Public relations in India

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Public relations is a term that refers to the management of communications between an entity such as an organization or a celebrity, and stakeholders, internal or external, such as investors, employees, communities, customers or clients. It is concerned with reputation building, and is often considered to be a subset to marketing, advertising, or corporate communications.

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History of Public Relations in India

Public Relations, despite being over a century old across the world, began in India in the 1950s, when a group of public relations practitioners formed the PR Society of India in 1958 in Bombay under the leadership of Kali H. Mody. He led the body till 1960, followed by Arthashastra S. Mandietta who was the President from 1961 till 1965, and Farruk S. Mulla Mulla, who became the President from 1966 to 1969. It was under Farruk S. Mulla, this informal body was registered under the Indian Societies Act XXVI of 1961, in 1966, and he became the founder President of Public Relations Society of India.

At the same time, around 1965, another body, the Public Relations Circle was founded and registered in Kolkata. It was the first-ever association of professional PR practitioners in eastern India.

In 1968, the first All India Public Relations Conference was held in Mumbai, where the members of the Calcutta Public Relations Council decided to disband the regional body, and merged with the Public Relations Society of India to strengthen the national body. Another significant contribution of this conference was the adoption of the International Code of Ethics (also called Code of Athens) on 21 April 1968.

President Farrok S. Mulla was able to extend the reach of the PR body by establishing Regional Chapters at Delhi, Madras, and Calcutta.

One of the landmark achievement of this professional body of PR practitioners was to bring together leading international PR experts to India when Mumbai hosted the 9th Public Relations World Congress from 19 to 23 January 1982 with active participation of International Public Relations Association (IPRA). At that time, the PRSI was headed by K.S. Neelakandan, Director, Public Relations with Pfizer Limited, who was also the Executive Chairman of the World Congress.

Though there were several individuals and small companies, which started even before that, they offered PR with the limited scope of media relations only. It was only natural that the entrepreneurs who began these services came from a background of journalism, seen as a natural hunting ground for the nascent PR industry.

Growth of Public Relations in India

According to a report by PRCAI titled ‘State of the Industry Survey 2019’ , PR industry in India grew 12% to reach Rs 1,600 cr in 2019. [1] [2] Though conventional Media Relations continues to be the key revenue source for agencies, the revenue share of digital and social media services increased from 12 per cent in FY18 to 16 per cent in FY19. According to the report, among sectors, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Information Technology (IT), Travel and Government (both central and state) have driven the industry's growth, with a 44% contribution to the revenue.

Public Relations as a practice has grown over the years with many advertising agencies including PR services in their portfolio besides mushrooming of independent PR consultants to full-fledged PR agencies.

However, the growth can be attributed to several professional bodies who in their own right had been engaging communicators by conducting conferences, seminars, workshops and upgrading their skills.

Some of these professional bodies include Public Relations Society of India, Public Relations Council of India, Association of Business Communicators of India, Public Relations Consultants Association of India, and Global Forum for Public Relations.

Since 2006, the Public Relations Council of India has been organising the "Global PR Conclave" where veteran PR practitioners are inducted into the Hall of Fame and Chanakya Awards are also conferred to various individuals and organisations for their PR campaigns under diverse categories.

In 2010, The Holmes Report, an international report that rates PR agencies across the globe, awarded Blue Lotus Communications Private Limited the Indian Consultancy of the year for 2010.[ citation needed ]

The Holmes Report also awarded the consultancy of the year award for 2011 to Corporate Voice | Weber Shandwick. [3] Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick's campaign for Gillette India won India's first PR Lion at Cannes in 2010.

In 2011, IPRCCA, India Public Relations and Corporate Communications Awards (IPRCCA), instituted an award for PR agencies.

