Make video part of overall PR strategy to ensure budgets advise PR Guru experts

Sujit Patil, vice president and head of corporate communications, Godrej Industries Limited and Associate companies

“The first step I think is to integrate video as a part of your communication offering and/or strategy. So, when video becomes a part of the overall strategic long term plan or offering, it becomes easy for management to approve training budgets for building this capability or simply get additional resources. Having said that, due to technological advances, it is pretty easy today to acquire video equipment, editing software’s and start creating your own content around identified themes. Assigning effectiveness measures for this tool could bring in the seriousness and will also mean a significantly higher focus on digital PR and owned platforms for video publication.

ouTube, I guess can be called the second biggest reputation management tool and that is just one of the reasons video content creation is becoming a key competency that communicators need to work on to enhance their communication effectiveness. I would say, just get into this versatile mode of communication as the opportunities are huge both for internal and external communications needs.”

Aniruddha Atul Bhagwat,  co-founder & director, Ideosphere Consulting Private Limited

“Traditionally as communication teams, we have been trained to think textual story-telling format. There has been an evolution on the PR front in the past few years with more innovation on the manifestation of a message be it info graphics, comic strips, etc. The advent and penetration of social media platforms have made video content an important contributor in creating a successful communication campaign. While communication firms can think in story-telling formats, the biggest capabilities to build are to start getting our teams to think in story board perspectives, understand the nuances of video content manifestation as opposed to the traditional one, and most importantly, build internal team or identify partners who can technical capture, edit and package a video piece well and aligned to the medium it will be showcased on.”

Aniruddha Atul Bhagwat,  co-founder & director, Ideosphere Consulting Private Limited

“AR/VR in itself are very nascent developments in in India, and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of using these effectively to create brand engagement. There have been significant moves made in using AR/VR in mainstream media, notably the recent Tata Tiago launch advertisement. There is definite scope for using all of these mediums, but there needs to be maturation of the tools themselves, an upgradation of communication professional skill-sets to understand these tools, and acceptance by the mass media consumer to consume content from these tools.

Today, there is still only a small segment of media consumers using or have been exposed to AR/VR. As this consumption grows, these tools will sure see more prominence across all sectors of the communication industry. At the core PR/communications is about giving a third-party endorsement or storytelling to create engagement about a specific brand, we all need to, as an industry, on the application of these tools to fulfill the core objectives of PR for our client partners. “

Sujit Patil, vice president and head of corporate communications, Godrej Industries Limited and Associate companies

“I see augmented reality and virtual reality as the next big revolution in PR and communications industry. My personal experience says that the effectiveness of PR campaigns goes up if there is an experiential and interactive element to it.  Content is any which ways considered ‘king’ but if it becomes immersive and audiences are able to get a touch and feel of it, it can be an emperor!!  

These are the possibilities with AR and VR. Honest, humanized, immersive content generally gets larger traction and AR/VR actually enables it. Product launches could become more realistic, audiences can experience products before making a decision and interaction points can increase significantly. Virtual reality can possibly transcend space and time. It can in a near realistic way transport people to destinations or interact with lifestyle brands in a manner that is more inclusive rather than one way.

Simulation of crisis during trainings could be done more effectively and the attributes of consumer durables can be explained in a more holistic manner. Come to think of it, it can be a huge enabler for communicators to communicate their brand narratives in a more convincing manner. Btw, I loved this question. I feel possibilities are immense and I am going to do more research on this now! :-  )”