Name – Apoorva Yadav

Industry Internship Report

Public Relations Agency

City - Lucknow

A report on

Public Relations Advisory & Brand Management Agency

At

Kaivalya Communication

PrefaceCurrently, I am completing a Bachelor`s degree in Media & Communication at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communications in Pune. I am in my second year and therefore I had to undertake an industry specific internship. After doing my previous internships in cities like Pune, Delhi and Raipur (my hometown), I wanted to experience the functioning of corporate agencies in completely new non-metro city where more than half of India`s population resides. I searched for places like Indore, Lucknow, Ahmadabad, Chandigarh and destiny had to bring me to a place where an eclectic mix of culture and corruption, traditions and tyranny, struggle for success and scorching heat, Nawabi food and Non-tolerance among its people co-exists – Lucknow, the capital of India`s most populous and powerful state Uttar Pradesh.

The reasons due to which I chose my internship in Uttar Pradesh were driven by various thoughts and facts that I kept in mind before my internship placement. “It is better to learn to walk before you learn to run” goes the wise saying and has really proven it`s worth. Instead of starting my first industry internship in the top 5 PR agencies like Ogilvy, Adfactors, JWT, etc…to name a few or in the Corporate Communications Department of a Multinational Giant like the Tata or the Aditya Birla Group, I chose an upcoming national player - Kaivalya and for the good. One of the major reasons why I opted for this Uttar Pradesh in particular, was due to its cultural heritage and unique ability to inhabit diverse cultures in one singular landmass. Secondly, Uttar Pradesh is the hot bed for politics and investigative journalism both of which are strongly linked to building a reliable and effective Public Relations network within the community circle.

I believe that you can gain maximum benefit from people`s experience and knowledge when they are more approachable and patient while guiding you in your work and I was more than fortunate to have such guides during my brief tenure at Kaivalya.

This industry internship is also a kaleidoscope of the way Uttar Pradesh as a state perceives Public Relations as a profession. I realized while working in Lucknow that there is a tremendous untapped potential in the city to utilize PR for its advantage as far as tourism and BTL programs for promotions of products is concerned. It was also an observation that I made within the youth while exploring the city that there is a growing bent of mind towards the way their life is affected by media.

In this internship report I will give details of my experiences during my internship period. The report includes an overview of the internship agency and the activities, tasks and projects that I have worked on during my internship. Writing this report, I will also describe and reflect my learning objects and personal goals that I have set during my internship period.

Acknowledgement

Penning down my thoughts I must say that the success of this internship has been possible due to the combined efforts of a lot of people. It is because of the efforts of Prof. Anupam Siddhartha, Director, Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communications, Pune, to impart us maximum industry experience that this internship came into being in the first place. I have to thank Prof. Tarun Ghosh, our Internship Coordinator and mentor who guided us from the start to the end of our internship. I also want to thank my Placement cell for providing me such a valuable agency for my internship.

I cannot thank enough my internship senior Aditi mam, Arushi mam, Tripti, Amir Sir, Vineet Sir, Tarun Sir and our company MD; Vishal Sir for supporting me all the way through my internship and teaching me the details involved in the PR world and even guided me the nuances of relationship building at a professional level.

All my friends and family member are an integral part of my support system. Without their blessings and wishes I could have never been able to make it up to this level of knowledge and experience.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….6

1.1 Introduction to Public Relations……………………………………………7

1.2 About Kaivalya Communications………………………………………….12

2. My Work Profile………………………………………………………………..14

3. Recommendations………………………………………………………………18

4. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….19

5. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..20

An Introduction to Public RelationsThe Chartered Institute of Public Relations definition of public relations:

Public relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behavior. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its publics.

In the present day media-saturated culture, effective PR plays a vital role in any public undertaking. Image and public opinion means everything, especially due to the increasingly influential realm of media and communication. To win the trust of the people, one has to survive and win in the stiffly competitive media race.

