30 Years of Indian PR: "Pure-play PR firms have no future," says CommsCredible's Aman Dhall

Aman Dhall's first salary as a journalist was about ₹7,000. It went on a samosa party for his friends. The former Economic Times senior reporter later moved into corporate communications, and started CommsCredible during the Covid years. This week the agency turned six, and marked it with a rebrand built around what Dhall calls the ABCDE model.

In the fifth instalment of PRmoment India's editorial series, 30 Years of Indian PR, Dhall explains why he thinks pure-play PR firms are finished, why family businesses and MSMEs are now chasing IPOs, why scale without a USP doesn't last, and why Indian athletes are stuck with the same underdog story.

Thirty Years of Indian PR: In conversation with Aman Dhall, founder, CommsCredible

Paarul Chand: CommsCredible turns six today, and you have marked it with a rebrand built around a five-part ABCDE model. Why did you feel the need to change your message?

Aman Dhall: I've been saying this aloud at industry programmes for the last three or four years: actual intelligence is critical for our industry to grow further. Automation and AI are coming into our lives very fast, and I feel actual intelligence is what will drive any industry.

When we started, we were doing mostly PR, a bit of branded content and a bit of social media. Over the last three years we started doing a lot more, but we never rebranded. We were so busy building the business that we never got time to work on our own brand. The sixth anniversary was the best time to do it.

"I don't see pure-play PR firms having a future."

Look at what is happening right now. A lot of firms are doing digital PR which is not actually digital PR. It is not earned – they are selling paid media slots and calling it digital PR. And they are competing with traditional PR firms who are taking the earned and owned media route.

Paarul Chand: "Integrated" has become a bit of a cliche. Everybody talks about it, but beyond setting up a few verticals, it rarely happens. How does your model actually lead to integration?

Aman Dhall: Brand strategy sits at the top. Then there is content marketing – owned or branded content. D is digital PR, E is experiential events, and we also do a lot of market research.

If you are not sitting at the top and deciding the brand strategy, you will never know what stories you need to create, how you want to position yourself in the search universe, or how to build offline relationships through events. You will never be able to do all of these things together.

"The new search universe – AI mode, ChatGPT and everything – has made PR more important, but also more integrated."

If you look at search, the citations come from media. It is a mix of earned, social and owned. In the same way, the marketing and comms roles inside companies will get integrated. Comms used to sit under marketing, then it became a separate function. Now, because of AI and how much earned and organic media matters beyond paid, this integration is inevitable.

Paarul Chand: Family businesses seem to be the target for every independent firm. You are not the first founder to tell me they are crucial for growth. What is the attraction?

Aman Dhall: Family businesses are much faster in decision-making than a typical corporate. And they are the foundation of any economy – the manufacturers, the exporters. There is so much they can do from a reputation and brand perspective.

They are highly driven by business outcomes: if I spend 100, what return do I get? Usually they wake up two to three years before an IPO, because it is a very new journey for them. We want to come in not just before the IPO but even before that.

We have a very different model. We have invested in certain startups and backed them in the early stages. And to SMEs and MSMEs, I want to send this message: we will invest in pre-IPO companies wherever we find a fit with our vision.

Paarul Chand: PR firms like Adfactors and Concept dominate the big IPOs. But you are looking at MSMEs going public. Is there enough depth there, and what is driving it?

Aman Dhall: A lot of SME and MSME IPOs are coming, and the numbers are only going up. Some of the firms we work with have told us they want to list in two to three years. Others wake up just six months before, because their merchant banker says some PR is mandatory.

"They ( MSMEs) have FOMO."

They see startups – which were small not long ago – commanding big valuations. The family business owners feel they are doing the real business. They are profitable, more cash-oriented, yet they are not drawing those valuations. That trigger was set by the startups that came on the scene 10 to 15 years back.

Business is also getting tougher and margins are getting thinner. They need funds to grow, to diversify, and they want the intelligence that investors bring. And while many are preparing for an SME listing, their aspiration is a mainboard IPO, because there is more public trust in it.

Paarul Chand: Industry growth has dropped below 10% for the first time. Which firms will drive the Indian PR market from here?

Aman Dhall: There is a clear trend. Marketing firms will add their own PR verticals. PR firms will add more marketing. It is going to become integrated. The firms that evolve will grow. The ones that don't will survive for a while, but eventually they will die or sell out.

A lot of digital and brand marketing firms have already added PR, but there is still a lack of experience of what PR can achieve for a brand, and of how much freedom to give a PR professional in building one.

"Fifteen years ago, a handful of people were heads of PR. Now everyone is a head, everyone is a lead, everyone is an award winner."

PR professionals need a much deeper understanding of business. Unfortunately they don't get that exposure, because they are treated as execution partners. Real impact is taking a brand to the next level and showing what that did for the business.

Paarul Chand: Value360 and Liquid Asia have gone for IPOs, and The Practice and OnPurpose have taken private investment. None have sold to networks. How would you scale CommsCredible?

Aman Dhall: I don't have all the answers right now. Maybe in two years I will. But one thing is for sure: a sustainable scale-up is not easy in this market. You can fill in revenues, but what is your USP?

Adfactors and Concept have made a name for themselves – everyone knows that if an IPO happens, it most likely goes to one of them. That is the kind of USP you need to scale up sustainably. Otherwise you will keep getting business and growing aggressively, but if you want to go to the capital markets and raise funds, you will find it difficult.

"Numbers are always important. And that's where there is always a struggle in the mind of a founder."

We are willing to compromise a little on numbers if it helps fulfil the long-term ambition. For us, the next two years are about evolution: becoming a focused partner for startups and family businesses, and building deeper solutions for them.

Quickfire Round

Paarul Chand: What was your first salary, and what did you spend it on?

Aman Dhall: I earned something like ₹6,500 or ₹7,000 as my first salary in journalism. I think my first spend must have been a samosa party for my friends. My first consulting project, back in 2011, paid ₹35,000 – and I was still a bachelor, so that must have gone on samosas too.

"When I got into comms, I was still repaying my education loan. Whatever I earned, I just wanted to repay that loan."

Paarul Chand: One cricketer with great PR, and one who could use your help?

Aman Dhall: Virat Kohli has fantastic PR, and so does Rohit Sharma, because who they are on screen is who they are off it. That helps a lot.

The worst right now is Gautam Gambhir. He once said Yuvraj Singh needed good PR, when nobody doubts what Yuvraj did for us in the 2007 and 2011 World Cups. Looking at his stint as coach, I think he can do far better in his public statements. And maybe he can smile a bit when he is sitting and watching his players.

Paarul Chand: Which athlete from the Asian Games would you love to work with?

Aman Dhall: All the non-cricket athletes, to be fair. Nobody is looking at their business positioning. We keep telling the same story: they struggled, they never got help, they come from a poor or middle-class background, they won a medal – done. There are many more stories that could make them influencers, celebrities, aspirational for brands. That is not happening at all.

"If you're good-looking – and I'm saying this on record – you might get some endorsements. Even if your achievements are the same, if you're not, brands are turned off. That's the harsh reality."

Brands give very little money and go for the tried and tested. I always say: rather than giving a ₹50,000 scholarship to 500 people, give more money to 50. It is always about one story, one medal, one pivot. If you are carpet-bombing, it is not about incentivising anything.