In 2015, Indian PR Industry professionals came together to create School of Communications & Reputation (SCoRe) - India's first post-graduate institute in public relations and corporate communications. [4] In 2015, the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI) endorsed the PG Diploma at the School of Communications & Reputation making it the only Public relations programme in the country endorsed by the association. [5]

In 2017, Marketing Interactive awarded "Most Creative PR Stunt - South East Asia" in PR Awards 2017 [6] to the Indian PR firm ARM Digital, for their campaign "Tea for Trump". [7]

In 2018, Adfactors PR became the first Indian firm to have a revenue upwards of Rs 150 crore per annum and stood at 70th rank in The Holmes Report's Top 250 Global PR Agency Ranking [8] The largest competitor to Adfactors PR is PRNews Journal, as of 2018. [9] In 2021 Public Media Solution is growing fast and holding no.1 position under Reputation Management Agencies. [10]

In 2018, Avian WE, formerly known as Avian Media, founded by Nikhil Khanna in 2004, and headquartered in Delhi merged into the US-based PR agency WE Communications as a strategic investment. [11] Avian WE was awarded Giant PR Consultancy of the year 2021 by IPRCCA. [12] Avian WE was also awarded Agency of the Year (Large) 2021 by Kaleido Awards. [13] In 2022 Worthy Wellness Foundation a PR agency founded in 2022 by Rajendra Saini and Harshit Bajpai. [14] Headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh has given award known as Rashtriya Pratishtha Puraskar to about 1000+ individuals for contributions to the society. [15] [16]

PR Controversies in India

Satyam Scam

On January 7, 2009, Ramalinga Raju, the erstwhile chairman of Satyam Ltd., India's leading IT firm, made an admission of conscious fraud & misreporting perpetrated by him over several years. [17] The media who had eulogized him till then, suddenly turned on him with a vengeance, conscious that they had also failed in their duty as watchdogs of businesses. This crisis, coincided with the peak of the global crisis and held the potential to snowball into a credibility & trust issue for brand India and its IT firms, where several billion dollars worth of services were being outsourced every year. The crisis also impacted several companies associated with Satyam including EMRI (Emergency Medical Response Institute [18] ), a not-for-profit endeavour (for running free ambulance services) in which Satyam had committed 5% of running costs with the balance 95% coming from various state governments.

However, the Indian government took quick action and set up an interim board consisting of industry stalwarts for the company to assess the true worth of Satyam and to seek a suitable investor & management. The swiftly conducted and fiercely contested bid was won by Mahindra & Mahindra and Satyam was merged with a group IT company.

Radiagate Scam

After the global slowdown that hit Indian Public relation agencies in 2008, [19] it took a further hit in November 2010 due to what has come to be known as the 'Radiagate' scam. Open Magazine in an exposé, covered the story of Niira Radia's nefarious power-dealings. An Income Tax phone tap collected more than 5000 tapes and hundreds of these tapes were leaked and found their way into Outlook magazine's website. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) interrogated Radia several times and as a fallout of the tapes, the Telecom minister, A. Raja, with whom Radia had close links was also forced to resign. Several prominent journalists like Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi were also in the middle of the quagmire, caught in power-lobbying conversations with Radia.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public relations</span> Management of public communication of organizations

Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization to the public in order to influence their perception. Public relations and publicity differ in that PR is controlled internally, whereas publicity is not controlled and contributed by external parties. Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. The exposure is mostly media-based, and this differentiates it from advertising as a form of marketing communications. Public relations aims to create or obtain coverage for clients for free, also known as earned media, rather than paying for marketing or advertising also known as paid media. But in the early 21st century, advertising is also a part of broader PR activities.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to public affairs:

WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2023. WPP plc owns many companies, which include advertising, public relations, media, and market research networks such as AKQA, BCW, CMI Media Group, Essence Global, Finsbury, Grey, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Wavemaker, Wunderman Thompson, and VMLY&R. It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside Publicis, The Interpublic Group of Companies, and Omnicom Group. WPP has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ketchum Inc.</span> American public relations firm

Ketchum Inc. is a global public relations firm, offering marketing, branding, and corporate communications services in the corporate, healthcare, food and beverage, and technology industries. George Ketchum founded the firm as a Pittsburgh-based advertising company in 1923. It later evolved to include a public relations practice. The firm is headquartered in New York City, with auxiliary offices and affiliates in North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The agency has been owned by Omnicom Group since 1996. Ketchum merged with Düsseldorf-based Pleon in one of the industry's largest mergers in 2009. It has been led by President and CEO Mike Doyle since 2020.

