Having made the bold move of launching a start-up business, it is likely that you are faced with the challenge of spreading the word about your products or services to potential customers. Most start-ups look enviously at the big brands, wishing they could emulate their marketing activities. Of course, they are never able to do so due to an acute lack of funds to invest in marketing, especially in the early stages. The goal of media relations is to get positive coverage in the mass media without paying for it directly as by advertising. Media relations involves working with media for the purpose of informing your potential customers about how your offering will benefit them, and doing so in a credible positive and consistent manner. Typically, this means coordinating directly with the people who influence, generate and distribute news and features in the mass media. One of the most cost-effective ways to build buzz around your start-up is to get it covered by the media, either local or national. But how does one go about doing that on a shoe-string budget?

1. COMMUNICATION CONSULTING • PUBLIC RELATIONS • ADVERTISING • INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
www.aimhighindia.com | www.tenetadvertising.com
Media for Start-ups – Cases and FAQs
N. Ravi Shankar
CEO, Aim High Consulting
05-07-2014, NSRCEL@IIMB

2. Things are changing…

3. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs...

4. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs...

5. Why should you listen to me?

6. Our Clients

7. "The history of PR is… a history of a battle
for what is reality and how people will see
and understand reality."
- Stuart Ewen

9. www.aimhighindia.com
FAQs
followed-by
Cases.

10. What is a good time to start PR?

11. If you have a reasonable answer to
this, then, it is a good time to start
engaging with the media.

12. Why is PR better than
Advertising / Social Media?

13. PR Vs Ad / Social Media
• Credibility.
• Third party endorsement.
• Pull Vs Push.
• Less cluttered.
• Lower cost.

14. How long should the ‘campaign’ be?

15. Length of the ‘campaign’
• What ‘campaign’?
• PR is about ‘advocacy’.
• PR needs to be seen as a ‘business
function’.
• If you have not created anything that
has ‘sustained PR value’, do not waste
your money on PR.

16. How much will it cost?

17. That is what Advertising costs!
"If I was down to my last
dollar, I'd spend it on public
relations."
- Bill Gates
PR is highly cost effective.

18. Should it be just online, or offline as well?
My audience is online, you know!

19. Be where your TG is!
Horses for courses.
Media learns and buys from
media!

20. Why does PR fail?

21. What you are saying is
not new!
What you are saying is
not believable!
What you are saying
does not make any
difference.

22. Why can’t we do it in-house?

23. Well, PR is not ‘rocket
science’!
But then, it is not ‘child
play’ either!

24. How do I measure PR success?

25. ‘PR metrics’
• Output
• Outcome
• Key messages
• Media Value

26. Does PR help me in a crisis?
Will it help in ‘silencing’ the media?

27. NO!
PR is not about fixing! You
cannot silence anyone with
money or influence.
But, concerted and
longstanding PR effort
might earn you a chance
for ‘fair-play’, during a
crisis.

28. www.aimhighindia.com
There is good news for start-ups!
There are a lot of ‘start-up spaces.

29. Today’s start-ups lend themselves to PR
• Media eco-system getting built around start-ups
• Start-ups are ‘reformist’ in their DNA
• Start-ups are involved in nation building

30. Media opportunity grid - Startups
Media
Opportunities
for Startups
Company /
Entrepreneur
Profiling
Investment
Product
modification /
extension
HR policies
Technology

31. Profiling Opportunities
Company /
Entrepreneur
Profiling
Business Dailies
– special startup
pages in all major
business
publications
Business
magazines – Most
business
magazines have
special sections
for startups
Mainlines –
Mainline
newspapers
provide good
profiling spaces to
startups
TV – Startup
shows on leading
business
channels

32. www.aimhighindia.com
So, is it all rosy for a start-up who wants
to do PR?

33. Challenges
• Clutter. We start from scratch!
• Cynicism about the offering
itself.
• Staying differentiated – from
generic & specific competition.
• Media may not be as
‘specialised’ as your business.
• Geographically dispersed
heterogeneous masses.
• Bad experiences might get
highlighted.

34. What does that mean?
• We cannot afford to be lazy
• Disruptive business ideas will demand
‘disruptive communication’!

35. Spare the details…
• We need to learn to be brief –
– Three short stories!

36. What do we need to do?
– Tell a story, if the media has to write about
your client.
– But, get to the point quickly.
– Relevant and Interesting – that is all that is
there. And, that is all you need to know.

37. Examples of some ‘short stories’
• Olacabs
– Cabs at auto prices
• Skyline
– A wall for the wall
• Flipkart
– Cash on delivery
• BCIL
– Bring back the sparrow
• EduSports
– Indian children are becoming unfit

38. www.aimhighindia.com
All the best…

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ASK QUESTIONS…

41. Thank You!
You can reach me on –
ravi@aimhighindia.com
+91 98452 13918
www.aimhighindia.com