Why Mobile Space is more powerful than Print and Television Media

As in other parts of the world, media consumption in India has shifted decisively online, with 375,000,000 Internet users in 2015, or 30% of the population. Meanwhile, more than 50% of the population owns a mobile phone and around a third of these own a smartphone. Newspaper and magazine print circulation has been declining steadily for over the last six years.

Image courtesy: Google

In the next 5-7 years, when mobiles will fully overtake laptops and desktops in the access of the internet, there will be a great shuffle in the media order. Mobile Space will be the No.1 media. Internet on desktops, tablets and laptops will come at No.2. Television will come at No.3. Print and Radio will compete with each other for Nos. 4 and 5.

Image courtesy: Google

This order with Mobile Space as No.1 may come as a surprise to many. But please understand that Print Media can converge on to the Net with their Online websites and E-papers. Television can converge on the Net with live broadcasts and YouTube video capsules. Radio can converge on the Net with broadband and podcast capsules. And finally the Net converges onto your Mobile phone, which makes the Mobile Space the most powerful media... even more powerful than Television, Print, Radio and regular Online media.

About the Author:

Dale Bhagwagar is a PR specialist with branding, image consultancy, strategizing, media manipulation, crisis management and mentorship for media students. He has handled the publicity for more than 150 Bollywood actors and 30 movies, apart from being a spokesperson and publicist to 20 Bigg Boss contestants.

It’s never too late to be great

I remember each and every word of the opening sequence in the movie ‘Troy’ (it inspired me a lot). It goes – “Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity and so we ask ourselves, will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we're gone and wonder who we were? How bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved…” So true! Just like the great Napoléon Bonaparte once stated, “Immortality is the recollection one leaves.” Last but not the least, a quote by Daniel J. Boorstin – “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.”

Turn down the downturn

I’m often asked if good PR can really help in times of downturn. My answer is… when trading is difficult, advertising and marketing budgets are the first to be slashed. PR is the cheaper option to advertising. Moreover, getting attention is getting money. As they say, ‘Jo dikhta hai, woh bikta hai’. The clever ones could enhance visibility to tide over the recession.

Secure return on investment

So what kind of PR could actors and makers do that would add to their image and brand? The number one objective for your publicist is to plan and position you as a stronger brand than before. Whether you are big or on the verge of making it to the top – whether you are looking at a personal PR exercise or film branding – the right kind of planned media coverage is going to help. This, in turn, will be helpful in securing return on investment, which is invaluable.

PR is cost-effective

Many argue that advertising achieves similar results to a PR exercise. Yes, somewhat. But don’t forget that consumers have always relied and believed more in the written word, like articles and snippets, than on advertising. Also, advertising campaigns cost a lot more than PR campaigns.

Smart PR is the cost-effective way to get your message across to the relevant audience. And everyone needs to manage their reputation in front of their target audience. Realising all this, a lot of advertising and marketing agencies have now launched PR divisions. Yes, PR, advertising and marketing combined, do make a better impact, but for obvious monetary reasons, PR is taking the lead now.

And Bollywood is already taking the PR route to get their message across. We know of so many prominent actors who are strategizing to ‘consolidate’ their position in the industry, while their competitors are thinking of ‘survival’ during recession.

Consolidate your brand

The question is, does it make sense to wait for things to get better, or the market to improve? If you ask me, I’d say, it never makes sense to wait for anything. It’s better to get going, pump up your PR and actively market yourself. For those who do, the field will be relatively open at such a crucial time. I would say, this is ‘the’ time for some neat brand consolidation. So don’t wait for recession to end. Start stamping your brand.

‘Amitabh Bachchan ran away with Rekha!…’

Media has always been about great and shocking headlines. ‘Amitabh Bachchan ran away with Rekha!’ will always make a better headline than ‘Laloo Prasad ran away with a train!’

Let me tell you a PR secret of mine. When chalking out news angles, story ideas and planning gossip pegs for my clients, I always think in headlines. Then, the text just follows and fits into place. It’s simple logic. If the headline catches your reader’s attention (like this one caught yours), more than half your battle is won. The rest of it depends on how gripping the content and adjoining picture is.

