Ag Talk | Today mobile opens up a world of opportunities, Edelman's Kevin King

Public Relations has been gaining a lot of importance these days. Clients have realized that there the power of PR and hence we can see almost all industries hiring or calling for PR pitches. At the same time, clients have also realized the importance of digital PR and hence are looking for experienced professional agencies to drive their digital presence.

PR has changed with time. From being just a regular PR agency, agencies have also taken the digital route. The difference is that with digital PR one can reach a larger, relevant audience for a longer period of time because one is not tied to traditional print based distribution.

Also, PR was focused on media relations and churning out press releases one after the other. However, the advent of digital PR has changed that; the PR industry has now opened its doors to a much wider audience that simply cannot be reached with offline methods.

Digital PR recognises the world, and how we digest information, is changing – and this is in part down to the rising use of the internet. With statistics showing that 36 million people in the UK use the Internet on a daily basis, you can reach a vast audience through online channels, meaning your news can spread further and faster than ever.

The global economy has witnessed an unprecedented change over the last couple of years around the way we live, behave, communicate and the way we do businesses— everything is now SOCIAL.  The power of the internet and accessibility of doing things online has made us part of the hyper connected world. We, as global netizens (the current Internet user group) are adapting to changes and evolving faster than ever before—be it in terms of geography, demographics, access device, or content medium.

In India specifically, the class of 2018 will be more rural, older, more gender-equal, more mobile and more regional than their counterparts of today. With older Internet users having more disposable income, they will be more likely to transact more online creates business opportunities for e-commerce players and other service providers. With such manifestations, the businesses are going gung-ho about changing their business paradigms on a real basis with Global strategies. One such leading PR agency is Edelman.

To understand the league ahead, we caught up with Kevin King- Global Practice Chair, Edelman Digital during his visit to India.

Adgully (AG): How are brand and marketers trying to create a unified communications strategy?
Kevin King (KK): Marketers today, especially in more evolved markets realize that digital is no longer just an additional limb to their marketing efforts. They have been using it, not only to talk to their audience but to also hear them out. This helps them evolve their services or products to fit the needs of their consumers better.

Additionally, digital lead strategies are beginning to dominate the overall marketing efforts and these are now being amplified across other forms of traditional media as well.

AG:  What are the challenges marketers faces on social media?
KK: The big change is that brands are trying to promote themselves in the same channels that their customers are expressing their opinions and experiences.  The challenge is finding the balance between promoting your brand and protecting its reputation in social channels.  For instance, CMO’s are increasingly finding that poor customer service make it hard to market in social media.  This was never a concern with TV or print. Marketers today need to have a larger overall view within their organization.

AG: What are the opportunities that marketers can tap into in different markets to increase the awareness and usage of the digital platform?
KK: It’s about being relevant and keeping up trends, essentially being a living brand. Today mobile opens up a world of opportunity for marketers especially in a country like India. In fact, more than half the digital traffic now comes from mobile devices and through mobile apps.

AG: What kind of ROI does a marketer gain from social media?
KK: I mentioned the need to both promote and protect a brand in social media in an earlier question.  Depending on what you are trying to accomplish the ROI will look very different.

If you are promoting, social allows you an unprecedented level of measurement that you can tie directly to sales or intention if you put the right tools in place from the start.  If you are trying to manage a brands reputation your ROI will be focused more on changes in overall sentiment or opinion.

AG: Will marketers be able to capture smaller markets (rural) with social media?
KK: Yes, brands have been successful in doing that, especially here in India.

In fact, Facebook has seen better engagement with their recently launched ‘Click To Call’ ad format from feature phones than from smart phones. This is surely an eye-opener.

AG: What are the trends that you see in this space?
KK: As the digital footprint in countries like India grows, the terms of engagement for brands have been radically altered. Three super trends, that adequately capture the altered media landscape shape the way brands communicate in the new media age, are digitization of information, socialization of media and consumerisation of brands & business

AG:  Share some insights on Living Brands.
KK: Brands today have to do a lot more than simply educate the consumer about their product or service. They need to feel the pulse of the consumers who make up their online communities and in the process become more and more relevant to current trends and events.  The traditional agency planning process was designed for moment in time campaigns.  Brands today need a revised planning process for an always-on world.

AG: Do you think social media will drive the next decade?
KK: The ‘social by design’ concept will start to take center stage – will someone share my message or content.  We will soon be seeing marketers across the world looking at traditional media through this lens. Reason being, today digital and social media are producing the most innovative and creative forms of content that is seeing maximum engagement.

AG: How successful have brands been in doing so?
KK: The brands that successfully earn the right to promote in social media are by far the most successful.  These are the brands that have a clear voice and narrative, successfully engage their customers even when they are negative, and ones that design every piece of content they produce to be shared.