Mumbai: The year 2023 has been a great learning experience for PitchOnePR. It not only helped us grow as professionals but also enabled us to achieve several milestones. As a pure-play Public Relations and Communications company in India specializing in cleantech/energy communication, we have gained several industry insights and valuable lessons this past year. The Public Relations industry in India, in general, has witnessed an upward trajectory amid a rapidly evolving communication landscape, and I believe that we have played a crucial role in this growth. As per PRCAI's annual study of Public Relations Insights, Nuggets, and Trends for 2022-2023, the Indian PR industry currently makes up 8.5% of the Asia-Pacific market and around 1% of the global industry. This steady growth includes a 13% increase in 2022, a sharp jump from 2021.
The numbers can be accredited to the changes the industry has seen in how the new-age companies perceive Public Relations and Communications. Today, different brands, regardless of their scale and size, are embracing public relations as they come to terms with how the service can positively impact their brand value. The public relations segment has also experienced a lot of disruption in terms of the adoption of advanced technology, training resources, and a closely connected ecosystem with journalists. As an industry player, I have observed a noticeable shift in the attitude towards the segment as more entities focus on creating a symbiotic process backed by technology and skilled talent.
While we continuously work on staying ahead of the industry trends and technological integration, there has been a noticeable shift in how the new age media is being perceived. Amid the burgeoning changes, one thing has remained constant - the value of traditional PR, which makes up the print, electronic media, and core news media. Traditional PR still takes precedence over the new age and upcoming media platforms. This has to do with the fact that individuals still consume most of their news from traditional news media. We acknowledged early in our professional journey that a blend of both is a must to engage the audience and navigate the evolving industry landscape.
Being a new-age PR, we aspire to become the first to streamline impactful clean communication in India. We focus on connecting with sustainability-focused clientele and help communicate a unique brand story through well-researched and data-backed content.
Recently, we have observed a thriving ecosystem of implementation-level entities in this industry along with a robust presence of those acting as their support system. For instance, from electric vehicle ecosystem developers to water sanitation solution providers and solar installers, various stakeholders have gained prominence in the industry in the past year. Similarly, to support them, entities like NBFCs, peer-to-peer lending platforms, angel investors, and micro venture capitalists are proactively funding cleantech enterprises and companies promoting sustainability. This closely knit ecosystem of cleantech companies, implementers, financiers, and those helping to develop the system are seeking PR support and expertise to communicate with each other and their audience about their sustainability-focused initiatives.
This particular trend is accelerated by the constant need to disseminate timely information about the rapidly changing policies and changes in dynamic sectors like the electric vehicle or renewable energy segment. For instance, the recent revision of the FAME-II subsidy prompted EV manufacturers and EV financing companies to quickly communicate the repercussions of the change in subsidy amount to ensure their clients are aware of the same and continue to have uninterrupted access to their products or services regardless of the impact. Over the years, we have gained in-depth knowledge and expertise in these segments, which equips us with the tact and strategies to help clients disseminate their line of communication on time.
In recent years, several legacy companies with traditional brick-and-mortar business models, who were previously not open to Public Relations, have been embracing its services. This particular trend was ongoing post-pandemic, but this year, it has picked up its pace as more companies are now keen on amping up their PR activities. For instance, several roof panel installation companies and recognized wire and cable companies are seeking to communicate their discussions in the media in the interest of investors and the general public.
Today, a large part of the core Public Relations discussions have swiftly changed from just talking about the brand or its spokesperson to more about data-driven discussions, like surveys, key numbers, and market trends. Brands are now proactively creating data and working on the key areas to ensure that their products, services, and CSR activities provide talking points that convert into engaging communication.
Interestingly, there has also been a significant rise in regional PR spending, which rose from 15% of PR budgets three years ago to 25%. This trend reveals how India’s Tier-II and III cities are prompting growth while fueling demand for localized content strategies. The clients also expect Public Relations companies to play a more strategic role and help them solve their problems. Although clients' budgets have increased for extensive PR efforts, they have become value-conscious and seek tangible results that can be measured in terms of ROI and deliverables. This has driven our industry to employ a set of qualitative and quantitative measures, including brand perception surveys, tracking KPIs, and customer sentiment analysis to gauge the impact of their PR campaigns.
Lastly, we have noticed an amalgamation of how the new age of Public Relations is interacting with the world of social media. While we continue to leverage the traditional media, we have also started disseminating communication on social media in a more integrated fashion. For instance, LinkedIn has shown significant potential for PR communication, and verticals like LinkedIn News continue to amplify them further. This proves that traditional PR methods like press releases and effective media relations still hold relevance, and the digital revolution has created new avenues for us to explore for engagement and storytelling. As an industry player, we have been leveraging LinkedIn’s potential, webinars’ appeal, and digital news reach to communicate our clients’ visions and messages.
PitchOnePR will continue to focus on cleantech and clean alternative fuel verticals in 2024.
From hereon, 50% of our clients will belong to the clean energy segment, while the other 50% will encompass Fintech, D2C, and tech segments. To support our growth objectives, we aim to accelerate our hiring process and increase our employee strength by 2X by 2024. We envision building a flexible work culture, and to achieve it, we will continue to operate on a remote model for now. However, we have planned to open a new office in Delhi NCR by 2024, which will follow a hybrid model and offer our employees the flexibility to choose. We acknowledge that managing lethargy, retention, and training can emerge as a problem, so we plan to follow module-based and cohort-based learning for our employees. Keeping these beliefs at the core of our practice, we aim to enter the new year with a renewed vision to help our clients voice their opinions in front of the world.
