Harnessing the Drivers of Marketing Communication

As the world comes to a standstill, we gear up for newer technologies and effective mediums of communication that will spearhead PR Marketing and Communications. As we complete a decade as an independent Marcom company, we are energized to take on challenges. It has always been a learning experience to work with over 350+ clients for different campaigns across India. Here’s looking at our fundamentals that made us evolve with our businesses. A few of them we shared with you on the PRPOI live session and a few new insights that you can sink your teeth into:

Power of Paid, Owned, Earned Platforms: PR, now is more beyond paid media and with extensive range of mediums, we have an edge over others in strategizing campaigns for various platforms in an economical way. We effectively narrate, story tell as able strategists by disseminating information across platforms. Influencer marketing was gaining momentum when Tute was 2 years and we put together paid campaigns for Mahindra Rise, executed events for Kingfisher in The French Riviera with top notch crew. Circa 2020, we designed campaigns ranging from website creations to bespoke events (now virtually) or used tech to create brilliant innovations just as many specialist agencies would!

Video led content has gained precedence over other forms. Webinars and virtual festivals replaced seminars and events. Vogue, for the first time, came up with their Vogue Beauty Festival- a virtual event. Social Media grew exponentially as they became drivers of communication.

The transition of PR agencies to being advisories now, led to an increase in their prominence as they paved way for better communication.

Multi-Lingual, Multi-platform landscape: Affordable data package, coupled with strong mobile penetration led to a barrage of news. Audiences experienced information vulnerability and general distrust. This trend is staying here for a long haul. Social and digital ads will be more targeted and adapted as per demographics. In this environment, the need of the hour is “Positivity- but in my native language on my resident platform”. Agencies need to communicate over versatile mediums without limiting to print and news channels only. The immensity of digital penetration in India has enabled inauthentic news to spread like wildfire. A legit message in consumer’s native language and on his resident platform creates a huge impact in building positivity.

Being a Torchbearer for more Collaborations and Joint Campaigns: Quoting a copy from a popular whiskey’s advt. “are we going to succeed alone, or take people along?” The current business environment is apt for swearing by this adage. Demand is at an all-time low, consumer income has plummeted, production and supply chain has come to a screeching halt.
The rest of 2020 calls for collaborations and joint efforts in business and marketing segments to revive the Indian economy. As a mar-com practitioner, it would be worthwhile to see competing brands coming together, ensuring that the right news reaches the end consumer and misinformation gets pruned out at an industry level.

Advancement of Influencers from Consumers: With marketing budgets bleeding constantly, it’s fair to assume prudence in spends from brand’s and ROI being the talk-of-the-town for the rest of the year. This coupled with greater acceptance to WFH and collaborating on video telephony platforms, it’s safe to assume in the coming years market visits will happen on a real-time basis without the need to travel physically. Shortening the communication chain from a brand’s side and incentivizing consumers to talk more to the brand is the key to unlocking this revolution. We’ve done some very interesting campaigns in the FMCG space for this and have seen the impact of real Vs same size fits all influencers. Tute has also successfully been able to provide metrics on measurement and ROI as well as ROO (Return on Objective)

Saregama Caravan communicated with their audience through a #stayhome series to garner credibility and as Ajit Kumar, Senior Vice President – Sales and Marketing Saregama Caravan rightly stated that brands need to follow the behavioral shift amongst consumers and communicate in the way they want to consume information, through the right platform and with messaging that is value-oriented, educational, and compassionate.

Make Touchpoints your Hero: Quoting the famous mantra “Be Always On” by marketing guru Byron Sharp’s has got a new meaning in the current times. While the marketers might poke holes at this mantra by quoting depleting marketing budgets, the underlying message here is to focus more on “owned” and “earned” media.

Detailing is the new discovery in a cluttered market! Brands are more likely to trust integrated agencies who speak an all rounded language and it’s time to do skill-up and step-up! We always make it a point to suggest paid, owned and earned strategies to our clients, giving us a unique edge to think multimedia, multi-platform and even advise clientele on their LinkedIn’s to build a strong narrative!

Sharpening the softer angles of the brand: The lockdown has brought out the compassionate side of the consumers and for brand custodians its high-time we take note of it. Messaging is to be based on facts and conclusions from research reports and analytics. Opt for city champions than the usual influencer marketing. Choose content strategy over number of followers. In the current context brands should steer away from tactical messaging and rather bring out stories that are enriching and inspiring. Instead of doing product-talks, we are helping brands like Global Beauty Secrets talk about how we can tackle real problems like ‘mascane’ or launch apps to help get essentials like WOW or even doing up your WFH desks with India Circus!
The narrative for the brands has completely changed from mere advertising to now being extremely mindful of the situation they are in. Advertisers as well as marketers have hung on to emotions, empathy and focused on the reliability and relatability factor.

This pandemic proved that PR is more than just press releases and pitch notes. And, thus newer tools will increase interaction with consumers on a more personal level.

Komal Lath
Founder – Tute Consult. Guest Speaker for PRPOI Live Session