Communication is more about what you share, not what you sell: Kiran Ray Chaudhury

To recognise women leaders’ relentless pursuit of excellence in public relations and corporate communication, exchange4media PR & Corp Comm launched the Women Achievers Awards in 2020. The third edition of the awards in 2022 felicitated women leaders who have been shaping the industry through their incredible work.

The awards recognised women who not only achieved major milestones in their careers but also brought a dynamic change in the PR and corporate communications industry.

In this series, we feature some of the women leaders who were felicitated at the event. Today, we feature Kiran Ray Chaudhury, co-founder and joint managing director, 80dB Communications. She was bestowed with the “Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year” award in the third edition of the e4m PR & Corp Comm Women Achievers Awards. An optimistic and solution-oriented leader, she takes pride in being a strong, determined and hard-nosed doer. A seasoned professional with over 26 years of experience, she thrives on bringing creative ideas to the table. She is an artful storyteller and enjoys challenging the status quo by taking measurable risks. A thorough team player, she has built and managed teams from a very early stage in her career.

Excerpts from the interview:

Congratulations on your win at the e4m PR & Corp Comm Women Achievers Awards 2022. How do you feel?

Thank you e4m for this award, which is very special to me. I have been lucky to have the best mentors and have felt literally duty-bound always to pay it forward. This award feels like the universe was eavesdropping.

What inspires you on your journey and endeavours?

We spend a lot of time at work, so I look at work as another opportunity where we evolve ourselves. How do we get better at work? How do we become better individuals? There’s much to learn and be!

Working together with people and forging meaningful connections, doing work that creates an impact and learning new things while pushing oneself outside the proverbial comfort zone serve as good reasons to show up every day!

For the last 7+ years, my co-founder Abhilasha (Padhy) and I, at 80dB, have had an incredible opportunity to be able to create an organisation where people feel comfortable to do their best work and clients wish to be at. One thing is for sure, I’m not short on inspiration. 

In what ways have you witnessed the PR and corporate communications industry change and evolve over the years? What global practices would you see implemented in India?

The changes in the industry have been profound. While the role of PR has not changed, what has largely changed is its scope, which has expanded manifold. What has led to this change is the proliferation of social and digital media which has literally changed the timeline of news and information, from 24 hours to 24 minutes (or less). While media relations is an important aspect, PR has evolved to encompass a broader set of disciplines that includes mobile communication, influencer engagement, community development, social media, video, podcasts and other such mediums. Companies want their marketing efforts to be tightly integrated, with advertising, PR, digital, social and other programmes in alignment.

Moreover, with communication today being a two-way dialogue, the role of PR has become central to storytelling, which helps to build a connection and trust with audiences. It’s more about what you share, not what you sell.

With all this, there is of course more integration of technology in the process of delivery and reliance on data and analytics to be more precise and personalised.

A lot more focus and formality towards research and measurement would be good to see. There’s often not enough evaluation done of different target audiences and their media consumption habits within the PR function.

Measuring PR campaigns results has been a hot and often a contentious topic. Investments towards integrating reporting and analytics would help bring objectivity to results and lend more legitimacy to the impact of PR.

Tell us about your most valuable learning from the industry.

1. Building, developing and nurturing relationships is an art and with practice, you can master it. Relationships need to be nurtured by bringing value and delivering it with care and consistency. 

2. We work in a knowledge-based world, with change being a constant. Unlearning has never been more important. To be relevant in the dynamic environment we live in, we must learn to unlearn, and learn new tools and skills that will enable us to be ahead of our clients and gain their confidence to be advisors and not just implementers. 

3. It’s important to develop at least one competency as a super specialisation. It could be visualisation and strategy, creative channel agnostic storytelling, social media management, relationship management or project management, etc. 

4. Being authentic is yet another valuable learning. I feel it is the key to building and inspiring trust with others. 

What does the road ahead look like for the PR industry in India? What are the top three trends that will dominate in the next three-four years? 

The PR industry has continued to evolve over the last decade. If the last 10 years are any indicator of the future, our industry will continue to rapidly change and evolve. 

The top three trends that are likely to dominate are: 

Strong and authentic storytelling in the digital world. The axiom that content is king will actually give way to context being the emperor in the digital world. Delivering the right content, to the right audience at the right time contextually, would be front and center. Further, brevity in storytelling would be equally important as attention spans continue to shorten. 

PR mandates would have to be delivered through an integrated approach. Storytelling, customised to different mediums is going to become even more important and, in fact, become the expected. 

Personal branding is going to be the flavour as leaders will need to step forward to create a strong, credible and relatable brand that reflects their values to engage stakeholders, both internal and external. Their personal brand will help to create and drive higher trust for their organisations. 

What would be your message to the future generation of professionals? 

Being a PR practitioner is like a degree in business management on the job. Working with senior leadership across brands and industries gives you a ringside view of how businesses are managed, across functions. It’s an enviable position to make the most of. 

If you have a learner’s mindset, are curious, and have a penchant for telling stories and working hard, you’d find a warm home in this profession. Else, this profession can certainly teach you that!