PR made my life better, truly!

 16th March 2017    PR Insight 

Am sure all of us just about recovering from the crazy Holi weekend. In order to capture the fun spirit of Holi, we asked our PR readers about PR helped them meet their best friend, partner, husband or wife!  Here are their stories, in their own words. Kyunki bura na maan na, Holi Hai!

The PR professional and the journalist

Tanushree Pruthi and Debesh Banerjee
Relationship Status: Dating and committed

Tanushree Pruthi: “I was in the second month of my first PR job with Avian Media and working on a TV channel among other clients. I started connecting with feature journalists in various publications and that's how I came across Debesh Banerjee who was a journalist with ‘The Indian Express’ back then. I spoke to him over the phone a couple of times and he came across as a very serious journalist who is only bothered about his work but very polite to us PR people (unlike some other experiences I was having).

Within the next 10 days I had to go for my first media round and Debesh was the first journalist I ever met since I had to invite him for a press conference. We met briefly, chatted about the channel and the event and I kept trying not to notice him too much.

To my surprise, he showed up for the press conference after which we started talking a little more with every passing day. We went from coffee meetings after work to drinks after work knowing very well that at that time both of us were kind of involved with other people in our lives but we couldn't resist.

Finally, both of us realised what was going on and we had to explore what it could eventually become and the rest is history. We have been dating for over two years and are planning our wedding next year. ”

The maverick  and the lady!

Srishty Chawla and Sandeep Rao
Relationship Status: Newly weds

How we met

Srishty Chawla, PR professional & core team member, industry forum One Source
“I had just come on board this marketing communications forum called One Source.Out of the blue, one day , I get a call from an unknown number, and the person at the other end says, 'You're coming for Fontè , right?". This followed by the introduction "Hi, this is Sandeep calling on behalf of One Source". First thought in my head, "Jaan na pehchaan, mayn tera mehmaan". However, I'd seen Sandeep post and converse with members quite regularly on One Source, so while my first reaction may have had CREEP emblazoned all over it, I agreed to attend Fontè.”

“I make it to the venue and find a madman in a waistcoat chitchatting with everyone. I give in to what he calls my incandescent madness, and is now my husband.”

My love story was like a PR campaign: Take notes!
Sandeep Rao, PR professional and founder member, One Source 
I'd like to do this bit as a case study for all ye bachelors out there in PR:

Problem Statement
30-year old workaholic refuses to get married. Family and work are worship, temple and all that be holy. The rest waits outside the temple near the shoe rack.

Recommendation (to my parents)
Don't worry about me. The mad woman who accepts me won't look at age or wage, she'll check for comparable levels of looniness. Plus, itna network karta hoon. She's out there somewhere. Mill jayegi

Activation
Connecting with people has always been a passion so when Fontè came along, I was looking forward to the opportunity to meet a lot of old friends and make several new ones. Cold calling led to relationship management. Relationship management led to me telling my parents (secondary stakeholders), "I waited for these many years. Now Srishty and I would like to get married in the next couple of months".

Results
We got married on the 16th of October, 2016 -  less than 8 months after we first met at Delhi Fontè on the 19th of February, 2017.
I met a person who understands my bipolar behaviour, my madness, my sudden bouts of hysterics, #HusbandDiaries and yet loves me despite all of these.

Key Learnings
First, you can't completely control the outcome of a campaign. Sometimes it can be a great hit because of factors you couldn't envision. Work on what lies within your reach and aspire for more. Always aspire for more. Not in terms of life partners, of course. I assure you, one is trouble enough :D

Second, in PR seriously consider finding your soulmate/troll mate within the community. That way when you want to pull your hair out, you have another bald person around you

The Besties!

Salony C and Ekta Sidhwa
Relationship Status : BFF

 Salony C, PR professional
“I had shifted to India to give my dreams a whole new path and opportunities. And it was just my second day in India and I got a job in a brand consultant. Now to deal with people of a different country, to gel with, have lunch with them, work with them was a very difficult task for me. But there I came across someone who would make me feel home. Her name is Ekta Sidhwa. She was there for me and by my side in everything I did. Even though we were not in the same team or worked for same clients, we still developed the bond by spending time with each other during lunch breaks, post work activities among others. And today I can with all my heart claim her to be my bestie.”

The corporate communications professional and the PR consultancy executive

Tahmeen Mehtab, assistant. manager, communications & PR, The Park Hotels and Areeb Anwar, assistant manager, Perfect Relations)
Relationship Status : Married

Tahmeen Mehtab
“It will be appropriate to say that we met for the 'First Time' twice actually. One, as classmates and the other as PR professionals. It goes back to the time of our college days. For two years, we studied together, worked on numerous assignments but the thought of dating each other never even went through our minds.It's only few months after leaving college that we realised that we were working in the same profession that is PR when we met at an event. This too we reckon as the 'First Time' for it would change our fortunes forever.”

