Some time back, Twitter launched Twitter lists for its users. Now Twitter users can assemble other Twitter users that he/ she likes into groups and follow them. This I thought was a fantastic way for me to sort and follow people, if you are following a large number of people and you don’t want to use any third party apps.  For instance, I follow more than 11,000 people and used to have Tweetdeck to sort out users. Now I can do it directly on Twitter and also share the lists for other people.  I created a list of digital marketers in India to keep up with their tweets.

The possibilities are endless. There are many interesting lists already. One lists I found that could be very useful for PR professionals is this list of Indian journalists. Check it out.

Let us know if you found any other useful lists for PR professionals. By the way, you can follow India PR Blog on Twitter and here is also my Twitter profile.

Further reading on Twitter lists on Mashable here.

1. Monitoring mechanism: Have a listening capability and understanding what the various stakeholders are talking about our brands and organizations is critical. Without this, we would be just another me too and shooting in the dark. How do we build an effective monitoring mechanism in place. We can use blog search engines like Technorati and Google Blog Search to monitor the blogosphere, subscription on email and RSS on influential blogs around your industry/ subject, setting news alerts, and monitoring social bookmarking sites like Delicious, Digg, and social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube, etc. There are host of tools to monitor micro blogging platforms, read Twitter. For blog comments and monitoring the social media space in real time, we have free tools like Social Mention. What about the citizen journalism sites and consumer review sites. Lastly but not the least, not forgetting to monitor the search engines.

2. Being a part of the community and the dialogue: We have spokespersons of our organisations who would speak to the media whenever required. Is the same spokesperson going to be responsible for answering online queries, or is it going to be another person? The CEO of a large organisation might not always have the time. So is it the corporate communications person? Who is the online spokesperson, or the community manager from the organisation? Deciding this quickly and reaching out to influential bloggers and active social media participants and addressing their concerns is key.

3. Building your communities: By renting and/or creating social media properties -  renting as when we build our communities on relevant social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and Orkut, micro blogging platforms like Twitter, media sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr; and creating blogs, forums, social networking platforms, applications and communities of users, and other properties.

4. Boosting visibility: Search engines are the encyclopedia of today. I remember a good example given by someone once that years ago, if we have to noticed something good, we would share it on our dining table or friends. Today, we would look it up online. Having your online gateway – your website, a easy to use and useful one, and maintaining good standards and optimization techniques to score well on search engines is must. Online advertising – Pay Per Click, Pay Per Action, Custom Payments – on social networks and blogs would give the boost.

What do you think? Leave your comments. Let’s discuss.

Such kind of strategy is very short term and in the end the winner is likely to be the brand leader. If you have great value proposition for your brand, why not highlight it instead of trying a backdoor entry to fight your enemy. To me spoof campaign is like a Lion attacking an Elephant from behind and not fighting head on. The other drawback of fighting your enemy in this fashion is diluting the equity of the brand and eroding market share as you cannot overnight shift brand loyalist with such tactical campaigns.

You can debate through PR and write ups on who is right and who is wrong but to me the victim is not the brand leader. Normally spoof campaigns are tactically used to arrest the growth of its closest competitor when two big brands rule the market. If you are not close to your market leader this is sheer waste of creative energy and money.

To conclude Spoof advertising will only help the brand leader with FREE PR.

So let’s understand when a company goes for a change in their identity:

1. Launching a brand new corporate identity to change the image of the company
2. A change in the name of the company and its values
3. Change in management and wants to propel new strategic signals
4. Acquisitions and mergers
5. Bring freshness in the design as the current identity looks obsolete
6. Diversification in business

One can quote many examples as to why companies go for a makeover. But having said that most corporate and companies want to tell the world through PR that we have changed our identity and share the vision and its new values of the company. Well it definitely sounds interesting but will it create ripples in the consumers mind? To me the answer is no. So what will work? The entire communication strategy has to be well orchestrated 360 degree effort to instill the change in name or the logo in the desired audience’s mind. PR in isolation may not create the desired impact but PR with strong mass media campaign and internal communication will work wonders for the brand. The most refreshing example which still stands tall in my mind is the launch of Axis Bank. Today we don’t see much of their campaign but Axis bank has become a familiar bank name both with their current clientele and the future prospects.