Photographs speak for themselves. A good picture will get better placements, while an ordinary one could get the best of story ideas dropped. If your publicist gets this combo right, national mileage can be cakewalk for you or your movie. A good PR will always brainstorm and then guide you with smart headlines.

PRs are often labelled ‘spin doctors’ because of their ability to turn, twist, tweak and spin write-ups in a way which suits and benefits their clients. I do this all the time. Though, since I have a journalistic background (I was a scribe for eight years before I turned PR 12 years ago), my conscience makes sure I draw a line of correctness and ethics even while I deal with gossip, spice and sensationalism; elements that today’s market-driven media seeks in abundance.

I have handled PR for Priyanka Chopra in her initial days, when she was surrounded by controversies. Later, I took care of Shilpa Shetty’s publicity and endeavoured to brand her as ‘the diva in news 24/7’ during the most spectacular five years of her career. This was through the thick and thin of the Celebrity Big Brother controversy, followed by the Richard Gere pecks controversy and many many many more. I used media help to build and propel newbie Sherlyn Chopra into the bold, shocking and outrageous brand that she is now known to be. Some time ago, I was hired by The Man magazine to put out all the gossip about the now-famous Neetu Chandra male-fantasy photo-shoot. The news-hammering probably got Neetu more national media mileage than the pre-release hype of her films. Please note that I am not bragging here, but trying to make a point that I achieved all this, simply by making some striking and hard-hitting headlines for the press releases and articles about my clients.

Some time ago a popular website termed me the “King of Spin”. Around the same time, the Live India television channel alleged that I create Controversy Queens out of my actress clients. To tell you the truth, I am no king – I’m just a PR who has mastered the art of playing with headlines. And if that makes me a Controversy Queen-maker, I don’t really mind the tag. Cause I am just doing my job.

If you have your publicist think in headlines too, you can be bang-on with our gossip-hungry media. You too can achieve national headlines and Breaking News for yourself and your products.

Making dreams come true!

This week, there was an unusual mail I received. A reader asked me a strange question – ‘Why PR? Why is there a need for a thing like this and why do we need to know about it?’ Today’s piece explains just that. Why do you need to read up on PR, imaging, branding or crisis management? That might just be the question popping in your minds too.

We are living in a world where perception is reality. For better or for worse, not many are bothered about what the reality is. Most people believe in all the news and gossip they read in the papers or see on television. They CHOOSE to believe all of the written word. Though reality might be different. But most readers, viewers, surfers and listeners (and you are well aware that this figure runs into lakhs and crores) are not interested in reality as much as they are in glamour and spice.

Who is it that forms these perceptions and helps make opinions. Obviously, the papers, the TV channels, the various websites, social media and the FM stations. And who is it that influences the journalists, TV hosts and anchors, RJ’s and web writers the best? It is the publicists. It’s the daily job of a publicist to reach out, convince the media to cover his clients in a certain way and influence the perceptions of the fourth estate. He does this, so that the write-ups and reports reflect his client’s sentiments, requirements and needs.

For a good publicist, communication is a daily commitment, not a monthly ritual. He dedicates his life and times to communication and his clients. He helps make dreams come true. That’s why, I often say, from what a PR gets, he might make a living. But from what a PR gives, he might make a life.

Use Facebook as a powerful business tool

Though I am a very net-savvy person, I’ve been a latecomer on Facebook (FB). I’ve been neck-deep into Blogs, Wikipedia, IMDB, Google Videos, YouTube, G-chat and even into SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) for my clients. But I joined Facebook only four months ago, after my close friend and journalist Noyon Jyoti Parasara coaxed me into it.

After padding my account by inviting hundreds of ‘friends’ to join me, I realised that Facebook could be used as a powerful business tool, simply because almost 25-30 percent of Bollywood is on it… many hooked to it.

And then the magic happened for me. I casually chatted with an actress on the site, exchanged numbers, met her and turned her into a client within four days of the chat.

This meant EXTRA income for me… income which was added purely because of Facebook. From that day, I began taking the site seriously, updating regular posts and links, pics and videos, chatting and adding more and more ‘friends’ to my list.