Public relations, is basically the art and science of presenting the best possible image of people, governments and organizations. Working behind the scenes PR professionals, send press releases, court journalists, research on public interest and analyze their opinion to position their clients as influential role models, ethical businessmen, duty bound public officials, or at the very least, not criminals. It is sometimes difficult to judge public relations apart from advertising. Public Relations focuses on building an image and advertisers strive to sell a product or service. Marketing and PR are comparatively more related. Marketing uses research and targeted communication message and medium to achieve a

desired action while professionals working in the field of public relations make continuous efforts to gain unpaid publicity by writing newspaper articles or through TV news segments. A basic definition of public relations is to shape and sustain the reputation of a firm, institution or an individual in front of the client's various "publics." Now, the question arises of what is a "public"? A public is someone who ever had or ever will form an opinion in the future about the client and his product or service offerings.

In the arena of Public Relations, these “publics” vary depending on the kind of work done by client. Though the list involves uncountable number of targeted public group, the most important ones include potential clients, members of media fraternity, members of local community, students and their parents, NGO`s, online fan groups, voters, NRI citizens etc… the list is simply endless.

The success of any Public relations campaign requires an in-depth study and understanding of the interests and problems of each of the client's many publics, be it small or big. The public relations professional must know the technique of effectively addressing those problems and concerns using the most powerful weapon of the PR trade: strong Publicity.

Entrepreneur.com defines PR simply in terms of publicity work, describing it as "Using the news or business press to carry positive stories about your company or your products; cultivating a good relationship with local press representatives" [source: Entrepreneur.com] 1*. In several cases, the main duty of the public relations professional is to draft press releases, which are sent to targeted members of various media channels. However by restricting the scope of public relations definition to publicity alone would be to undermine the augmenting influence and reach of PR.

For instance, "public diplomacy," a branch of government public relations is shaping the image and repute of a nation in the eyes of both traditional allies and enemy states for the purpose of international trade, rights, defense and security and even cultural exchanges in innumerable incidents.

Nowadays, the task of public relations professional is no more restricted to desk job faxing or mailing out press releases but the horizon of work has widened to a much bigger picture. All the more, the Public Relations Officer acts as the public face on behalf of the client. Now the duty of a PR person is to organize and increase the social outreach and volunteer programs for its clients. It is the work of the PR representative to cultivate and grow relationships with the client`s potential investors and media persons. This process many a times also involves creating communication channels with other target “publics” in order to create a more effective publicity campaign. And it's the PR executive who owes the responsibility to attend the TV news program to answer the tough questions during interviews.

The history of PR dates back to a time when Public relations made an entry with the growth and development of various forms of mass media. With the arrival of the 20th century, a slow but steady public dissent stirred up against the ruling powerful monopolies and affluent industrialists by the so called "muckraking" journalists. Earlier public relations agencies combated the bad press by creating positive stories about their clients in several newspapers.

Now known as the father of Public Relations all over the world, Ivy Lee, a Former journalist, used the first press releases to give away newspapers "the facts" about his misinterpreted clients, namely the railroad and tobacco industries, and J.D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil in front of public and the media.

Lee and company became a marvelous example of whitewashing even the darkest corporate sins so much so that Public Relations professionals earned the image as "spin doctors."

A lot of time has passed away since the days of Lee but now to label today's professionals in this field as dishonest or dubious individuals would mean to ignore how pervasive and integral their work has become to people and organizations of all types and sizes. In today`s context, not just profit earning big business and government but even upcoming artists, small business ventures, activists, authors, politicians, non-profit organizations and even

places come under the circle of public relations. As rightly said by Daniel J. Boorstin:

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.