PR played a very significant role as some kind of noise was made that the Bank is going for a change in their branding and positioning initially. Finally weaved Public Relations, Direct Marketing, Internal communication etc. magnificently with the mainstream campaign to build the desired noise levels and register with the right target audience.

A word of caution. When it comes to corporate identity think 360 and don’t attempt any short cuts to accomplish your ambition. Remember you are launching the face of the brand which should be remembered for many years and help consumers connect with the brand easily.

January 29 every year is observed as “Newspaper Day by Indian Newspaper Society (INS), the apex body of India’s advertising and media industry. On this day in the year 1780 India’s first Newspaper “The Hickeys Bengal Gazette” or “The Calcutta General Advertiser” was started by James Augustus Hicky, an Englishman. The Gazette, a two-sheet newspaper, was specialised in writing on the private lives of the Sahibs of the Company.

He dared even to mount scurrillious attacks on the Governor-General wife, which soon landed “the late printer to the Honourable Company” in trouble.

Hickey was sentenced to a 4 months jail term and Rs.500 fine, which did not deter him. After a bitter attack on the Governor-General and the Chief Justice, Hickey was sentenced to one year in prison and fined Rs.5,000, which finally drove him to penury. These were the first tentative steps towards independent journalism in India.

January 29 also has an another significance. It is also a Day observed by Advertising Industry as “Indian Advertisement Day” that is because the first advertisement was published on this day in Hickeys newspaper. Since then January 29 every year is observed as Indian Newspaper Day as well as “Indian Advertisement Day”. That is how Indian advertising began. But it is sad to note such a significant day is totally ignored by many Indian media.

It is not just Newspaper day. There are many other significant days such as the  WORLD AMATEUR RADIO DAY(April 18), “NATIONAL PUBLIC RELATIONS DAY(April 21)”, WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY(April 23), “WORLE PRESS FREEDOM DAY(May 3)”, SPORTS JOURNALISTS DAY(July 2), WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY DAY(August 19), WORLD TELEVISION DAY (November 21) and other.

PRINTERS DAYS(February 24)

The year 2003 is marked by a new direction to the activities of all the Printing associations of printers in India when 24th February, the birthday of Johannes Gutenberg, Father of the Art of Printing, was declared as Printers’ Day. This is being observed across India. This was an opportune moment for Delhi Printers Association(DPA) to fulfil its moral obligations to the society, especially the downtrodden people with meagre resources.

Since 2003, on 24th February, DPA has been organising free general health, eye, heart and dental check-up camps as well as langar for workers and general public. In addition, educational tours to big printing units are also organised for students of local printing technology institute

WORLD AMATEUR RADIO DAY(April 18)

Each year on the anniversary of its founding, 18 April, the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) marks World Amateur Radio Day. On this, the 78th anniversary of its inaugural meeting in Paris, the IARU dedicates World Amateur Radio Day to the radio amateurs, educators, and administrators who use Amateur Radio to support technology education in the classroom.

Despite the Internet and cellular phone, Amateur Radio continues to attract people world-wide by providing free international communications and friendships. Because it does not need pre-established supporting infrastructure, Amateur Radio reaches into every corner of the world – andeven into space.

The IARU is the worldwide federation of national Amateur Radio organizations representing radio amateurs in 158 countrie

NATIONAL PUBLIC RELATIONS DAY(April 21)

According to Public Relaitons Society of India(PRSI) April 21, is a red-letter day in the history of Indian public relations. It is because the National public Relations Day is celebrated on this day all over the country since 1986. The First All India Public Relations Conference was organised in Delhi on April 21, 1968.

WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY(April 23)

By celebrating this Day throughout the world, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright. 23rd April is a symbolic date for world literature for on this date and in the same year of 1616, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla
and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. It was a natural choice for UNESCO’s General Conference to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY(May 3)

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed World Press Freedom Day in 1993, following a recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 1991. World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every year on 3 May worldwide. It is an opportunity to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to
pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty. It serves as an occasion to inform the public of violations of the right to freedom of expression and as a reminder that many journalists brave death or jail to bring people their daily news.

