 sort of eforum next gen series. We are we are interacting to the new leaders and the people who were awarded in the elite second list of eforum here in Koppong, Vati and Afati. So today we have with us Mr Arun Mithil who is the account director at PR Pandit. Hi Arun, it is a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you Nafisa and I'm really delighted to be on this show with you. Okay so Arun how do you feel being a part of this elite list and sharing the platform with all the other leaders from your fraternity? You know you know at the at the what ceremony I also shared the same sentiment I'm going to again say the same sentiment today also that it was a dream come true. Never thought that I'm going to be part of this designated list which has been instituted by Dr Anurag Bhatra and Mr Avucha. They both have been a great advocates to the PR industry and we are very very thankful to them. You know it's a you know Mr Bhatra has always led the industry by by noble innovations and new benchmarks and being part of this exchange for media 40 in the 40 group has actually validated my work and recognized me among top industry leaders and it warrants my vision going forward. Awesome Arun and I wish you all the best for the times to come. Thank you. So moving forward like the PR industry or the overall industry across domain have gone through tremendous changes during the past eight to nine months and we have come across new skills and new marketing interventions along the way. So what are you now required to sustain in the prevailing market? Absolutely Nafisa you know the the last eight to ten months have been I would say have not been difficult but I think so it's a it's a rain check in terms of you know how do we address a crisis situation. The pre-COVID times I think so we've never going to go back to them. We have already seen there is a mutated virus that has been coming up and that's why UK and India so normal will never be the we'll we'll coming back again but it's a new normal right we are adapting to it we have already adapted to some of them and we're going to be more hybrid in in our approach right when it comes to an agency and a client relationship that has also evolved now we have seen that more and more conversations are happening over Zoom calls or video conferencing right we don't need to really sit down across the table all the stakeholders can now come together you know and and discuss solutions that can converge them to the next level right we have also seen that there is blurred lines between different departments we have seen a high high-tent involvement of senior level in these eight to ten months they have been pretty much staring and navigating the solutions that needs to be you know adopted within the company this is a sort of a plus point because there's a heightened interaction with them in terms of collaborative efforts within the marketing department initially it was marketing was different advertising was different social media was different etc etc but now everybody sits across have a have a common you know strategy common challenging solution so that we can circumvent all these crisis and every month this is a different situation actually okay so you mentioned about the client and agency relationship so how has this pandemic if I may use the word how has this pandemic reshaped the client and agency relationship you may also talk about the behavioral changes your clients might have undergone you know in the area of lifestyle PR so there must have been a lot of changes that have come up you know demand changes to this enlighten us on some of the changes that agency and clients have gone through these eight to nine months um one thing I that's a very good question Hafiz I think so you know I think so one thing that has come across very very strongly is that purpose led communication has come at forefront you know empathy has taken you know a larger role in terms of relationship in terms of communication brands have understood that transparency authenticity trust is of primary importance the overarching themes that we have seen across brands not just sticking to any particular category is well-being immunity boosting anything which is experience at home you know even a simpler you know headphone earphone has pretty much been a new essential now you know you pretty much cannot cannot work without your gadgets and mobile phones there is you know the consumption of internet has I think so double dot 3x now even my father you who didn't use to use internet or you need to use grofers or big basket to name a few now he's ordering online so there's a there's a secular shift in the cohorts also right so people have understood you know clients have understood that that digitization is the way forward they've also adapted and reimagined the business model so as the agency they have understood that how things gonna be right and together we are actually collaborating on these communications you know part of it which is purpose led we're talking about the well-being talking about transparency authenticity talking about certifications talking about trust yeah these are the common things I think I don't point it out a very important aspect in today's scenario which is purpose led communication along with empathy based messaging that is happening so you know nowadays we have seen that you know content has taken but everything else and also there has been a significant change in the business objective of brands or clients being aligned with the PR objectives right so what are your views on on the same anything that you would like to add on it you know as I mentioned you know empathy led messaging and purpose led communication that's pretty much been the key part of the objective now right there is nothing called the pushed strategy anymore in terms of pushing the product it is about the peripheral you know intangible things that matters a lot now right it's a product organic like for example I'm just taking one category in itself you know it's a product organic natural it's certified right even though there's a tint of premiumness coming in but consumers are are are happy to buy within that premium segment right but they want to have some sort of a security some sort of safety net when they buy a brand and that has been communicated very highly now you know we we have seen that brands themselves are not pushing but they're pushing the larger vision of the brand they're not pushing and they're not actually yes there are targets to meet which every agency of every sales and marketing team has to do it but it is the larger vision of the brand that has been communicated now also brands have been really particular about you know being relevant and also at the same time not sounding very money-minded