All About PR

In Season 3 we are introducing a special segment ' Media Shots' where we will invite strong and grounded voices from the media community to join us for a frank conversation on communication. In this special episode of All About PR we have with us Ruth Esther Dsouza who will talk to us about her 10 commandments that you need to understand to create and maintain a seamless working relationship with the media community.   Trust me this one you can hear again and again till you have all of them down to a pat.

Ruth is a media professional with 19 years of experience. She began her career with TV as an executive producer and moved to journalism as a features writer. She went independent 13 years ago. Her work has been published in Natgeo Traveller, Travel and Leisure, The Hindu, Firstpost, Al Jazeera, Quint, Huffington Post, Architectural Digest, Reader's Digest, Lifestyle Asia and Smartlife among others. Her niches are food and beverage, architecture and interiors, culture and lifestyle. She is on the jury panels for prestigious F&B Awards such as the Epicurean Guild Awards by Living Foodz Channel, Condenast Restaurant Awards, BW Hotelier Awards and The Week Restaurant Awards. Ruth is also a Google certified fake news detection trainer and conducts workshops on food writing and feature writing.

Hit play and know more about the 10 commandments you need to ace !

As the brand world, this year pushes 'sustainability' as the key buzzword ( along with 'empathy'), is the larger PR world equipped to craft this conversation beyond the special days set aside to celebrate it and push topical posts? In this episode of the podcast, we speak to Jyotsna Bhatnagar, Private Sector Partnerships Officer, UN World Food Programme India on how the communication industry can raise the game and push forward the entire discussion by starting a nuanced conversation with the brand, media and the world at large. 

Jyotsna Bhatnagar heads the private sector partnerships function at the UN World Food Programme in India. A social practitioner with nearly three decades of work experience, Jyotsna has led the Corporate Social Responsibility portfolios for several large multinational companies in India. Over her 28 years of work experience, Jyotsna has made significant contributions to social responsibility strategies and programme portfolios across a range of industries and the services sector. Each industry has contributed to her rich and vibrant learning experience.

Jyotsna has been an active member of expert groups for various Indian CSR road map development forums including those of the Government of India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs. She is also a board member of the NGO, Partners in Change. A Human Resources management postgraduate further enhanced with the World Bank Executive Program on ‘Inclusive and Sustainable Business’, Jyotsna has worked in varied environments in India, the US and UK.

Hit play and know more about how you can start the sustainability conversation with your brand and the skills you need to excel at it!  This episode is by a special arrangement with PRPOI - A space dedicated to upskilling for PR & Communication professionals. 

Season 3 - Episode 1 

In this episode, we talk to the team of PR Rockstars from Nucleus PR and trace the journey of PR, innovation, evolution to its current form along with how its interaction and perception has changed in the brand ecosystem. Chaittali Dave, Ishita Shah, Akhila R, Khushboo Alag, Vinod Reddy and Michelle Khiangte join us on this podcast to share their perspective on different aspects of the industry. 

Hit play and know more from a team that is living the change in the Indian PR Industry. 

Season 2 - Episode 12

Women in PR is a fascinating subject because there are so many conflicting forces that exist to challenge their career growth and yet PR continues to attract many women to the industry. On today’s podcast we deal with the challenge’s women in PR face at one of the most delicate phases that has the highest attrition - the mid-management level. Nandita Lakshmanan, Founder & CEO , The PRactice joins us today to share her experience and how we can address this on an individual level, in the workplace and society at large.

Nandita is a familiar and well-respected name in the PR leadership and PR entrepreneurship circles. Her views on public relations, based on 25+ years of experience, has helped shape the vision of her Firm and influenced the direction it takes to stay relevant in today’s market realities.  While she leads her firm from strength to strength collecting many awards along the way, she enjoys spending time with women who wish to return to the workforce either through resuming a career or becoming entrepreneurs. And I believe is also the perfect person for the subject we are discussing today on this podcast. 

