Explore 'What Does The Shift To Digital PR Mean For Your Brand'. Gain insights from the webinar led by Vedanarayanan Vedantham, Digital Marketing Visiting Faculty, S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research.

2. Over the course of the next hour...
q What isPR?
q What objectivescan PR drive?
q Digital Vs Traditional PR
q The 4 Pillars of an engaging,robustPR strategy playbook
q Digital PR Execution 101
§ Primary & SecondaryToolsfor enabling digital PR
q How PR can be leveraged the right way: Caselet
§ Airbnb
q Questions?

3. “ It's a strategy that influences how a business's target audience perceives a
brand. It is a perception building vehicle pure and simple; That helps an
organization achieve it's strategic and in some cases tactical objectives too...”
What is PR,really?

4. q Mindshare Objectives
§ Seed Awareness
§ Move the brand from awareness to recall with sustained mediapresence
§ Influence Brand Perception in the right way
§ Consumer Branding
§ Employer Branding
§ Stakeholder Branding
q Marketshare objectives
§ Targeted media bursts can provide short-term traffic/ lead/ revenue growth
§ Sustained media presence can move marketing & business baseline metrics
q Long Term SecondaryObjectives
§ Influencing Organic Search Ranking (Pushing the envelope on SEO)
§ Credibility
§ Opportunity Cost savings by freeing up marketing spends
What objectives can PR drive?

5. Traditional Vs Digital PR

6. Where is PR in your organization's foodchain?
A lot of times, people make PR an afterthought instead of it being an integral part of the whole
plan. They have their pricing & distribution, their promotional strategy, all the components of the
traditional marketing mix and then they say - “Of lets get some PR for that also.” They view PR
simply as a way to generate awareness, but the question is - “Awareness for what purpose? What is
it that you want PR to deliver for the company?”
Brad Stevens, for Vice President of US Marketing,
Starbucks

7. q How do we generate revenue?
q Which are our most important customer demography buckets?
q What are their current perceptions about our company?
q Who are our biggest competitors and how are they positioning themselves?
q How are our products & services differentiated from the competition?
q What is our key value proposition, is that well understood?
q How we think the competitive landscape is going to shift?
q What are our categorydynamics? Is the categorygrowing or shrinking?
q What are our top business objectives for the next 6 months? The next year? Three years?
q What are our mission & vision? What do we do today, and where are we going?
q What are the biggest opportunities & challenges for our business?
q What are the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the business?
q What are the implications for communications as we moveforward?
A Foundational Pillar - A strong understanding of business objectives

8. The 4 Pillars of an engaging, robust PR
Playbook

9. PILLAR 1
ObjectivesVs
Target
Stakeholder
Mapping
(Company lifecycle
specific plays)
PILLAR 2
Relationship
buildingwith
the media
PILLAR 3
Proactive PR -
Putting the
“Ends” before
the “Means”
PILLAR 4
Leveraging
the holy
triumvirate-
Digital PR +
Social +
Search

10. Prospective Employees
Larger ecosystem of
stakeholders - Prospective
Investors, Investees,partners,
media etc.
TargetCustomers
Building brand
awareness
Articulating
brand value
propositions
Building
category
awareness
Objectives
Target Audience
Brand Life Cycle Stage 1 - Awareness / Pre-awareness
Articulating
customer
benefits
• Pillar 1: Objectives Vs Target Stakeholder mapping

11. How does Pillar 1 translate into results? (For brands in the Awareness / Pre-awareness
Phase)

12. TargetCustomer
Prospective Employees
Building brand
recall
Amplifying
customer
advocacy
Objectives
Target Audience
Brand Life Cycle Stage 2 - Recall/ Top of Mind
Retaining
category
relevance
Larger ecosystem of
stakeholders - Prospective
Investors, Investees,partners,
media, Government.
Associating
aspirational
character to
the brand
• Pillar 1: Objectives Vs Target Stakeholder mapping contd....