The way the media influences thought and action and its capacity to foster dialogue, understanding and reconciliation was the focus of discussions at a UNESCO conference marking World Press Freedom Day 2009, which concluded inDoha (Qatar) on 2 and 3 May, 2009Celebrating the Fundamental Principles of Press Freedom

SPORTS JOURNALISTS DAY(July 2)

We all salutes the Sports Journalists on the occasion of the World Sports Journalists Day on July 2 for the pizzazz they add to their articles that entices us to read even after watching the event live on the TV. Sports journalism is an essential element of any news media organization. Sports journalism includes organizations devoted entirely to sports reporting. Sports journalism has been traced all the way back to the time of 850 B.C.E. when the great Greek Homer wrote about the first known draw in Wrestling, as Achilles raised the hands of both Ajax and Odysseus in victory. The sports of wrestling, throwing, boxing, and racing were all wrote on in early Greece.

It all started when various sports journalists assembled at a game show during the twentieth century. World Sports Journalists Day took place during the Olympic Games at Antwerp in the year 1920. The requirement and plan for uniting sports journalists from the entire globe firstly took place from this event. The International Sports and Press Association (AIPS), a body was established in the year 1924 while Olympic Games took place in Paris Why World Sports Journalists Day celebrated is to urge members of the sporting media to strive for excellence in their professional work.

One should grab hold of every opportunity to use sport as a vehicle for world peace, and to be fair and impartial goal. World Sports Journalists Day is the responsibility as journalists to set an example to the world. A journalist can add value not only to the world of sport, but to the world at large – to culture, to peace, and to good values.

WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY DAY(August 19)

The World Photography Day is celebrated every year all over India ever since the India International Photographic Council first celebrated the World Photography Day on 19th August 1991. It is also observed by many Press Photo Bodies, Department of Public Relations of several state governments in India as Press Photography Day also and Photo Journalists are given away awards for the best professional work. Photojournalism is an art of news communication by visual image. Photo Journalists have been disseminating news through their eye catchy visuals. You know a picture is worth thousand words.

NEWSPAPER BOY DAY

Early morning at about 5am or so the time when most people will still be lying in bed the Newspaper Boy’s work starts. He pics up the papers and delivers at several homes. Can you enjoy your morning tea without a newspaper? If he is just late by few minutes you will wait for him. In olden days these carriers of newspapers were the employers of the newspaper. Today they are little merchants of their own. Different countries observe Newspaper Boy Day on different days. There is no special day dedicated for them universally. In America October 4 has been set aside as The Newspaper Boy Day.

WORLD TELEVISION DAY (November 21)

Telivision is an important medium. World Television Day that was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1996 to encourage global exchanges of television programmes focusing on peace, security, economic and social development and the enhancement of cultural exchange. On December 17, 1996, UN General Assembly proclaimed November 21 as World Television Day to commemorate the date on which the first World Television Forum was held earlier that year. The day recognizes that television plays a major role in presenting different issue that affect people.

UNESCO recognizes the significance of television broadcasting as a primal means of communication and a standard gateway of information for the masses, most importantly in least-developed countries. Television plays an effective role in disseminating information and knowledge and serves a powerful tool for reflecting and shaping human conditions and aspirations.

There could be many days such as Cartoonists Day, Editors Day and other relevant to Media and Public Relations industry. Such information can be passed on to me or posted in your comments to this article for the benefit of others.

PR requires a special kind of person who thrives on action, on ‘doing’ everyday. PR is a series of short sprints that look quite like a marathon, in retrospect.

Everyone’s favourite punching bag

However, the recent spate of critical comment took me back to the question: why is PR everyone’s favourite punching bag?

It doesn’t matter if you’re a marketing or advertising expert; whether you are a journalist, blogger or a social media maven. The bad-dumb PR story tumbles on; not a day goes past when you don’t read about the malaise in PR, another bad hack story, dumb PR pitch, etc. etc.

I’m the first to admit: mistakes are made, extremely dumb ones, arising from inexperience, ineptitude as well as rotten apples that bring disrepute [and exist in every industry].

Quite frankly, while I too shudder at the mistakes made, I can’t overlook the many examples of good public relations practitioners and campaigns.

So this post is dedicated to all the great PR people who ‘get it’ and deliver value everyday by ensuring our clients are the ‘heroes of the story’. By doing this they also inspire and attract young professionals into an industry that has managed to hold steady inspite of the economic crisis the world is living through.

The contrarian view: Good PR is more valuable now

The unending criticism also indicates that good PR is more valuable now than ever before.

For three reasons:

First, corporates are the ‘bad guys’– the high levels of mistrust and angst that companies now face has made us forget that behind every company, are people who commit blood-sweat-tears to running a business. Every entrepreneur/ CEO running a business – big or small – knows this well. Public relations can play a very important role now in making brands and companies ‘feel’ more human!