The media industry just like any other sector works as a whole component which involves Journalism, Public Relations, Advertising and Audio Visual Creations. No component can solely flourish on its own. The major task that is to be done by Public Relations professional is to carefully select the component that he or she can use to bring the maximum positive output for the client. This specifically goes for dealing with journalists. As one of the key work to obtain free publicity for the client is to draft press releases and send it to newspaper agencies for publishing it. He or she has to formulate a story angle which innovative and fresh in idea and still compelling enough for the journalist to make it clear why his clients service or product or even personal history for that matter is important to be read by the readers. Be it newspaper, radio stations or Television, stories that consists of a “human interest” angle in them always have an edge over a normal release. One should always remember that PR is an unpaid form of creating publicity. So, if the journalists are not paid for writing or publishing stories that will add to the goodwill of our clients, why will they ever publish one? The answer lays in this that PR professionals spend a lot of time cultivating relationships with journalists of newspaper agencies, radio and television for this purpose. One way to do this is by researching which journalists writes on which beat. What they know about the client's industry or personal interests. A PR professional may contact the journalist to find out more information about the kinds of stories or articles he or she looks for and how he or she likes to receive a story pitch. A journalist will be much more willing to read a press release that has something new to offer, is timely, is from a recognizable source and targeted specifically to his or her field interests.

Another main job of a public relations person is to draft a press kit. The importance of a press kit or media kit can be estimated from this that journalists generally ask for this after a press

release is issued in which everything that the journalist needs to understand about the client`s work and profile is mentioned. People working in the Public Relations field are regarded as the experts in the subject of media relations. They're often invited to train employees on how to effectively communicate with the media, specifically during print or Television interviews.

It is the duty of the public relations department to organize and hold press conference for the client, when appropriate. The motive of the press conference should be to attract journalists to showcase some unique features, experience, exciting events and important officials on time during the entire function. A press conference is the key for the professional to open up new avenues, media contacts and build long-term relations with journalists for its clients. This relationship building effort promises the increased scope of journalists to write feature articles or stories including your client.

One more integral part of Public Relations is how quickly and effectively one can handle a crisis and lower the damage it brings to the client. Crisis Management thus is an inevitable part of the PR industry. There can be various causes why a crisis can occur. It may be due to some natural disasters, a technical failure within the company, some human error or a wrongdoing of the Executive and any legal issues that the company faces. It is during this time that the need for an official spokesperson of the company is felt the most. Instead of showing a rude, insensitive or an unfavorable behavior it is wise to ask for a public apology which will take a company long way to heal wounds of its damaged reputation. It is also during this time that the relations developed by the PR professional with the press walk on a litmus test.

Above mentioned were some key aspects of PR industry and I in my internship have tried to gain the most from all the above fields of this sector and will discuss in detail in my report.

About Kaivalya Communications2*Kaivalya Communications is a full-service public relations advisory with domain expertise in the Healthcare, Telecom, Beverages, Education, Real Estate, Banking etc. Their mission is to provide result oriented PR services to their clients that help them achieve their strategic communication objectives.

They are dedicated to their clients, ethical and responsible in their practices and passionate about the work they do. They develop and deliver public relations programme that have a ‘real measurable impact’ in enabling their client`s business.

Founded by a young and energetic group of people, Kaivalya Communication aims to give best and expert Public Relation services. The team has a work experience of various media sector like Print, Broadcast, advertising etc. which helps them in suggesting their clients what is the best for them. At Kaivalya Communication, they believe that Public Relations is the best way for enhancing brand visibility, image and value. They focus on quality and long term strategies enabling clients to generate ongoing, targeted press coverage that positively affect their overall business. The agency has a fresh and dynamic approach to PR which helps them design innovative concepts. They listen to the client`s need, gain insight, develop strategies and focus on its impeccable execution to exceed the client`s expectations. They believe that our

client`s image and reputation is foremost for their company growth and therefore their dedication and hard work towards it acts as a foundation for their dream to be the top most PR agency of India. They render their services across India with the presence of its team in Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, New Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana.

Kaivalya Communication is known for implementing creative and customized public relations programs designed to impact client`s specific business goals and objectives. Their services include:

Crisis Management : It can take years to build an organization`s corporate reputation, and only minutes to tear it down. When crisis occurs, Kaivalya Communication provides their clients the necessary crisis management. They aid the client to put the right spin on the situation, intervene with the press as needed, and protect the company`s image.

Their team experts, who have handled several corporate crisis, develops a comprehensive crisis planning and communications programme to prepare your company to give right crisis response.

Media Tour : In order to build stronger relationships with Journalists they plan tours and organize series of meetings for the client in selected cities.

Media Relations : Executing high-impact media exposure on local and national level based on in-depth understanding of client goals and positioning and extensive media contacts and relationships.