or opportunistic right yes yes so I think so there's a there's a there has been a very nice line I read somewhere was conscious capitalism yeah you know I think so this this in itself will encompass your larger talk point out here you know that consciousness has prevailed consciousness will prevail right and that is the way forward now you know if if I'm sitting at 2020 now I'm not talking about 2021 I'm talking about 2030 now okay so moving forward I would like to have your insights on you know how technology is strong or are the PR professionals at this point of time right now are you ready to go fully virtual in the years to come or do we will we have a mix of physical and virtual again an officer that's a very good question I would I would like to divide the PR professionals among different cohorts you know the the younger one who who are between the experience of zero to three or four years then four to eight years eight and 12 and then above that right so I think so the younger lot the first two cohorts are very technologically abled they understand better they are the instagram generation right pretty much pretty much they understand the the language of the millennial the language of generation z and now there's another generation that we're targeting is called generation alpha right so they have adapted they understand that language right again I was I'm just taking anecdotal from somewhere there was a founder who who who is my age right he leads one of the biggest consumer electronic brand and he has an average age of team members of 25 26 right somewhere in the instagram somewhere you know here someone wrote it's fry yeah okay and he called the person he said that please do a spell check it is not fry yeah it is friday so just imagine the language that has you know come across you know it is actually you know yay and friday it's a it was that right so so the language has changed you know people understand that language you know my team members I'm 37 right my team members educate me on the new language right so so so that's a so that's a that's a generation involvement you know that the growth has come out like now coming back to your question very much required for people who have more than 12 years 15 years of experience to upskill and re-skill themselves to remain relevant right whereas to even transmit their knowledge to the younger generation that's why I have seen over the agencies across the agencies that there are a lot of programs that people are getting into either through mica or either through you know within within pia pandit actually in our company we have a very strong masterclass program that's going that goes in every two weeks or you know every fortnightly we have a masterclass from a senior leader coming in talking about a certain task or certain subject matter and how we can bring it to our regular operational work it can be as simple as you know understanding the data or working on an excel or working on a powerpoint or talking about subject matters which increase the valuation of a company or even there was there was one interesting masterclass that I that I that I attended which was done by our MD Archana Jain right was how to present ourselves on zoom okay and that was a really important one right that was that was absolutely you know a nail a nailing one because in these times you know you need to know how to present yourself in front of her zoom call because this was not something that we actually did pre-covid times so you know connectivity you know being presentable being audible having that five minute check before the before the before we go live on the call everything matters now everything matters so so so what what do we uh infer like are we ready to go fully virtual or there will be a mix of physical and virtual happen right now both both yeah mix it will yeah it will uh it will be it will be a pure mix yes the the long travels will not be happening anymore like we used to go to Bangalore or Bombay or Chennai to do that one hour meeting we have understood that you know you can pretty much do it on a zoom call and also saves a lot of money to the company right but when you do a larger conversation which is more like you know how to how to strategize you know then you need maybe you know that personal touch to come in play right because then you get larger teams and sometimes that doesn't happen on zoom or on or or any other video conferencing platform i would say yeah i think that human interaction still remains so relevant it will it will you cannot cannot dismiss that okay and so you mentioned about your team right and this has been a really difficult time for all of us and you being a team leader of you know an account directorate we are funded um uh just enlighten us with some of the skills that a leader should you know have in them to you know run a team properly and you know uh take out the best from their team members uh i would say uh three major skill sets would definitely definitely help uh any leader in these times right one is empathy right second is uh you know being realistic you know one should not expect uh peak of it times targets to be achieved you need to be adjustable flexible in in those times and third i would say decision making you should you one needs to be agile to understand a situation and present a decision right now what is happening across is that we need leaders who can make quick decisions because everybody needs some sort of a support even i need a supporter so i maybe something i i you know because there is a lot of mental stress there is a lot of you know your black dot sometime you just need somebody to make the decision on your behalf so that i think so that's very very important you know agile enough to make a decision faster than understand the situation better agile enough being empathetic i think these two are the main uh aspects according to you for being you know um people's man or a people's lead yeah yeah okay so i'm moving forward the i would like to have uh uh you know just enlighten our audience on what would be the innovations that might you know reshape the plia and copham industry or the trends that you know will stay back in 2020 and will not be able to be continued in the new year or the new times that we are moving in um i think so uh nafisa again uh you know they're going to be um a carry forward because post march i think so there have been as i mentioned there has been uh a lot of adaptations a lot of re innovations that has happened so we have developed structures and developed models which will be the next normal which will be carrying forward right uh let me listen down down it for you is one is big data right um that is going to be very very critical to understand where your touch points are right