Second, the breakdown of traditional markets and barrier-mechanisms has created amazing opportunities for the innovative to create new conversations. Importantly, these conversations for brands have to engage people, as real people. Conversations have to be a part of the brands’ DNA, not slapped on after! Brands that do this well, have a competitive edge that’s difficult to blunt.

Third, the trust vacuum i.e. the absence of believability, the crisis of integrity and the hunger for credibility, have created a never-before opportunity for public relations practitioners to do the extraordinary in a credible, authentic manner.

For these reasons, public relations people must start thinking about the ‘conversation’ quite early in the brands’ evolution cycle; and develop how-do-we-get-this-out ideas that will be uniquely identified with the brand. This is the real challenge!

For the many of us who thrive in being change-makers and even for people who’ve had negative experiences with PR, let’s recognise that living on the edge always draws criticism. But its here that new ideas are formed! And knowledge, experience and preparation are all unleashed creatively – everyday!

Picture credit: Travel blog

Dramatists, musicians and artists have been creating leitmotifs that imprint unforgettable memories. For instance, Pink Floyd’s The Wall evokes ‘another brick in the wall’ instantly.

You are a work of art

Creating a leitmotif allows us to ‘lead’ viewers into a multi-sensory experience that carves a new groove in their memory.

We create art with ourselves.

Inside-out thinking

The leitmotif needs to be thought through inside-out and not be a slave to the latest trend.

While choosing the latest ‘in’ thing may get you noticed now, when the trend changes, where does it leave you?

At the core of this is: Choosing what works for you, so that it comes across as natural and reflects who we really are and want to be seen as. And is not a copy of role models or trendy celebrities!

Elements that help find our leopard spots

A leitmotif works ‘with’ the way our brains are geared to remember.

Wearing a colour. Paulo Coelho wears all shades of black!

An outstanding introduction. Mr. Stephen Fry

A never-seen-without accessory. We all know this one!

A specific dress-sense that’s recognised as your uber chic code!

How to imprint

Imprinting your personal leitmotif requires repetition and consistency.

Working the groove, with every person you meet or talk to.

Now look at Seth Godin. If you’ve visualised Seth Godin’s face, err pate – you’ve got the point. Also remember, it took him and Malcolm Gladwell over 10,000 hours of practise to get where they are today!

The tricky one is consistency. Little tweaks to improve the grand design are a must to keep it fresh and memorable, while staying true to what the leitmotif represents i.e. you.

How do you know it’s working?

Start with the first ten people. If they get it, try the first 100. Proof arrives when people in your direct circle recognise you instinctively. And they tell the next 100 and so on! This measure of marketing by Seth Godin works at a deeply personal level too.

Your circle of engagement will signal success – so observe and ask for feedback.

Why do this?

Personal branding has zoomed up discussion charts. For every @danschawbel who propounds it and @davidspinks who counters the idea, there are many of us still figuring out.

The world’s a stage and we are living the story of our own stories.

Creating everyday presence, without seeming melodramatic or forgettable isn’t easy.

The challenge is in creating a personal leitmotif which is authentic, memorable and fresh, or the audience will wander off.

What’s your personal leitmotif? And how did you ‘refresh’ it?

How do you bring authenticity to your leitmotif? Share your tips on what works and traps to avoid.

Notes and links:

leitmotif \LYT-moh-teef\, noun:

1. In music drama, a marked melodic phrase or short passage which always accompanies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course of the play; a sort of musical label.
2. A dominant and recurring theme.

Leitmotif (also spelled leitmotiv) is from German Leitmotiv, “leading motif,” from leiten, “to lead” (from Old High German leitan) + Motiv, “motif,” from the French. It is especially associated with the operas of German composer Richard Wagner.

Seth Godin’s Blog: First, ten

Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell: The 10,000 hour rule

Dan Schawbel

David Spinks: My Problem with Personal Branding « The Spinks Blog

Image credit: Driven leaders

Public Relations stepped right into the jaws of Advertising last week …and came away unscathed, actually enriched.

The Cannes International Advertising Festival – yes, the festival is still called the ‘Advertising’ Festival – recognised the changing dynamics in the industry and introduced the all-new PR Lions this year.

I was invited to be a member of the global jury, participating in a well-established judging process is a well-established template, culminating in a slick award ceremony. I came away with the experience of a life time.