Writing Services : The agency understands how to differentiate their clients from their competitors, and how to craft a message to maximize placement opportunities and create a great buzz for the brand. Writing services will include creation of press kit, press releases, industrial stories and by line articles for the client.

Celebrity PR : The agency helps in correctly position the celebrity in public, manage the media and make sure that the celebrity does not get into any kind of controversy.

Press Conference : They organize press conference for our clients during new launches, product showcasing etc. They target only that media form which generates maximum press coverage.

Press Briefings : They also organize press briefings for their clients for any major announcements such as major change in the business direction etc.

One on One : One on One interactions with the journalists for feature stories, issue/trend based stories etc as per the requirement of the client.

Media Monitoring Report : They conduct company, competitor and industry specific media tracking on daily basis.

[Source – Kaivalya communication website: www.kaivalyapr.com]

My Work ProfileWhile joining the agency, I had one basic aim in my mind that I wanted to understand the functioning of an entire PR agency and not restrict myself to one specific department. As it was my first industry internship, I was excited and apprehensive at the same time regarding my office environment and the way I would be perceived by other employees. But all my apprehensions never came into being as I was fortunate enough to work under the direct mentorship of our Managing Director; Vishal Sir who was not only kind and knowledgeable but also knew how to teach a trainee the nuances of an internship program which I experienced the first time.

During my first day of joining itself I was treated as an active member of Kaivalya which made me give my best performance every time I took a task. On the first week of my internship I was assisting employees in Client Servicing department wherein we had to prepare daily reports for each of our clients and send it to them before lunch. Under Client Servicing, I was initially asked to scan and edit the newspaper cutting which were related to our clients or their competitors. After which my senior, Aditi mam made reports by seeing these cuttings and sent daily updated reports on the industry.

I was fortunate enough that I also got the opportunity of main desk job of preparing client reports and sending it directly to them in the second week. In the second week, I took up the task of Newspaper Tracking under which one has to read the newspaper thoroughly and track relative news for the client or its competitors. The following is the list of news papers that I used to track every day before sending media reports:

1. Business Standard (English)2. Business Standard (Hindi)3. The Times of India4. The Financial Express5. The Economic Times6. The Hindu7. The Indian Express8. The Pioneer9. The Hindustan Times10. Amar Ujala11. Dainik Jagran12. Rashtriya Sahara13. I-Next

Initially, my speed of tracking newspapers was very slow and I could track only 4-5 papers in an hour. Realizing my weakness I began reading all the newspaper articles much faster and till the time I finished my internship I could track all the above thirteen papers within the time limit of an hour, which for me is my personal achievement.

Later on when all the newspapers were tracked I used to scan and edit those articles from the newspaper. After this we had the task of checking the office mail id and collect scans of articles from other cities where news about our clients or their competitor were published. Following is the list of the eight cities apart from Lucknow from where daily news scans were collected:

1. Kanpur2. Varanasi3. Agra4. Meerut

5. Gorakhpur6. Dehradun7. Bareilly8. Allahabad

After taking in all the scans my next job was to compile Media Monitoring Reports for our clients and send it to them so that they remain updated with the current happenings in their industry. The clients for whom the reports were made were Airtel, Amway, Trinamool Congress, Diet Mantra – a diet consultancy firm, MeraDoctor – a doctor on call service, Dr R.K. Mishra – a plastic Surgeon, Nutrilife – supplements provider for weight gain and loss, Dr. Malaykant Singh – a Psychiatrist and DNA Bio Axis – a gene test service provider. I with my two other office employees – Tripti and Arushi Mam were in charge of making reports for these clients. In order to gain knowledge of making reports in all fields I got the opportunity to draft reports for all the clients of Kaivalya during my brief tenure in the agency.

After compiling all the reports my next task was to update the Press Release sheet of Airtel and its competitors on a daily basis which was called “ACE Sheet”. Under this ace sheet we used to measure the length and breadth of every article that we sent to Airtel in our reports. It was an important task for me because Airtel was one of our main clients and a lot of accuracy had to be involved while making an ACE sheet for them. The length and width of an article was measured and then we had to check the newspaper it was published in and the daily ad rate of that particular newspaper. From these calculations we totaled the entire amount that Airtel was benefitted from publicity and saved its marketing costs.

