As Public Relations professionals working in today’s day and age, all of us are finding new ways to communicate with our stakeholders. Not only have we ventured and excelled in creating creative content but have also married the marketing function by actively planning and suggesting marketing activities that support Public Relations. Brands are increasingly using every branding opportunity that assist in their PR function.

With women’s day around the corner it is a good idea for a survey company to research various socio-economic aspects related to women. They can then brand their findings in the form of creative content and pitch it to media houses. Even if one media house takes it, all brands associated with the respective media house are likely to carry it. All of us have already seen brands doing such an activity on a regular basis. This activity can be taken a step ahead if you can get third-party influencer to talk about your content. As a brand you already know who your influencers and supporters are and it is just a matter of getting your content in front of their eyes.

While feminism is finally getting its due importance in India, we have seen so many brands bank on this trend. The most recent examples are Titan RAGA and Ariel. Both the brands came out with creative content in form videos and highlighted two very important aspects related to our society. The Titan RAGA video features popular Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif who stresses on the topic ‘When is the right time to get married’. The video highly resonated with young Indian girls aged roughly between 23 and 32 who shared the video widely. The video touched their emotion of the struggle they face in convincing their parents as to why they do not want to get married at that moment. The Ariel video ‘#ShareTheLoad’ focussed on promoting men and women bearing equal house-hold responsibilities. This again highly connected with married and unmarried women who shared the content across social networks.

Related: Check out the Public Relations Trends predicted for 2018

Finally, innovative branding is also a good PR opportunity. PR firms have excelled the art of sharing creative invites that are often shared by journalists leading to ‘Digital PR’. There are also unique product placements and creative branding ideas that force people to do word-of-mouth PR or Digital PR. These creative ideas also help a brand become an aspirational brand, or something that its audience is proud to be associated with. A recent example is of a public relations led event of Instagram. The way they branded the ‘Tea Cups’ at the event drew a lot of attention. I saw several pictures like these floating on my Facebook & Twitter timeline which speaks of their public relations success.

Thanks to the digital age, Public Relations can now explore several new avenues. With technology supporting us in the manner it is right now – The sky is the limit for us!

– Radhika Nandwani

Radhika is the Corporate Communications Advisor at Dell’s Performance Analytics Group. She started her career in 2011, with one of the leading public relations firms of India – MSLGROUP, specialising in technology brands. The campaigns executed by her while at MSL, have won several public relations industry awards including SABRE and PR Week Asia. In her last role, she was the founding team member and the marketing communications manager at SCoRe. Radhika is an English graduate and holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication. She loves reading and is passionate about gender equality, food and Bollywood. She can be reached at @RadhikaNandwani on Twitter and here on LinkedIn.