‘PR practitioners should be well-equipped to tackle misinformation & fake news’

There are disruptive changes that have occurred in the PR world. More and more campaigns have turned digital, globalisation, changing consumer behaviour, and economic development. 

At e4m’s PR and Corp Comm Summit and Awards 2023, industry experts across varied fields gathered for a group discussion on the PR and communication management landscape in APAC and India to examine the trends, growths and gaps. Mamtaa Dhingra, Founder of Lateral Sutraa moderated the panel discussion.

Jyotsna Nanda, AVP-Corporate Communications, DS Group kickstarted the conversation by sharing that PR in Asia is relatively young compared to the US but has characteristics that sets it apart from the other parts of the world. 

She believes appropriate budgeting is an important thing because countries in Asia spend only about 10 per cent of their marketing budget on PR and the remaining on advertising, media buying and digital marketing.  

Nanda added, “There is also an increasing importance of crisis communication. In the age of digital and social media, organisations need to be constantly prepared to do crisis management. They have to be ready to respond quickly and effectively.”

Another factor is the growing importance of employee advocacy, as per the DS Group executive. All corporates, clients, brands have this urgent need for talent attraction and retention. With the rise of social media and the need to undergo authenticity and transparency, organisations will still need to focus more on developing relationships with employees. 

According to Abhishek Gulyani of Hill and Knowlton Strategies, the pandemic proved to be the trigger point that reinvented the field of communication. It made all businesses and agencies re-strategise the roadmap going forward. 

Speaking from the agency perspective he added, “In 2023, the agency landscape has gone through a profound transformation. Traditional agencies are looking at being more comprehensive. The interesting data, in today's world 40 per cent of revenue comes outside of traditional media. Hence, you are selling more avenues which encompass areas like research, content creation, influencer management and more.”

The PR Manager-APAC of OpenText, Gargi Dubey highlighted the one major challenge being the media landscape for APAC regions except India. “In India, the number of journalists, publications and influencers is so many times more than what we see in Southeast Asia. Indonesia is a little bit closer as compared to India but in other markets, it's a little difficult.”

She further also believes outside of India, things are more structured when it comes to the approach of PR. Be it media relations or other aspects of communications.

Another important aspect is understanding the relevance in PR and communications. “Just because everyone is doing it, you don't have to do it. Similarly, what nobody is doing might make sense for us,” Dubey said. 

Focussing on the Bangladesh region, Ziauddin Adil, Founder of Masthead PR underlined that the emerging population and social media have created immense opportunities as well as challenges for PR practitioners in the region. 

The widespread fake news, misinformation, lack of fact checks, the habit of sharing news everyone gets are some of such challenges. And to tackle such challenges, all PR practitioners should be well-equipped and prepared for digital functions, the experts said.