What brands expect from media and PR

The PR & Corp Comm 40 Under 40 Summit saw an interesting discussion between Rohit Bansal, Reliance Group Head of Communication, Reliance Industries Limited, and Ruhail Amin, Editor, Businessworld, and exchange4media on how public relations, media, and corporate communication are interconnected.

Before beginning the conversation, Amin shared how Bansal after experiencing some golden years in journalism entered corporate communication.

Bansal was requested to elaborate more on how Public Relations which was on the fringe, entered gradually into the corporate ecosystem and how it defines the inside story of the corporate and public relation world. Taking forward the conversation Bansal mentioned how he started his career back in 1992 with Times of India and further associated with Career 18, Zee Business, and Financial Express. He said that a decade or two back, it was easier to get the contacts of the ministers, secretaries, or principal secretaries, but today journalists have to go through media agencies, and corporate communication teams at the field levels and the headquarters to finally talk to the CXO. Besides following the structured way of communication, a journalist could also follow the disintermediation process to get the quotes in the stipulated time.

Further focusing more on the factors the brand must look into before hiring any agency, Bansal said, “It is just like what requires for any individual to be in the team, they have to show up, they have to be available at the time when we require them. To meet what brand demands, agencies must think like brands and entrepreneurs.” However, it is hard to find the kind of involvement the brand expects from media agencies. He also mentioned how a crisis can be converted into an opportunity that could differentiate brands in the market. Talking more in the discourse of what kind of environment Reliance industries has built over the years to communicate with the external world, Bansal said, “In Reliance industries, we have the most senior person working who runs his own agency, we have opted the hybrid mode which is more solution oriented.”

Discussing more what Founding Partner, First Partner, Atul Ahluwalia, mentioned in the panel discussion about how PR and media both are given the same connotation and judged on the same parameters ignoring the fact that the PR is more business-oriented, Ruhail requested Bansal to elaborate how media is no more remain confined and have started impacting brands and business in the current scenario. Bansal clearly stated that there is no difference between media, business, and brand custodianship. Also, brands must take the charge of their custodianship.

He also mentioned that there is a lot of proliferation dealing with media and journalists and how the brands would be dealing with the new AI-based concepts like ChatGPT. Before closing the conversation, Ruhail requested Bansal to elaborate on what Bansal mentioned earlier that people should be deserving before they talk about the seat at the high table, Bansal, said, “How actively brands are performing to meet the audience demands stands them out in the clutter of market and specify them as a deserving brand.”

Before closing the conversation Bansal explained how pushing a brand narrative not only helps brands in maintaining credibility in the market but also humanise the goal the brands try to achieve through the concept of Public relation. Bansal also elaborated on the ideal equation that the journalist and PR must maintain while covering stories. The story must be covered in a way that should state a balanced narrative and a clear representation of the facts shared by the brands.