Hit play and know more about how you can overcome the challenges at the mid-level management. This episode is by a special arrangement with PRPOI - A space dedicated to upskilling for PR & Communication professionals!

Season 2 - Episode 11

If you as a PR professional always viewed a digital agency working with your brands as a competitor or frenemy then this is your chance to understand more about digital on this episode of All About PR. This learning will help you explore a more collaborative way of working together. And really this works when you have a firm understanding of both worlds. Today on the podcast Rajni Daswani – Director Brand Experience & Employee Engagement - SoCheers takes us to the other side. She joins us to help us understand how we can work together, trace similarities between both fields and how to make that switch …just like she did !

Rajni is a multitasker and a quick learner. After different stints in various industries, she joined the leadership team of SoCheers in 2014 and quickly rose through the ranks and became a part of the core team. With 14+ years of experience in the industry, she combines her PR skills and digital insight to create meaningful brand experiences at So Cheers. Today, she oversees the client servicing on all accounts and is the troubleshooter for all her teams. She wears multiple hats and works across teams and verticals. As she does this she keeps an eye out for loopholes and challenges that need to be addressed to make work-life and output better. Rajni oversees 100+ professionals at SoCheers who look up to her for guidance. Under her leadership, the team has won several awards for their work. In just the last year, campaigns under her guidance have won more than 30 awards across categories not counting the multiple awards that she has won herself on an individual level.

Hit play and know more about how you can make the switch. This episode is by a special arrangement with PRPOI - A space dedicated to upskilling for PR & Communication professionals!

Season 2 - Episode 10

Good books on the Indian PR industry are hard to find. But we have a great find for you! Today we speak to Gayatri Rath and Paarul Chand the co-authors of A Question of Trust. A very well-written book that answers why communication has become one of the core functions of an organization and how a CEO can use it to their company’s best advantage. 

Both the authors bring over fifty years of combined experience in corporate communications and the media industry to this essential and timely handbook on communication for the CEO. It not only emphasizes why corporate communication is an integral part of any organization but also how it can be marshaled for trust-building and growing brand value, even in times of unprecedented crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Packed with data and valuable insights from global corporate communications leaders, this is a book you must read if you are a business leader looking to consolidate your brand and cultivate trust. And if you are a PR professional who is working with a business leader as well. 

Hit play and know more about why a strong communication strategy is essential for the CEO of today. 

Season 2 - Episode 9

Remember those years when PR and Startup was a new romance that had all eyes on them. As the market was just maturing along came the plot twist: 2020. This tested the resolve, confidence and reputation of start-ups and the PR teams in every way. As they raced to keep up with the several twists and turns of the storyline and just as they pivoted… the rules changed. How have they changed and what works and what doesn’t anymore? Especially in India! We take a deep dive into StartUp PR a veteran of the vertical – Kunal Kishore, Founder, Value360 Communications in this episode of All About PR. 

Kunal is a self-motivated leader and drives the organization towards excellence. He started his entrepreneurial innings with his PR venture in 2007 and has led PR campaigns for many international brands for over a decade in the industry. Proactive in championing concepts like digitization, artificial intelligence, robotics, and more Kunal envisages transforming the communication industry and bringing in a revolution in terms of the way it operates. His work on some of the Indian Unicorns since the day of their inception speaks volumes about his determination to create stories that are most heard and remembered. 

Hit play and know more about how Start-Up PR functions in India. This episode is by a special arrangement with PRPOI - A space dedicated to upskilling for PR & Communication professionals!

Season 2 - Episode 8

Political PR is not a field that we are new to in India, but it is only in the last couple of years that this vertical has gotten the recognition it deserves and has been elevated into the core group of coveted verticals. This vertical has evolved differently across the globe and we can look towards these countries to seek inspiration on how we would like to mold it in our country. We must also look closer and understand how the elevation of this vertical came about to be able to create a new benchmark in it.