13. • How does Pillar 1 translate into results? (For brands in the Recall/ Top of mind Phase)

14. • Pillar 2: Relationship building with the media = Fn(Story Angles)
Awareness/ Pre-awareness Recall Top of MindRecall
Relationship
building
investment
Returns Returns
ReturnsRelationship
building
investment
Relationship
building
investment
Brand
Introductions
Category
Introductions
Brand USP
Elaboration
Customer Benefit
Articulation
New Product
Launches
Business/ Brand
Pivots
CategoryFuture
Vision
Thought
Leadership
Brand Growth
Journey
Thought
Leadership
New Product
Launches
Social
Responsibility

15. • The Airbnb:Fastcompanyaffair: A great example of Media Relationship Building

16. • Pillar 3: Proactive PR - Putting the “Ends” beforethe “Means”
The “Ends” The “Means”
Aspirational Brand
Story
Brand placement
in a larger
popular theme
Human Interest
Story with a strong
brand connect
Joint PR with a
larger/ similar
sized or
synergistic brand
Data backedstory ControversialStory
Tap into media
relationships
Identify partners
in the ecosystem /
network
Source & curatedata
from internal data
sources
“Crowdsource” &
curate data from
social media

17. Digital PR
q Strong handshakewith Search
Engine Optimization (SEO)
objectives
q Building brand awareness,
enhancing recall
q Building aspirational brand
value
Social Media
q Personifying thebrand on
social channels
q Generating virality& “earned
media” which can drive PR
traction
Search/SEO
q Making sure thata strong
picture of the brand is painted
on search results through
syndicated content + high
Domain Authority coverage
q Making surebacklinks are
provided in as many digital PR
coverages aspossible
SOCIAL
SEARCHDIGITAL PR
•PiPlliallra4r4-L-eLveevreargaingigngthtehheohloyltyriturimumvirvairtaet-eD-iDgiitgaitlaPlRPR+S+oScoiacila+lS+eSaeracrhch

18. Primary & Secondary Tools for Effective
Digital PR
Digital PR Execution 101
Dissemination,
Influencer &
Media
management
Content
Syndication &
Curation
SEO Link Building
NativeContent
Discovery

19. Primary Tools for Digital PR - Distribution, Influencer & Media Management
Top 5 Platforms USP
Business Wire Maximum global reach across large, medium and
small digital and traditional publications
Meltwater Intelligent, algorithmically driven social sourcing of
topics and real time tracking.
PR Newswire Intelligent, targeted influencer relationship
management
PRWeb SEO Friendliness

20. PRWeb in action...

21. • Meltwater inaction...

22. Tools/ Channels for Content Syndication
Content Syndication: It is a process of publishing in-house
content on third party websites either in totality or as a snippet
with due credit apportioned to the original source
Top 5 Platforms USP
ARCPublishing Intelligent identification of syndication partners
Buzzsumo Influencer Identification, Marketing & content
seeding

23. • Buzzsumo inaction...

24. Tools for SEO Link Building
Top 5 Platforms USP
Majestic Maximum Index size/ URLs crawled.
Buzzstream Doubles up with influencer relationship
management
Moz LocalSearch
Raventools Audit &Diagnostics
SoloSEO Do it Yourself (DIY) SEO for beginners

25. Majestic in action...

26. Tools for Native Content Discovery
Top 3 Platforms USP
Outbrain Contextual targeting & content placement accuracy
Taboola Niche, native inventory placement & UX + real-time
control, A/B tests
Columbia Traffic Network (TimesGroup) Gives access to the entire suite of Times media
properties

27. Outbrain in action...

28. Taboola in action...

29. Successful PR -
Caselet

30. Caselet 1: Airbnb
CONTEXT
Target Customer: Value for money,
adventure seeking traveler.
Business & Brand Objectives:
q Establish awareness,further
recall for both Airbnb and
homestays as a category
q Address safety & trust concerns
q Break down regulatory barriers
q Linking Airbnb to popular culture
of sharing and bringing theworld
together.
PR STRATEGY
q Relationship building with specific targeted
media properties - E.g: fastcompany.com
q Joint PR with Governments: Strategic
stories in partnership with the government
(e.g: entry into Cuba)
q Strong customer testimonial media
amplification through targeted publications -
From both perspectives - Home owner and
traveler
q Targeted, creative social media plays with
strong PR handshake and brand alignment:
#onestrangerless, #belonganywhere

31. Caselet 1: Airbnbcontd...
RESULTS
q Marketshare: Multi million dollar Global leader in the
international “alternate” accommodation segment
q Unicorn startup brand
q Mindshare: Strong customer advocacy (despite growing
opposition and lobbying backed by hoteliers)
TAKEAWAYS
q Focus on a theme larger than your brand story and focus your media
strategyon reiterating that connect.
q Social media acts as a great tool for brand voice and PR message
amplification.
q Friends in media - Critical
q Friends in the government - Even morecritical