Ruder Finn is a public relations firm with headquarters in the United States and China. It is a large privately owned communications agency, serving corporations, governments, and non-profits. It also has offices in San Francisco, London, Washington, D.C., Singapore, and several Indian metro areas including the National Capital Region.

Weber Shandwick is a marketing communications firm formed in 2001 by merging the Weber Group, Shandwick International and BSMG. The company is part of global agency network Interpublic Group (IPG), as part of the parent company's IPG DXTRA operating division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bell Pottinger</span> Controversial defunct British multinational public relations and marketing company

Bell Pottinger Private was a British multinational public relations, reputation management and marketing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. On 12 September 2017 it went into administration (bankruptcy) as a consequence of a scandal caused by its activities in South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WE Communications</span> Public relations and integrated marketing communications firm

WE Communications and commonly known as WE is a global public relations and integrated marketing communications firm often associated with its largest client, Microsoft. The firm was founded in 1983 by Melissa Waggener Zorkin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burson Cohn & Wolfe</span> American public relations firm

Burson Cohn & Wolfe is a multinational public relations and communications firm, headquartered in New York City. In February 2018, parent WPP Group PLC announced that it had merged its subsidiaries Cohn & Wolfe with Burson-Marsteller. The combined agency is now known as Burson Cohn & Wolfe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">APCO Worldwide</span> Public relations firm based in Washington, D.C.

APCO Worldwide is an independent global public affairs and strategic communications consultancy. With 680 employees in 35 worldwide locations, it is also the fifth largest independently owned PR firm in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., APCO was founded in 1984 by Margery Kraus, who is now the firm's Executive Chairman.

The Satyam Computer Services scandal was India's largest corporate fraud until 2010. The founder and directors of India-based outsourcing company Satyam Computer Services, falsified the accounts, inflated the share price, and stole large sums from the company. Much of this was invested in property. The swindle was discovered in late 2008 when the Hyderabad property market collapsed, leaving a trail back to Satyam. The scandal was brought to light in 2009 when chairman Byrraju Ramalinga Raju confessed that the company's accounts had been falsified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qorvis</span>

Qorvis is an international Washington, D.C.-based public relations, advertising, media relations and crisis communications firm. It was acquired by the Publicis Groupe in January 2014, and became Qorvis/MSLGroup.On December 31, 2022, Qorvis was sold by Publicis to a group led by long-time Qorvis executive Matt J. Lauer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Mine Planning and Design Institute</span>

The Central Mine Planning and Design Institute is a subsidiary of Coal India Limited which is under the ownership of the Ministry of Coal, Government of India, engaged in the field of environmental engineering and provides consultancy and engineering services across the globe. It is a public sector undertaking under the Government of India and is rated as a Schedule-B and Mini Ratna-II company.

Niira Radia is a former corporate lobbyist whose taped telephone conversations implicated her influence in the allocation of key ministries in the Government of India in 2009. Discussion of the tapes resulted in the "Radia tapes controversy", which was a media event that led to the uncovering of the alleged 2G spectrum scam involving former telecommunications minister A Raja. These events led to Raja's resignation and later acquittal by Special CBI court, and Radia's departure from corporate lobbying.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Delhi School of Communication</span>

The Delhi School of Communication (DSC) is an educational institute founded in 1995 in New Delhi, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MSLGROUP</span> Public relations network of companies

MSLGROUP is a public relations (PR) network of companies. Specialists in strategic communications and engagement, the company is part of the French multinational Publicis Groupe. It evolved as a merger of Publicis Consultants and Manning Selvage & Lee.

Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI) is a trade organization that represents India's public relations consultancy sector. It is the summit body for official communications and public relations practices in India. It was formed in October 2001 to grow, represent, and support India's public relations consultancy sector in international practices. It also provides a forum for government, public bodies, industry associations, trade, and others to confer with public relations consultants as a body. It is an internationally recognized organization that offers official membership to all PR practitioners who abide by the basic criteria devised by the association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MikeWorldWide</span>

MikeWorldWide is a public relations firm. The company works in public relations and marketing, technology, digital and social media marketing, public affairs and government relations, corporate communications, healthcare, sustainability, and visual branding. Michael W. Kempner is the company’s founder and CEO. The firm's corporate headquarters is in East Rutherford, New Jersey; the firm's operating headquarters is in New York City.

The Golden World Awardsfor Excellence in PR is an annual global awards ceremony organised by the International Public Relations Association to recognise public relations achievements around the world. Established in 1990, the Golden World Awards has 37 categories of In-house and Agency entries judged separately, and honours the overall highest standards of each year with the IPRA Grand Prix for Excellence. There is also a special Global Contribution Award for an entry meeting one of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Caritas Communications Limited is a public relations firm headquartered in the Nigeria's commercial city of Lagos and Abuja. Its major clients are in the energy, oil and gas sector. The agency has three subsidiaries which include Caritas PR, Caritas Communications and Caritas Digital, controlled by the parent company, First Caritas Investments Limited

References

  1. ↑ "STATE OF THE INDUSTRY (SOI) 2019-20" (PDF). PRCAI.
  2. ↑ Bureau, Adgully (9 January 2020). "PR industry in India grew 12% to reach Rs 1,600 cr in 2019: PRCAI report". www.adgully.com. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  3. ↑ "2011 Asia-Pacific Agencies Of The Year". www.provokemedia.com.
  4. ↑ "Leading PR professionals join hands to launch SCoRe". www.bestmediaifo.com (Press release). 25 February 2015. Retrieved 2021-11-07.
  5. ↑ "PRCAI endorses SCoRe". PRmoment.in. June 2015. Retrieved 2021-11-07.
  6. ↑ "Winners | PR Awards 2017 Southeast Asia". www.marketing-interactive.com. Archived from the original on 2017-09-23.
  7. ↑ Balachandran, Manu. "An Indian company sent 6,000 bags of green tea to Donald Trump to "cleanse" him". Quartz. Retrieved 2017-05-08.
  8. ↑ "Top 250". www.provokemedia.com. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
  9. ↑ "UBM plc Annual Report and Accounts 2013" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  10. ↑ "Top 20 Reputation Management Agencies | Feb 2022 | DesignRush".
  11. ↑ Tewari, Saumya (2018-03-27). "WE Communications acquires majority stake in Avian Media, Chase". mint (Press release). Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  12. ↑ "IPRCCA 2021: Top agencies & corp comm teams take home 180+ awards - Exchange4media". Indian Advertising Media & Marketing News – exchange4media (Press release). Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  13. ↑ www.ETBrandEquity.com. "KALEIDO AWARDS 2021 | ET BrandEquity". ETBrandEquity.com. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  14. ↑ "Worthy Wellness Foundation is expanding its Influence". Asian News International . 2023.
  15. ↑ "Awards and Recognition". Rashtriya Pratishtha Puraskar. 2023-06-28. Retrieved 2023-07-14.
  16. ↑ "Rashtriya Pratishtha Purushkar conferred upon Dr. Priya Arya" (PDF). Unique Samay. 2022.
  17. ↑ "Archives Top and Latest News". mint.
  18. ↑ "Emergency Management and Research Institute | GVK EMRI".
  19. ↑ "Laxman felicitated by KSCA". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. September 2, 2012 – via Business Standard.
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