Li-or Avnon, Deputy CEO & Strategic Communications Consultant, Together - Strategy ( Tel Aviv, Israel ) joins us today on the podcast to share with us how Political PR works in her country along with challenges and best practices that we can learn from.

Li-or has had a very interesting career graph. She started her media advisor career in 2006 as an Air Force spokeswoman, a position she completed with the rank of Captain. Her expertise as a military-defense, political and commercial spokeswoman, alongside management of political campaigns, give her a thorough understanding of the systems of government and regulation, and an in-depth familiarity with the worlds of media and spokesmanship. She brings with her vast experience and hundreds of test cases of media scenarios and crises in Political PR.

She holds a degree in Political Science with a major in international relations from the Open University, and an M.A in Legal Studies from Bar Ilan University. She is also currently a member of the prestigious PR Boutiques International network.

Hit play and know more about how Political PR in Israel. This episode is by a special arrangement with PRPOI - A space dedicated to upskilling for PR & Communication professionals!

Season 2 - Episode 7

While 2020 was a rough year for PR, the turmoil was felt most in the StartUp World and the PR vertical that services it. Reputations can make or break a start-up and dealing with the pandemic has not been an easy feat for most. PR teams handling startups have had to be quick to pivot with the fast-paced changes in the businesses while keeping pace with the fast-changing media landscape. So that brings about an interesting question on the startup PR rulebook? How has this changed? How have agencies pivoted to keep up with this change? 

Jeremy Foo, Founder and CEO, Elliot & Co, Singapore joins us for this podcast to share his insights on the vertical. He was a part of the PRPOI panel on startups and gave an interesting perspective from the PR industry in Singapore – a city that is often the go-to destination for startups from India when they want the international label. In this podcast, we delve deeper into how Start-Up PR has evolved and pivoted over the last decade in Singapore. 

Jeremy has been in the PR industry for more than 10 years and has worked across a spectrum of campaigns and a lot of award-winning ones in sectors spanning real estate, FMCG, healthcare, luxury, IT ,hospitality and startup. Under his leadership, his firm is now one of Singapore's fastest-growing PR agencies. His real passion lies with SMEs. Through Elliot & Co., he has served more than 500 SMEs and startups in the past 4 years. Having educated close to 1,000 SMEs on the power of public relations and with an intimate knowledge of the gaps in the SME market with regard to PR, Jeremy is leading the charge to allow brands of all sizes to attain their own cover story.

Hit play and know more about how Start-Up PR functions in Singapore. This episode is by a special arrangement with PRPOI - A space dedicated to upskilling for PR & Communication professionals!

Season 2 - Episode 6

In the role of a communicator after a certain level, you have to define your own growth and while doing that maybe have a shot at creating a completely new designation or role in the industry for yourself. While some may lament the lack of a linear progression for growth that should be provided by an organization, others might find it exciting to be in a field that lets you do that for yourself. You actually have a chance to write your own role and chart a completely new course in the field. Today we speak to an accomplished professional who has done just that.

In this podcast we host Bianca Ghose , Chief Storyteller and Head of CEO Communications  at Wipro and the Co-Chair - Asia-Pacific Association of Communication Directors' India Chapter

Bianca is a media, brand strategy, and marketing communications leader. She has had a longstanding career in news, digital communications, creative storytelling and marketing. At Wipro she leads communications and messaging for Wipro's CEO, and also leads storytelling at an enterprise level. Additionally, Bianca also serves on Wipro's Diversity Council, and runs inclusion programs that help increase diversity, and advance opportunity parity.

Prior to Wipro, Bianca has held various marketing and communications portfolios with HCL Technologies and has also done a successful stint at a PR agency. Before this she was a business news journalist for a decade, reporting and anchoring news for NDTV Television, CNBC and Reuters. Well awarded and well respected for her work across various fields this is a conversation you must listen in on.

Hit play and know more about how to craft a global career for yourself. This episode is by a special arrangement with PRPOI - A space dedicated to upskilling for PR & Communication professionals!

Season 2 - Episode 5