Culture Curry: April 2009

WORK AND PLAY, AND THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES

‘Get your fundamentals strong and you won’t go wrong’- this is the mantra for our interns. A collective effort of the three, this is a delightful piece on how they landed up with PR and how now they are finding their bearings.

What could the public relations industry look like to an outsider?

To Pallavi, it looked like being “the face of GAP, Chanel, Ralph Lauren etc”, or “a hot shot corp comm amidst all the media frenzy” to Megha and “the voice for Louis Vuitton and a pretty powerful job” to Gayatri. Unfortunately they were not entirely incorrect.

From a class of 54, three students were short listed to be part of the Blue Lotus Family, just less than a month ago. These three had never really interacted and were not in each others groups of friends in college, but all because of destiny and placement cell, later found comfort in each others company.

All through the course at XIC, they were warned by faculty “learn what you like now but be prepared to unlearn all that and be a professional”. At this point they were more than confused, “what is the point of studying so much when it’s not even useful?” This would be often the thought in their head when deadlines loomed on them like guillotines. However, college is over now and what the trio realized as the truth is the age old saying- ‘Get your fundamentals strong and you won’t go wrong!’

Two out of the three have worked before and yet they were so enthralled by Blue Lotus’ office and its cute wood–cabin like features that they quickly dismissed the approach way and made peace with the fact that Theobroma’s a stone throw away. Blue Lotus was nothing like they had imagined. Coming from a serious atmosphere in head hunting, Pallavi was very happy to finally be able to laugh at work, be disciplined but not regimented; Gayatri was happy to have found a homely place, not intimidated at all; and Megha, liked the spirit of the office that keeps a perpetual smile on her pretty face. They also realize it’s not all fun and games- At Blue Lotus people party hard but Work Harder!!

Thadeus, from Chennai office is also on the same boat it seems. Blue Lotus is his first job and is loving it. In just three months, his perception of PR has changed drastically. From being clueless about the industry, he now feels that this is a challenging task where he can utilize his talent and this is where he can have great career growth.

So far it has been an ideal learning ground. The theory has been replaced with practicals and there is a flurry of excitement to get on with the real job of a PR Executive.
It is honestly too soon to tell if Blue Lotus has made a mistake or the other way around, but looking at the faces that surround them they are confident and assured that it is the right decision, Blue Lotus is the right place.

NET PRofit

That hit is all it takes. Through this article Karthik is trying to communicate how embracing the online medium is becoming increasingly imperative in today’s world, though it did backfire on him in a tongue-and-cheek way!

Caller: Hello, Am I talking to Karthikeyan?
I: Yes.
Caller: Sir, this is xyz and I am looking for I-pill in Chennai. I found your contact while browsing the net. Could you please help me out to find I-pill in Chennai?
I: Sir, sorry we are not connected to the marketing of I-pill. We were just hired for launching this product and I have no clue about its availability in Chennai. Probably you could check their microsite.

This is the reply I had given to atleast 20+ enquiries received for the past one year for I-pill. These calls are because of just posting the press release in a site with my contact number mentioned. Nothing was done for I-pill in internet except a microsite but these enquires resembles the mortality of a single page that easily gets noticed in a google search.

Any campaign will come into the umbrella of PR that makes its audiences think, react, create and exchange views. Internet has made these participations so simple which the traditional media couldn’t offer. People were able to shout out their experiences / grievances on a product/service thereby creating a collective opinion of it. I-pill too revolved around the internet and became hot topic for many bloggers. (http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2007/10/i-pill-lets-talk-about-family-planning.html)

The very classical example for creating an online community is sunsilk’s gangofgirls.com. This site was launched on 17th June 2006 and crossed 100,000 members within 36 days. The site not only provided contents on hair care and styling but went beyond by tying up with http://www.monster.com/ for job postings. Recently a startup company Inkfruit which is into designing T-shirts used twitter to reach to its teen audience. It designed a T-shirt on twitter and spread it among the twitters.

While majority of the companies still communicate in the traditional way, they should look into the online audience seriously. Online is no more a playful medium. People voice out their opinions both favourable / non-favourable and trust the messages as it is transferred through their trusted acquaintances. Since the forthcoming election campaign sees unprecedented usage of online forums with Advani, Jyotibasu being the forerunners of connecting through online, the poll results would bring a radical change in the minds of marketers to embrace online forums coming up successful models.

