PR trends in Pakistan

Omar Manzur is working with Mobilink as Director Public Relations. MORE magazine had this opportunity to talk about the art of dealing with media in Pakistan.

Is it true that PR department can enhance the company’s image better than traditional ads and campaigns?

The Public Relations department is the face and voice of the company in front of the media. It is how we interact with them, respond to them and facilitate them in their reporting that the media talks about us. The media is the most powerful tool when it comes to image building due to its reach and it is a globally acknowledged fact that third party

Omar Manzur, Director Public Relations, Mobilink

endorsements are more impactful and credible than traditional marketing methods. So in essence yes, the PR representatives can really make a difference. This is precisely why the PR department at Mobilink plays a key role in strategic management and communicating that direction to key stakeholders through relevant mechanisms. Our efforts are geared towards enhancing the corporate image of Mobilink, which enjoys a very positive and strong reputation currently.

What is the current definition of PR in Pakistan, how important this department is in the current time?

The leading companies in Pakistan are practicing public relations in accordance with international best practices. Globally, managing the flow of information between an organization and its audience is dubbed as the main objective of PR.

Over the years, companies in Pakistan have started paying special attention to Public Relations. You can see the impact of this focus reflected in the growth of the affiliated industries such as PR agencies, press monitoring agencies and more recently, dedicated event management companies. However, to be fair, the local PR industry is still in its infancy especially in terms of the tools used.

Another important factor that will play a positive role in making PR discipline more effective and prominent in Pakistan is the tremendous boom in our media industry. This has given rise to unprecedented opportunities for companies to enhance their corporate image, brand equity and goodwill through PR activities.

What are the key PR norms globally?

If I were to put my pulse on the global norms, I would say that word of mouth is still the way it is done. The objectives remain the same; the technique has changed immensely. Currently there is a lot of buzz on the digital media and we see more individual publishing, that is, blogging and social networking. This is primarily because the leading markets needed alternate channels to break from the information overload that took place during the last few years. People were literally bombarded with advertisements from multiple and countless channels.

Today communication is more personalized and interactive. There is a lot of effort put into measuring impact and taking a more targeted approach that is highly segmented. Fortunately for us, we can learn from their successes and mistakes and evolve in a way suitable to the Pakistani market.

What are the key PR tactics that are commonly used in Pakistan?

Before I answer this question, let me just state that there are three types of companies in Pakistan – ones that don’t engage in PR; ones that are actively involved and then there are companies that indulge in what they think is PR.

Speaking for companies that really and truly do engage in PR work over a broad spectrum of areas that includes corporate communication and image building through press statements, events, interviews and speaking engagements; stakeholder mapping and relationship management; strategic and crisis management as well as media relations. A very important factor is also measuring the success of PR activities as well as constantly seeking to identify and leverage local media trends and engage in new media.

What should the media – agency – client relationship look like? How does it look like in Pakistan?

The strength of the agency-client and agency-media relationship really determines the overall relationship which should ideally be built upon credibility, sincerity and maturity. In Pakistan, it is at a median curve – still growing with mutual understanding and trust.

In the best case scenario, the agency should act as an extension of the client’s enterprise and the media should accept it as such. The client in turn should have the comfort to rely on the agency for strategic and valuable inputs including shifts in public opinion, implications of projected policies and other elements in the larger picture.

Who should media approach for comments?

There are two sides to every story and sometimes even more. The responsibility of presenting a balanced view lies with the media. This is something they owe to their readers and audience. When official comment is sought and included this also helps boost the credibility of the news piece.

Any company with a well established PR department is likely to maintain a Press Center or Media enquiries page on their official website that contains the spokesperson details and contact information. We maintain the email address media.relations@mobilink.net for example for all queries and this is clearly mentioned on our website’s Media Centre section (http://www.mobilinkgsm.com/about/media.php). There is also usually an officially designated spokesperson of the company. In Mobilink’s case this would be me as the Director Public Relations. For other companies this might be Head of External Relations, Corporate Communications or Public Affairs Manager and so on. When there is no such rep listed, one can always contact the Head of Marketing for the company’s official version. PR agency contacts usually maintain more than one client portfolio and hence can always come in handy when it comes to attaining such information.

What happens when an incorrect story is filed or media behaves unethically?

Fortunately, with the tremendous growth in print and electronic media, the ethics and standard of reporting has also improved significantly. Yet, sometimes it does happen that an incorrect story is filed in print or electronic media. This may be unintentional on account of poor research or pure error such as a misplaced decimal or digit. In either case, it has tremendous capability to damage the image of the company as well as create legal and financial ramifications if this is related to financial performance, ratings etc. In such cases, organization’s first response would be to seek out the source of the story and share the correct version. Depending on implications, there is usually a need for a clarification or rebuttal to present actual and factual information. Retractions do not look good on the media’s part and hence, it is best that caution is exercised early on.

Where does a social / digital medium fall in the local PR grid?

The social media has arrived in a big way. Being a two-way communication channel social media has brought some revolutionary changes in PR and how one goes about it. That said, the importance of the web cannot be neglected. At Mobilink, PR department owns the responsibility for web strategy development relative to blogging, pod casting or RSS, social search, social networking, microblogging and, to some extent, web content management. The online media is no longer a peripheral medium but rather a core discipline to be maintained by a dedicated resource. Mobilink, for instance, actively shares information to engage digital media.

Mobilink’s take on PR and how they approach it?

PR is an essential ingredient in our recipe of an effective and successful external communication initiative. We work closely with our agency to integrate our core communication values and thus are able to mitigate PR challenges progressively.  We respect the Media and all its forms and commitments and try our best to create a positive win-win approach so that together we can meet our respective organizational objectives. This we do through interactive dialogues, media relationing including meet-ups and trainings etc for the trade and business media.  Mobilink has one of the oldest and strongest PR teams in the country and is recognized as a trendsetter in this sector.

This interview has been published in the August 2010 edition of MORE Magazine. Digital copy can be downloaded from this archive (MORE Magazine Archive)

Tags: Interview, Mobilink