PR Agency in Chennai

The term ‘Public’ in Public Relations may refer to an organisation’s external stakeholders such as customers, investors, regulators, and local communities. Public Relations is essentially a communications practice. The role of Public Relations is to communicate the positive roles the brands play in the lives of the public – directly and or indirectly.

Public Relations heavily relies on media, especially the press. Consequently, some of the key deliverables of Public Relations are: organising press meets, creating press releases, and interacting with journalists.

However, Public Relations does not have to be media driven always. It can also use non-media means such as organising customer meets, investor meets, community events, and publishing its own newsletters or magazines, to create brand awareness.

Both advertising and Public Relations have the same goal, which is ‘brand promotion’. However, there is an ocean of difference when it comes to how these two disciplines try to achieve their goals. While advertising relies on ‘paid’ media such as advertisements in newspapers, TV channels and now internet portals, Public Relations focuses on ‘earned’ media, which is all about earning the trust of the publications and getting coverage in their articles, reports, interviews, and other media assets.

Compared to advertising, Public Relations is certainly cost effective. However, Public Relations is not here to replace advertising. They both usually need each other’s support. Typically brands allocate 70% of their promotion budget for advertising and the rest for Public Relations.

When your brand is mentioned in media, it

• Increases awareness of your products and services, boosting your sales
• Provides a comprehensive financial picture about your business to banks, financial institutions, and others in the ecosystem
• Convinces new dealers, traders, agents to establish business relations with you and it also helps to retain the existing ones
• Promotes goodwill in the society and boosts the morale and esteem of your employees.
• Makes it easy for you to attract new talent
• Gives you a competitive edge

Having a great news will not automatically translate into good media coverage. It calls for expertise in presenting the news in appropriate format and distributing it to the right person / division in the media, and often, follow-up.

Take the case of issuing a press release. The news must be prepared and presented to the press in a particular format. This helps journalists quickly understand what is news. Then the press release should be reached to the journalist / reporter who specializes to cover such news. It should be done at the right time. Above all, it requires appropriate follow ups.

If you do not have the expertise or do not have a dedicated team that enjoys a rapport with the journalists and publishing houses, then you will need a PR agency.