Chennai: Times are changing. So are the ways adopted by politicians to reach their target audience.
Moving away from traditional political public relations mechanism, many young candidates had opted for corporate PR agencies for the Lok Sabha elections in Tamilnadu.
As a package, these ‘professionals’ disseminated press releases, organised media interactions, planned road shows and other events, handled social media campaigns and designed the overall image building exercise.
“This (corporate PRs involved in political campaigns) is common in Delhi. This time, the trend has entered Tamilnadu, too. When we were approached by a candidate with the project, we were initially skeptical since it was totally new for us. But now, at the end of the campaign, we feel contented for doing an effective work. We have managed to create a positive impact for our client and he is happy with our work,” says the head of a PR agency in Chennai.
Asked about the differences between working for corporates and politicians, the manager of another public relations agency said, “Time is the crucial factor. While preparing a press release or organising a press meet for a business house we get enough space. But, in politics, we were not given time at all. Most of the days, we had to do everything- from preparing press releases in English and Tamil, inviting reporters for events and conducting them – in flat 30 minutes. Sometimes, we did it in 15 minutes, too. Another difference is handling journalists since we were not used to interacting with political desks of media houses. However, we loved the challenges.”
So, what made politicos to pick corporate PRs? “May be because of the professionalism we offer in our services and our tech-savviness. Normally, political PROs send press releases and conduct press meets. But, we are responsible for the whole image-building process. We know the pulse of the youngsters since we are active on social media. Our team is always with our client, helping him in his entire electioneering. Factors like these might have made candidates prefer us. We see this trend only to grow in the future as we have become a hit now and with more professionals like doctors and entrepreneurs entering politics.”