Meanwhile, another of my closest journalist friends Pavithra Selvam put me on to a guy called Kiran Pillai who also specialised in Social Media. Kiran looked like a shy simpleton when he met me. He took a briefing from me, bounced off a couple of ideas to improve the look of my FB account and met me for a second meeting loaded with more ideas to improve my overall social media standing.

To my surprise, Kiran began discussing what he termed “Brand Dale”. Ah… now now!! I specialise in creating and building brands and influencing media and public opinion. And this guy was talking about building ‘my’ brand. He caught my interest. Since I felt he made a lot of sense, I took him on as my ‘Social Media Publicist’. My friends haven’t stopped pulling my leg since then. “A publicist for a publicist, eh?”, they joke.

Within no time, Kiran completely transformed my FB account into one of the well-packaged ones in media. Today, after just four months of being on Facebook, I have many nice people from Bollywood on my ‘friend list’ and I’m talking serious business with a few (some of them might be reading this too and smiling). My new-found ‘publicist’ (wink) even helped me design a section where he incorporated my entire PR Agency Blog on my Facebook account. So now, every time I update my PR clients’ Press Releases and images on the Blog, the additions automatically get updated on Facebook. Isn’t that cool?

My Facebook account has now turned into a full-fledged business tool for my PR agency Dale Bhagwagar Media Group and on an average, I receive 2-3 extra offers for work every day. Being ‘selective’ has a whole new meaning for me now. And the same could be for you too. Check me out on www.facebook.com/dalebhagwagar and let me know what you think of my account.

Media is being unfair to Yash Raj… but the fault lies within

Yash Raj Films (YRF) is no longer a banner – it’s an empire. Mentioning some of its films here would almost be belittling the force that YRF has been since 1970. So it pains me to see the media play games with a super-reputed brand like this. Sorry to say, Yash Raj doesn’t play the media anymore, at least not like it used to. Now, YRF is being ‘viewed’ to try too hard to sustain its reputation.

So review after review, write-up after write-up, why is the media being ruthless to a brand which has given us mega-hits since four decades? Isn’t this critical onslaught unfair to a success story that has been legendary? Let’s go right to the roots.

From my little 23 years of experience in media, first as a journalist for 11 years (since my school days) and later as a PR for 12 years, as I see it, there are various factors. But I’ll tackle the most noteworthy ones here. To start with, I should mention a line which a prominent journalist wrote in Mumbai Mirror the other day… “Success breeds respect, success breeds love.”

These words hold true for almost every product, organisation and celebrity today, when brands are being stamped with ‘success’ and ‘failure’ by the over-enthusiastic media, waiting to pronounce ‘judgement’ all the time. And we all know that YRF’s hit-parade has slowed down off late.

There’s another side to it, which Yash Raj doesn’t seem to have realised yet. And that is the PR side of things. We are living in a world where perception is reality. Smart PRs are great perception builders. They mould, make, break and remake images. They play with minds in the fourth estate, shape opinions, influence write-ups… with focus and an octopus approach… things that ultimately result in changing the outlook of society. Today, YRF needs that kind of PR.

As much as the empire needs to strike back with hits, it needs that ‘correct’ PR push and re-imaging… which many in my profession term a ‘makeover’. And all this with subtle manipulation… cause no man ever likes to be manipulated when it is obvious.

What I’m going to say next might sound a bit bitter, but the fact is, that the empire has mismanaged its PR in the last 4 years. Apparently, some of the people who worked in their internal PR department are said to have given so much attitude to the media in the last few years, that even after they have left the company, the ‘attitude’ tag is unshakeable. One simple way to break this impression and break it hard, would be to shift the control and outsource PR for some time, before reverting to an internal PR department again.

Yash Raj is Yash Raj, a pioneer among pioneers in Bollywood. I guess, we all know from within, that this is just a temporary low, till the empire strikes back with a huge hit, and success starts breeding love and respect once again. But yes, this time round, it will matter more than any other time, how YRF handles the media; the PR side of things. At the cost of repetition, I reiterate one of my favourite lines… we are living in a world where perception is reality.