THE QUARTER THAT WAS

Chitra and Ishani take us through the last quarter of the year.

Blue Lotus ushered 2009 in high spirits with BLUES around the corner. Everybody voted for their favourites and the celebration‘s continued with remarkable performance from Piyush and Prathamesh . BINDASS AWARDS this was held for the first time and we all enjoyed it. Jan 09 started with a bang in Blue Lotus with BLUE’s celebration everyone enjoyed the ceremony.

Let’s take a look back at the history of BLUES.
After heavy brainstorming and endless discussions with many members of Bluelotus, BLUES was initiated in December '06. The jury members had decided five categories for the Award.

Let’s have a look and let’s see who were the winners of prestigious Blue’s Awards.

Best Debut - Harish Chomal

Turnaround of the year - Chitra
Best Creativity - Debaditya

Entrepreneurof the year - Debaditya

Best Team - Blue Bytes

Blues Trivia

In the years '06 and '07 the awards were mainly bagged by Mumbai office teams.
(Mustard Design, Bluetterflies, Blue Point, Blue Bytes, Blue Print)
(Excluding bytes as a team, they have strong network in every branch)
Each year one outstation took the trophy home
Ø Dec 06 Chennai Narren
Ø Dec 07 Hyderabad Prabalika
But the interesting trend in 09 was, for the first time
Ø This year outstation branches swept the majority of Awards at Blues. ( TWO awards in Kolkata ONE in Pune)
Ø Deba won TWO awards at Blues this year ( Best Entrepreneur and Creative )
Ø Blue Bytes won second time in the row the award for Best Team.
Will Team Blue Bytes go for a hat trick .Will outstations continue to win more awards or will the Head office take over.
We all are eagerly awaiting for the next season of BLUES. So all of you who missed it should now give that extra edge and win the BLUES.

Moving over, in the month of february, BlueBytes took over the Freaky Friday. It was entirely their initiative right from selecting the right games to participation of every outstation and the best part was the MAKEOVER . I am sure the winners SEEMA, PRAKASH and SAMPADA loved the new look which they got from Tanveer. Special thanks to Tanveer and his team for giving the new look to the winners.

BOOK REVIEW : THE FALL OF ADVERTISING AND THE RISE OF PR

Prateek Shah brings to us a learned review of a book which created the most controversy for its author. The article discusses how the book deals with its premise that great brands are built with PR, not advertising.

It’s been ages since both the arms of communication have existed, mutually promoting people,

societies, organizations, companies and brands, but never has somebody ripped them apart like this book. The authors, Al Ries and Laura Ries, pioneer consultants in the field of branding, communication and positioning, don’t set out to tell readers that the era of advertising is over, and PR is all that is here to stay, but they very bluntly point out the areas where there is scope for advertising, and others where it’ll primarily be PR which will drive things around.

As the title suggests, the book is biased towards enunciating the benefits of PR over the goodwill that advertising has brought over the years. The argument is based on the fact that Advertising has slowly become just an art form and ‘creative ads’ end up winning awards for the agencies more than anything else. Instances like Budweiser’s ‘Wassup’ commercials winning accolades year on year coupled with plummeting sales go on to prove that not all that is creative will get the cash register running. The writers feel that it is PR where the creativity is required, that the ideas need to be first formed by the publicity handlers before being carried forward by a brand’s advertising, which should ideally be on the same lines. Advertising cannot make perceptions and build brands, but PR can, is the argument reiterated through the book. Author starkly points out that there is no tangible comparision between Ads and PR, even through means such as ‘Ad Value Equivalence’.

The authors seem to go wrong when they say that all brands and companies should launch campaigns with just PR and Advertising should be used only as a support function. While a slow launch might work for some brands, a fast moving good like a seasonal drink can’t rely solely on PR to grab a market share. By the time PR will find its way into the minds of people, a brand might lose out on the time it needed to make a place for itself. What is essentially required is a heady mix of in-sync PR and Advertising which can enhance the standing of the brand and also convert all the promotion into sales and more business for the company. But through various examples described in the book, it becomes evident that it is also not just advertising which is enough to create credibility and drive sales. Where Advertising is directed to everybody, PR at time reaches that somebody who will help drive sales.

Amateurs or experts, the book is a must read for all PR professionals. It doesn’t just give an insight into the world of PR, but also touches upon some stark examples from history which segregate the two arms of communication.