The good friends turned life partners

Ritesh Shete and Divya Singh
Relationship Status: Newly weds

Ritesh Shete
“ We were colleagues in 20:20 MSL back in 2011 when we first got to know each other. She was based in Chennai and I was in Pune. We would often talk whenever there was some official work and really connected well in the first go and became good friends eventually. We soon realised how much we liked each other and planned to meet up. We decided to finally meet in October 2012 in Bangalore. And that you can say is where it all started ”

Divya Singh
“He made me wait at the Bangalore railway station for almost an hour. I was getting very impatient and was constantly looking at the entrance trying to get a sight of him. It was not a very good first impression he made on me. He later told me that he had reached the station much earlier and was keenly looking at me and enjoying my growing impatience. While I was extremely angry with him then, I later thought it to be very sweet of him to do that. It felt like he was watching over me:)”

The PR colleagues

Chandni and Maan
Relationship Status: Married

Chandni Mahajan:
“We met in 2014 when I joined a PR firm where my husband, Maan is still working as an account director . Initially we didn't talk at all. Only  'hi,' 'good morning' were a few words that got exchanged. After nearly 8 months, we started chatting and that happened only because of my friend who was keen on joining us and insisted me to ask  him regarding the job opening and that is how we began to talk.After that , we just exchanged msgs and no meetings or calls (we were not dating at this point). After 2 months or so, I met with an accident-a serious one. This was a blessing in disguise because only after this incident , Maan started realising what he really felt for me. When I gained consciousness , he finally declared that he is interested in marriage. Things progressed very fast and smoothly. We tied the knot in 2015.Now he is working with the same company while I am an independent PR consultant. ”

The Filmy Love Story in a PR office  

Deepti Chibber  and Abhishek Chauhan

Deepti Chibber
“ Our love story was definitely like a campaign. You meet a guy, like him and someone in the organisation likes him too. There were fights, separations and in the end we managed to be together, forever. Had this been a campaign, I would have totally named it as ‘Love conquers.'”

 

The PR pro and the performance analyst

Nicole Figueiredo , PR for Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, Sri Lanka and Israel Ministry of Tourism India at Blue Square Consultants, Mumbai & Nikhil Savio - performance analyst, Dentsu Toronto, Canada Relationship Status: Engaged

Nicole Figueredo
“This April will mark four years of my journey in the PR industry and looking back I can say that each year has brought with it varied experiences and tons of learning. While on the career front, there were media pitches, business development meetings, content creation and endless research. Like the many others, I also met Nikhil Savio at the first agency I worked with - MSLGroup.

“Through the years, our encounters progressed from being acquaintances at MSL to becoming friends at Adfactors PR and finally dating once both of us moved on from Adfactors. What's amazing and important is that we didn't ever work with each other. I think that's the reason we stuck :p”

Today, we're both in different continents, are engaged to each other and  are waiting to see how life surprises us yet again by unfolding its grand plan.”

The PR consultancy colleagues

Karishma Desai and Raunak Narayanan
Relationship Status : Married

Raunak Naryanan: Jab We Met!
“I remember this moment vividly. It was my first day at Genesis Burson-Marsteller (GBM) back in 2010 when I saw this uptown girl dressed in a saree, which was then the attire for the company’s ‘Associate Learning Programme’.

“However, the first moment I actually took notice of Karishma was this one morning. I was enjoying a cup of coffee with my colleagues on the stairs of the GBM office (Raghuvanshi mills).  A swanky car arrives at the entrance. Karishma steps out of the office, walks towards the car, opens the door, picks up a pair of footwear and goes back into the office with a smile on her face. Later I came to know that the car had come to give her a new pair of footwear and I was dumfounded! Ever since that day and till date, I jokingly call her “High Society”!”

My PyaR campaign !
Our story can easily be classified in to a typical PR campaign. Cut to the pre-launch, generating buzz to create excitement. Thanks to BBM being available to all at an economical cost, it was the rage. Our conversations continued even after I moved out of GBM, sometimes even late in the night — something I  had started looking forward to! We did meet a few times around then, but nothing out of the ordinary took place. A few months later, she was in Australia for her brother’s wedding. Me, being an owl used to be awake all night and when she logged in, I was the only one online. Perfect setting for a new brand launch, isn’t it? Target audience right in front of you waiting to engage with you!”