Eight thousand people usually trek to Cannes every year to attend the Cannes International Advertising Festival. Although this 56th year saw ‘only’ 6000r delegates for obvious reasons, the Lions continued to lure the creative genius within the world of communications worldwide.

So much to learn and such little time. The Buzz was all pervasive, people from across the world and across disciplines, super experts sharing super new learnings at super sessions… all superbly impressive within the simply super-duper French Riviera.

There were more young and less middle-aged, more creative and less client servicing, more ad persons and hardly any PR folks – and yet a delightful bonhomie.

What did I learn?

The world has changed – while changing further at an incredible pace.

The idea can come from anywhere – advertising, PR, direct, promotions, you name it. And let’s stop cribbing about it not being a PR idea. The Idea wins.

I also know that Creativity flows from the young and free. So from hereon you are the King of Rock – not MJ.  So let’s see it floowww……

Excellence in execution is key to success – using surround sound – digital, traditional media, email, event, grassroots, you name it.

Traditional PR is alive but often not relevant, insufficient, does not reach audiences as quickly as digital does. Often digital leads, traditional media follows – almost always.

What did judging throw up?

We didn’t win. We didn’t make it to the preliminaries.

Why? Because of the above. And, we didn’t stand out among those who had a simple idea, executed brilliantly.

A great deal to learn.

Australia’s ‘The Best Job in the World’. It also won the PR Lion for the Travel, Tourism and Leisure sector as well as the PR Lion for the Best use of the Internet, Digital Media and Social Media. And if that was not enough, it also bagged the Direct Grand Prix as well as the Cyber Lions Grand Prix in the Website and Interactive Campaigns category.

Out of 400 plus entries that were shortlisted down to 30 plus, the PR Lions were awarded to a total of 15 campaigns (not counting the three won by the Best Job in the World) across the various categories. These included Australia’s ‘Earth Hour’; Japan’s ‘Yubari Resort’ and ‘Love Distance’; Lebanon’s ‘Khede Kasra’; Portugal’s ‘World’s First Ephemeral Museum’ and ‘Selling Hope’; Switzerland’s ‘Zurich’s Being Sold’; Costa Rica’s ‘Bring Back Peace’; Brazil’s ‘One Thousand Casmurros’; UK’s ‘Beautiful Game’ and ‘Pig’s are Worth It’; and USA’s ‘Honey, Let’s Lick the Problem,’ ‘Guiness Rally,’ ‘The Great Schlep’ and ‘Protecting Futures’ .

The jury were selected from 15 countries and Lord Tim Bell from the UK was the President of the jury.

Although none of the 10 entries that were submitted from India could bag a PR Lion this year, I have no doubts that this will change in the coming years as the Lions not only recognise the importance of public relations in the communication mix, they also fill the aspirational need for a well recognised international award platform.

Beyond the awards, the festival was a sea of learning from super sessions featuring super experts such as Steve Balmer of Microsoft, Eric Schmidt of Google, Biz Stone of Twitter, David Plouffe of Campaign Manager, Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, Fernando Vega Olmos, Creative Chairman at JWT who gave a delightful talk on ‘Mother Crisis’, and many, many more.

The one common element that emerged all through the festival was that creativity does not spell complexity. A fact borne by the winning campaigns, which were all about a simple idea that was executed well to make a real difference.

And the other key learning: there is no hiding from the digital tidal wave more.

For more details on the excitement at Cannes, check out Ashwani Singla’s Postcards from Cannes on his blog. I’d love to hear what insights you took away from the blog.

I landed in Cannes as a member of a jury eager to lend my experience to selecting the best among the best for the inaugural PR Lions. I returned humbled by the learning from the vast pool of creativity, enriched by the knowledge and thirst for more.

(Reproduced with the author’s permission. Thanks, Prema for sharing this with IPRB – Editor, IPRB)

I sent Dave eight tricky questions frequently asked by clients. His answers are below. (Thanks Dave for taking the time out of your busy schedule, I realise you have a workshop in Mumbai today)

Q1. I have an auto client who says their sales are going fantastic. And though there are auto forums and auto blogs talking negative and positive about the company, there hasn’t been much effect on sales. Why should they now venture into social media and perhaps stir up a hornet’s nest?