Next major task in any PR agency is to draft a press release which I had already discussed earlier in my first chapter of this report. Due to sufficient knowledge of speaking and writing in Hindi, I had the advantage of writing Hindi press releases for our clients. Initially I was given the task of translation of press releases from English to Hindi. My first ever translation of press release came from Airtel after which I had translated several releases for the Trinamool Congress, Meradoctor, Dietmantra, DNA Bio Axis and Amway.

By the fourth week I was adept in Client Servicing department but there were a lot more areas where I had not gained any experience at all. Media Round was one such

department. Under this department, any one of the employee from agency had to meet some journalists on weekly basis to develop and maintain effective relationships in the professional circle of media. Therefore, in the fourth week I decided to accompany my seniors to a media round at Amar Ujala office where we met a few journalists writing for business columns. The meeting lasted for half hour and it was one of a kind experience to get a chance to interact with the senior business journalists of the paper.

I also learned from my boss that Kaivalaya has official webpage on facebook and linked in and was updated after every press conference or achievement of the agency. As I had a past experience on Social Media Marketing from one of my earlier projects, I gave them my views on online publicity enhancement of the agency. I was amazed to see their response and keenness to listen to my opinions on this subject.

Apart from all this there were regular meetings held at office attended by everyone under which we had to update our boss on client status, new press releases that came and pending releases that were to be issued within a stipulated time.

During the sixth week my work involved to go on media rounds distributing press releases to newspaper agencies and prepare new releases for upcoming clients. We also organized après conference of Blue Monarch Builders in Lucknow on the inauguration of their new real estate project which was attended by all senior members of press present in Lucknow and Kanpur.

While there were several pending releases that required approval another task in hand was to organize and update the Media List. Under this list the name, contact id and phone number of all journalists of big and small newspapers were to be written in which I assisted my senior employees.

During my last day of internship it was an emotional departure from the agency and my guide & mentor, Vishal sir wished my good luck for my degree and future with warmth and joy.

RecommendationsThe industry exposure that I received during my internship will always be valuable guide for me in the future. The working environment at the agency was one of encouragement, warmth, innovation and synergy. These qualities made Kaivalya a stand apart in its sector. However like any other organization it faced a few shortfalls which I believe if improved upon can bring Kaivalya to even greater heights at the national PR stage.

The agency faced a shortage of employees due to which the workload on every person was double the times required. Only if it could convert its employment programme to meet the demands of aspiring professionals the agency could grow better.

I also felt that as a PR agency they need to improvise on Social Media Marketing skills and develop an effective online PR program for increasing awareness and publicity. I felt a need for them to improvise on their website content and visuals which always act as first impression about the company in front of the audience.

A proper way to manage the above loopholes would bring the company to unfathomable success and lead to even more publicity for Kaivalya Communication is what I deeply felt after interning there for six weeks.

ConclusionMy internship had been one of the most fruitful experiences a trainee would wish to have once in his or her lifetime. Kaivalya Communication not only gave me the experience required to face the industry competition but also gave me some really good friends and teachers that I will cherish for an entire lifetime. The amount of dedication and professionalism I saw in the employees working at the agency motivated even me to stay back willingly on certain days till late evenings and finish the given task in hand.

During the six weeks that I stayed in Lucknow also helped me to understand the mindset and functioning of a city known for its politics and hardcore journalism. One of the toughest part of this internship has been to cope up with the tight restrictions of not working late nights or travelling alone for safety reasons. Despite this I had a worthwhile learning experience from the place, its people and the culture the city of Nawabs – Lucknow had to offer. I definitely will cherish these golden days of my internship, my entire life.

Bibliography

1. Definition of PR from Entrepreneur – Source: Enterprenur.com

2. About Kaivalya Communications – Source: Kaivalayapr.com and brochure of Kaivalaya Communication

3. Lucknow Library for quotations on Public Relations.