to keep it informal, in story telling format and would comment on anything and everything where my mind strays. Its because it is the way I am - a marketer (with a little bit of science) by education, a socialist by heart and a PR practitioner by profession. So from politics to business, health, social issues, movies, music, travel - everything interests me. Some of my social media practitioner friends advised me to choose one direction and write on that consistently. But if had done that, probably it wouldn't be me!

In other words, when you are getting bored, please visit my blog and you may get something according to your mood :)

Look forward to seeing you here.