Digital revolution breaking down boundaries for PR services: Nova Realtime Solutions

In today's context, brands and consumers face a marketplace that hardly bears any resemblance to the pre-pandemic world. True that pre-pandemic consumer expectations of brands were also challenging, but the new bar is merciless, ruthless. Building and protecting corporate reputation has never been more critical - or subjective. As a recent global survey by a leading global PR firm points out, executives and employers are under a sharper microscope than ever before, and many consumers are paying attention to everything a brand says and does. They're often judging them as employers and community members first, and product or service providers second. There is a thin line for brands to walk between maintaining business operations for the well-being of the company and prioritizing the well-being of all stakeholders. Speaking to Bizz Buzz exclusively,Sunil Goenka – a veteran PR man and Co-founder, Nova Realtime Solutions LLP, tries to decode the PR consultancy business, post-pandemic

There are many, who think that like many other businesses, PR business is also nose-diving, post pandemic. There are many others, who think that PR has actually become more relevant for small businesses than ever. What is your take on this?

There has been a great demand for PR services during the pandemic as organizations, brands and professionals wanted to convey various core messages to their stakeholders. Be it about health concerns and advisory, be it about their continuation in the business, be it about being employee friendly and practising social responsibilities by reaching out to the needy and related practices.

When it comes to PR business, what has changed post pandemic? You can talk about the key changes…

A lot of new methodologies have come to the fore, specifically technology playing an important role in the adaption of the same. Mobile handsets have become an important tool for news to be shared and read. News notifications just zoomed up and webinars have become a new platform to gain knowledge and engage with multiple stakeholders

As we all know and as you rightly pointed out, digital has become the new focus now. So how are you tweaking your strategies to cope up with the new situation?

We are using various digital tools to amplify reach-outs and engagements. Google Trends, Prezly and many more are helping agencies track work practices and attaining targeted goals.

We are ourselves drafting a lot of digital content that helps our clients in reach-outs with their customers and associates. Digital is the new conventional medium now.

Honestly speaking, technology has always been playing a crucial role, ever since technology has come into play in this field, or other fields, for that matter. You can say that all of us have now scaled it up or ramped it (I mean, these initiatives) up. True, even PR firms are now investing more in technology, because they believe that it's going to play a very pivotal role in the growing of the firm, in the days to come. One needs to have dedicated tools that can help one generate measurement and results. Now, results could be based on one's business objectives of the client.

Do you think one has to now look beyond the tier-I city and look towards tier-II and tier-III cities to stay afloat and stay competitive?

If you ask me, with proper digital practices, one can actually have a global outreach. Digital has broken down boundaries. So, I would say, be global not just region specific.

We can see that B2B clients have a need for a global PR network that isn't hampered or slowed-down by inefficient and unnecessary levels of bureaucracy. The impact of lockdown and heightened levels of business uncertainty around Covid-19 has only served to accelerate this need.

How does PR strengthen and support one's marketing initiatives? How does it help in building credibility and trusts?

Public Relations is all about building relationships with a variety of public stakeholders. When the key stakeholder, who can be an organisations- existing or prospective customer, investor, associate, supplier, service provider, employee and the masses get to hear - read about them in various media platforms or through the connect engagements, they activate or participate, it creates a positive impact- visibility in the minds, building a huge amount of credibility and goodwill.

What is the client expectation of a PR partner? Have the client's expectations of PR partner changed in the post-pandemic world?

The profession has a lot of challenges and it is a common saying amongst the professionals that it is a thankless job. There are clients, who think that the practitioners have a magic band with them, giving them instant results. PR is an investment, which grows over a period of time. To a great extent, the mindset is changing and the clients are being able to comprehend the demands of the practices. The clients should also understand that the post-pandemic is a different world. In fact, I think there are some lessons that we have learnt during the pandemic, which will continue to stay with us even in the post-pandemic world and that as we don't know when that world is going to be right. The sooner one realises that the better.

In the changed scenario, what would you prefer- a physical model, a digital model or a phygital model of relationship building?

Digital is here to say, but one cannot ignore the importance of physical meetings, especially when it comes to one to one meetings and interactions in the activities. A new world order has been set. A lot of phygital activities are happening today and they are creating a lot of benefits to the participants. Recently, I was part of a webinar and one of the speakers said that storytelling would, of course, be the bedrock today. Besides that, if one looks at the core of this business, it works on relationship management – be it media, influencers or other stakeholders. The moot point is how does one manage these relationships and build that network, which creates disproportionate value to the entire ecosystem. I could not agree more with him.