Keeping it Real
PR FIRMS TAKE ON DIGITIZATION
Do you agree with the interpretation that, rise of so many high caliber PR firms is another indication of Bangladesh’s booming economy?
Public Relation is one of the aspects or areas of a company that comes into focus, when a business is thinking of expanding into a larger space, and takes into consideration factors such as multiple stakeholder management, long term reputation management, policy level advocacy, etc. of the organization. PR specifically specializes in these areas. And the increased necessity of PR and specialized PR, indicates that there is business there, and larger companies with the need of stakeholder management and long-term reputation management are incorporating themselves, into our economy.
Why do you think companies and individuals are leaning towards PR firms in a magnitude never seen in the past?
Public relations has started evolving and is becoming more important to marketers, by becoming “more closely aligned with branding”. From what we have seen so far, over the last decade, third-party validation and strong press have become the most convenient way of generating credible exposure for a company in a growing dynamic media. Furthermore, with the rise of education and social media, everyone is opinionated, through different forms of digital media, either its Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or Twitter. And because of this every single content has the potential to go viral, and play a significant role in developing or diminishing a company’s reputation. Because of this public relations is particularly important at this age.
In your website, it is mentioned that Concito broke the traditional method of PR in Bangladesh, how so?
Ok, first let me tell you a success story. So, Concito has just been shortlisted as the finalists for PR Awards 2019 under ‘Best Insights-Driven PR’ category for Porichchonno Bangladesh (Promoting Cleanliness in Bangladesh). It is the first time ever for any local agency from Bangladesh to compete in this type of global arena where many renowned PR firms are competing for this achievement. We are very happy to portray our partner Reckitt Benckiser(RB)’s case on PR Awards 2019 where we had to compete against top notch brands like; Adidas, Cisco, Fox, Prego, etc. It is a big achievement for us and we are really proud of it. We, at Concito PR, practice public relation, keeping up with global standards, as we are the exclusive affiliate of Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW). In developing key messages we rely on strategies and ideas of the PR aspect in contrast to that of traditional media buying clout. In our years of operation, we have not just focused on upholding global standards but have been actively trying to incorporate it in the local PR scenario.
Can you briefly share the experience of the ‘Poricchonno Bangladesh’ campaign?
So the campaign that got us shortlisted for PR Awards 2019, is a social initiative by Reckitt Benckiser, titled ‘Dettol Porichchonno Bangladesh powered by Harpic’. This initiative was launched in 9 February 2017 and taken to promote cleanliness all over the country. In 2018, this campaign got huge popularity and success. The project is a continuous process & successfully running in Bangladesh in 2019 that aims to build Bangladesh as a clean and health conscious country.
This particular campaign was insight driven, that is, we used research and data analysis to strategize and execute it. As you know, Bangladesh has made significant progress in reducing open defecation, from 34 percent in 1990 to just one percent of the national population in 2015. However, the current rate of improved sanitation is 61 percent, growing at only 1.1 percent annually (WorldBank, 2016). A national hygiene baseline survey was conducted by Water Aid Bangladesh, ICDDRB and Policy Support Unit (PSU) of local government division in 2014. The findings of the survey illustrated that among the households, a location near the toilet, post defecation hand washing was detected for more than two thirds of the households and only 40% of those had water and soap available. It was found during hand washing demonstration that 13% of children (3 to 5 years of age) and 57% of mothers/female caregivers washed both hands with soap (Environmental Health Unit, WHO, 2015).
The campaign aims to make people aware about the importance of cleanliness and health and to encourage its proper practice. In order to meet this goal, there are plans to provide direct training to 5 million people in the next four years under this program. Outside, 80 million people will be made aware of health and cleanliness through media and social media.
The results were amazing in terms of coverage, exposure and mass impact of the project. We communicated in a different manner as we communicated “personal and community hygiene and its importance towards our national health issue”, it worked differently. In total, over 10 million people had been reached only through official announcement. Total 371 coverage achieved from renowned daily newspapers, web portals and TV. The overall PR journey was a great milestone for us with lots of challenges & learnings. We tried our best to land maximum PR exposure & we think we have succeeded in establishing it as a sustainable campaign that has a great impact on our country and that is what got us listed as the finalists for the prestigious ‘PR awards 2019’
In the past entities seeking PR services usually went to foreign PR firms; do you think local firms like yours have an edge over them?
Yes definitely local firms have an edge over foreign PR firms. PR has to do with communicating messages and local firms are more equipped with knowledge on native culture; language; acceptance level; interpretation pattern that helps to implement strategies that are more relevant. There has been a shift in the tendency to get local firms engaged in campaigns as we see more international agencies hiring local ones for active campaigns in dynamic cultures.
How much would you say, Branding amplifies business opportunities?
Branding is obviously important and maximizes the potential for growth of any business. Branding helps a company to stand out amongst its competitors, by delivering experience that is meaningfully different from others. You see, today’s market is complex, as categories are crowded and new categories are continuously being created to meet the changing needs of consumers. And in this context, branding helps to define and differentiate a company from the competitors by creating a personality and giving unique traits that can be easily recalled by the consumer’s cognition. Brand identity should always be relatable to the product or services of a company and should showcase the brand personality and our corporate responsibility towards society.
How important are campaigns in maintaining brand loyalty?
Well, campaigns are crucial in maintaining brand loyalty and staying relevant. In the past, campaigns that have resonated with the audience and current trends in the market, has always helped brand consumers to find common ground, with the attitude of a certain institution. It is really important that customers engage themselves with brands, as this leads to the buildup of loyalty, and campaigns, I believe these are crucial tools, that can be implemented, to continuously communicate with the masses and engage them, until and unless the brand has been incepted within their cognition. But we should always remember a campaign will only succeed, if it is relatable to the product or services of a company and finds common ground with consumers.
How has big data changed the way PR firms operate?
So the art of PR has changed a lot over the last decade, with the rise of new internet technology and social media websites. Accessibility to big data through digital platforms has forced PR strategies and tactics to evolve. For example, press releases, which remained unchanged for more than a century, began to integrate digital features, incorporated audio, video and images, with interactive forms of communication. Social media was not even considered a platform for PR until recently. Today, public relations firms have a monstrous challenge to stay relevant, by effectively communicating and telling stories to the target audiences of their clients, despite the massive amount of digital content out there. The rise of technology and digital media has given people the power to express, making reputation management or brand management vulnerable and making it easier for consumers to learn about the mix-ups and blunders of PR.
Do you consider digital landscape your priority area in every portfolio?
Yes, as I have mentioned before, PR is evolving and big data is changing the art of Public Relations as a whole, it is essential that digital landscape is prioritized. If you take into consideration, the consumption behavior of consumers today, people are relying more and more on digital news portal than on newspaper, opinion is formed within seconds and it is all because, every aspect of society is being digitized. To keep thriving in the industry and to keep up with the global standards, digital landscaping in not just a priority, it is the future!