Positive and negative comments will always exist: they do not risk “creating” more negative comments simply by participating. Instead they are able to bring perhaps another dimension to the story (offsetting some of the negatives) and more importantly show that they are responsive to potential customers As far as auto sales go, attention to customers is on high on the list of consideration points.

Q2. Would a company officially venturing into forums and discussions actually tempt people to come up with negative comments coming from people with a new ‘let’s get them now’ attitude?

I don’t think it’s ever wise to stir up negative comments. Instead, a better approach is to participate in a neutral, informative way unless of course a strong opinion is actually expected in that blog.

Q3. There is a client who wants to hire a group of young people to open profiles on social networking sites, user review sites, and forums, to post and respond positively about the company. This sounds simpler to them than going out in the open. It is wrong but tempting. What’s your take?

It is wrong, and unfortunately all too common. Writing your own blog, and working with a fully disclosed, authorized agency that manages this process just as your communications agency might is the better way to go. Paying someone to purposefully sway a conversation is disrespectful to your readers, and eventually you will get get caught. Then, you have a big problem.

Q4. How can pharmaceutical companies start to engage with social media, given that so far most of them have chosen to stay away from it because of regulatory issues?

This is a complex issue: as it has to do with claims made around efficacy. A reasonable approach is to let the CEO or someone similar blog about industry and consumer issues, thereby establishing a presence, while avoiding blogs for now that deal directly with the use of specific products.

Q5. Who should manage social media in an organisation? Corporate communications or marketing? What are your takes from your US experience?

Generally one of these two–communications or marketing–is tapped initially as this is the natural starting point. However, management social media–because it involves multiple stakeholders within the firm, almost always ends up as a cross-functional program, managed by someone from marketing, communications, operations, or executive management. Any of these are good choices.

Q6. There seems to be a lot of competition brewing up in the social media marketing space with ad agencies, PR agencies, traditional web marketing agencies, specialised social media marketing agencies, and bloggers. How do you see this settling down?

These business partners are all part of it, for sure. I see more firms joining the fray, not less, as the operations and business consulting firms get involved as well. Social media is complex, and goes beyond any one of these.

Q7. What are the best digital marketing activities that organisations are using globally? Is it outreach with social media participants and bloggers, building communities on networks, applications development, contests & virals, SEO, SMO, microsites, or anything else?

It is all of these, put into practice in accordance with business objectives and audience characteristics. By understanding these two, you can pick from the channels available and develop the most effective mix.

Q8. Corporate blogging is one of the most used social media approaches. One question corporates ask is that when there are so many blog failures, would ours be any different? How can we make ours stick out?

A blog does not have to be different to be successful — it is not an “us or them” game. Becasue readers subscribe via feeds to multiple blogs, they do not have to choose “yours” over :theirs.” Instead, your blog must simply be relevant: That it is what will get it read, and what wil build your subscriber base.

My colleague, Ashwani Singla has been reporting from Cannes ( and he plans to continue till the end of the festival) and he has put up an interesting post on how to produce winning PR campaigns on his blog. What he said that I like the most was that any campaign has to be built around a central idea, an idea that is simple yet executed well. I  remember having a chat with Prema Sagar before she left for Cannes (she is the only Indian member to be part of the jury in the PR category) that one of the core things that she look for will be a clear and simple idea and how that has been executed.

Some time back, a former colleague said to me that often the best PR campaigns are based on simple ideas. These simple ideas would often come across as very obvious but finding/creating them would take great understanding and insights.

So however complex we want our ppts. to look like, it’s perhaps not about ideas coming in from everywhere and often jumbled together with a weak link. A presentation, somebody said, has to have one slide that sums it all – a slide that contains the central theme.

So good insights, Ashwani. Some points I would like to take away:

1. Programme mission – to influence ‘real change’

2. Central idea – creative, innovative, and powerful yet simple

3. Get people involved without boundaries – internet, mobile, ATL, BTL and press exposures

4.Measurable

I am looking forward to follow this up with more insights and learnings about the judging process from Prema once she’s back – that would give pointers on how the best PR campaigns were executed and evaluated. And more on digital from Ashwani – how digital has been incorporated into campaigns seamlessly into the marketing/ PR campaigns, and not as a separate component. Because those are the real winners.

Meanwhile check out more coverage of Cannes here: ET, Exchange4Media, and Cannes site. And congratulations to our ad professionals who have won so many lions this year.

What makes a PR campaign a winner? What are your thoughts and insights?