uh agencies at agency level and at a brand level both so we both are collaborating together to understand the consumer touch points and then present a strategy that how to communicate at those touch points it can be online offline or uh you know on on on facebook or whichever social media channel they are on so that's going to be very very critical so uh within the agency they have we have data analysis and of course we have uh you know digital marketers at the uh at the brand sign so we both are collaborating together now we both understand google analytics we both understand where uh hot so you know various platform which which makes us do it sort of predictive communication now second is would be video and digital content making right uh uh we all know that we have heightened our consumption on mobiles right and and uh while we have heightened our uh consumption of mobiles we have lesser time span in terms of attention right so we need snackable content now right and snackable contents sometimes can go viral also so it's going to be a mix of it right so you know like we are doing right now zoom otherwise we would have done maybe over face to face right and then uh and podcasts are are becoming a huge huge trend right uh Spotify has again you don't come out uh you know it has given lots of wings to Spotify these times uh you don't want to do a lot of podcasts etc right um of course there is uh digital content which will pretty much carry being carried forward uh you know OTT it's a it's a great channel now in terms of communicating the brand and in terms of positioning the brand one of the key things what I see is going forward would be communicating transparency authenticity and uh uh and honesty these are the three key communication uh uh elements which will form the foundation of any communication strategy if even if you look at some of the beauty brands now right they have uh unlike in the peak of it times you know I'm not naming any any brand but they have pretty much fronted on their display label that what they're in reading mixes or what is the formulation of their of their mixes right and even at at and at some level of brand they've even even informed the uh consumer that where they're sourcing it also from so this just imagine the kind of transparency the brands are coming forward with it I think uh uh transparency along with empathetic communication has to be the way forward because you know now consumers have also become very much obsessed with you know empathy trust and something that attracts them right something that they can relate with there is there is a heightened awareness among the users of course that is you know like I uh you know I'm a father of a young son you know of a young child right for me now everything that I buy from my son I need to know everything from A to Z of course right because and and and you know and and not for myself also but for my family you know I live in a family and join family I have a son who is four years old I have a mother and father who was 70 plus right so both so both of them are kids but on a different cohort level yeah so I have to make sure that whatever I get in my house it's properly uh you know labeled properly from a brand you know there is some sort of a trust in the brand yeah of course I don't know if you have you know enlightened us with a very important aspect of trust uh uh in with the consumers uh so I would like to ask you on um a very interesting question might be how you as an account director and we are funded and worked at a challenge into an opportunity just one example um I think I I was in a good position that I had started my career with pia pundit this is my second stand with pia pundit and when I came back I I thought of there's an opportunity with startups right um and this pandemic actually gave a lot of wings to the start of vertical um uh because because inherently startups are digitally enabled digitally native brands uh so the communication we were already had that model that model set up uh to take startups and huge businesses forward so we at pia pundit have seen that uh grown right and there was an opportunity out there in terms of revenue generation and we have seen that uh we have seen uh a 1.5x growth in terms of the startup and the new businesses I would say awesome so um I think we we are moving towards the end of our very insightful interaction so I would like to ask you your future plans I mean what what have you set your target for the next maybe four or five years um nafeeta I think so you know five years you know it's it's again it's a now I don't believe in five years initially I used to believe in five years because then you thought that you know everything is going to be normal you pretty much didn't didn't think that you know anything can go wrong but what I have because the pandemic what has given us now is that you know okay let's look for that the short term part of it very strongly because you never know what's going to happen now I maybe this this fear will go out eventually but right now I mean I'm in that kind of a you know circle of fear uh that was going to happen but for the next three to four years I would say that I want to be I want to upskill myself I want to be in a good position I want to be expert in the startup area and eventually become a CEO of a professional PR company I love challenges and as mentioned earlier you know this being part of 14 to 40 is going to warrant my vision in front of industry leaders and you know help me grow and actually it's it's already helping me grow as you speak you know thank you for you know all the efforts that you're putting on LinkedIn and across channels on promoting the 14 to 40 people recognizing us people are recognizing the efforts of PR professionals and actually it's giving a lot of impetus to the domain itself and I'm really really thankful from bottom of my heart that what A4M has done for the PR industry. I think it is also our privilege and pleasure to you know recognize the talents and the leaders out there so Aaron we'll end this interaction with your message to your PR fraternity, your junior, your colleagues, your message to them. Perseverance so don't lose heart you know be persistent be agile and if you can you know work on frugal be frugal in your approach you know don't have that approach of you know that the that the brand is going to spend crores and have an approach which is frugal and then you can mirror it into a multi-crore project or a multi-city project kind of a thing you know frugality has been appreciated a lot in these times. Okay awesome thank you so much Aaron for your valuable time and once again congratulations on being on this list. Thank you Nafira, thank you so much really appreciate it. Thank you so much, bye.