GROWTH IDEAS PATH

Integrated Marketing Communications is a simple concept. It ensures that all forms of communications and messages are carefully linked together. At its most basic level, Integrated Marketing Communications, or IMC, as we'll call it, means integrating all the promotional tools, so that they work together in harmony. Promotion is one of the Ps in the marketing mix. Promotions has its own mix of communications tools. All of these communications tools work better if they work together in harmony rather than in isolation. Their sum is greater than their parts - providing they speak consistently with one voice all the time, every time. This is enhanced when integration goes beyond just the basic communications tools. There are other levels of integration such as Horizontal, Vertical, Internal, External and Data integration. Here is how they help to strengthen Integrated Communications. Horizontal Integration occurs across the marketing mix and acros...

Gone are the days where PR was measured on the basis of quantum of coverage got from press release disseminated, attendance of hundreds of media at a press conference or for that matter calculation of MAVs & CCMs of coverage. Companies are now opening up to the idea of running creative PR campaigns which can be aligned to meet its business and communication goals. Similarly, PR agencies are also evolving themselves to craft creative and effective PR campaigns which are backed with intensive research, understanding of the company, industry, trends, socio-economic and cultural scenarios etc.. So what could be some factors to be considered to create a compelling PR campaign? 1.         Target Audience First and foremost understanding the target audience of your client is of utmost importance. We should thoroughly understand the consumer segment the company would like to reach out to, what they read, their choices, their key influencers etc. T...

  Hindi newspapers   sold the largest number of copies among   daily newspapers   in all languages in India, clocking a circulation of a little over 15 million during the   July-December 2012 period. This was followed by English newspapers with a circulation of over 9 million during the period, according to   Audit Bureau of Circulations   (ABC). Among other languages, Marathi newspapers came third in the pecking order with a certified circulation of 5.4 million, while the fourth spot was taken by Malayalam newspapers with a circulation of around 4 million. Tamil and Telugu daily newspapers took the fifth and sixth spot with a circulation of roughly 3.9 million and 3.7 million, respectively, while Bengali newspapers came seventh with 2.7 million. Kannada newspapers took the eighth spot with a circulation of around 2 million. Punjabi with a circulation of 8.4 lakh was ninth on the list, followed by Oriya with a circulation of 4.8 lakh on the 10t...

As the web evolves from a network of sites to a network of people, public relations campaigns must also evolve, and most successful PR campaigns now include a social component. But beyond the basics, such as creating tweetable press release headlines and reaching out to influencers on Twitter, what are some of the more inventive approaches out there? Here are five great examples of innovative social PR campaigns. 1. Rayovac: Rapid-Response Twitter Campaign In early February 2011, with a snowstorm of historic proportions on the horizon, social media outlets were abuzz with news and updates about the weather.  Rayovac  and  Circle PR  quickly created a campaign that capitalized on the fact that millions of Americans would be home — and online — on Wednesday, February 2, the day slated to be the worst of the storm. The central feature of the campaign was a virtual snowball fight that had more than 1,000 consumers changing their profile picture to...

In this age of 24-hour, seven-days-a-week news coverage, no business should dismiss the vast potential of PR, Communication and Media to impact your organisation and influence your stakeholders. Developing a proactive public relations plan can be an effective tool to your business and best defense in preventing potential damage to a company's image in the face of an already skeptical general public. That plan -- what I refer to as "proactive pr and reputation management" -- must be implemented if the company wants to ensure that its reputation and standing in the community remain intact. You will be convinced that public relations practitioners need to flip their thinking. Simply: from reactive to proactive. In a world where every company is a media company, PR should lead.  But only if they can become truly proactive in their approach to the practice. Media companies are far more proactive than reactive. They plan their content through editorial calendars. Their le...

In the  PRWeek's Power Book 2012,   they asked the industry's top practitioners which campaigns they most admired from last year . It is little surprise that the stand-out favourite is the impeccable comms operation around the royal wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William in April. T-Mobile's spoof royal wedding video was named as the second best campaign of the year. Its popularity illustrates that, done well, tying campaigns to major events can prove a fruitful endeavour. Major movements such as the Arab Spring, which toppled governments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, and the global Occupy movement came third and fourth respectively. These were praised for creating widespread awareness of social and political problems and the use of social media to canvass grassroots support. Finally, The Royal British Legion's work to raise funds for the armed forces and their families was also praised. On the following pages, we analyse why these campaigns wer...