 the celebration exchange for media is back again with another episode of EFORM next GEM series where we are celebrating the win of all the PR and COPCOM professionals who made it to the second list of EFORM, PR and COPCOM 40 and 40. So today we have with us Mr. Shashank Sethi who is the Director of Corporate Communications and Marketing at Room Technology. So, welcome Shashank. It is a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you, Navisa. Thanks a lot and a big thanks that you are doing this series. This can definitely help other professionals to listen about how PR can shape up. Okay. So Shashank, I would like to start this very insightful video interaction with you with a small question of how do you feel being a part of this elite list? No, Navisa, a big thanks to exchange for media. I feel really very good. I think after all the kiosks in 2020, this was the last thing which came as a good news for us in 2020. And I feel pleasure that I could make to this list and I'm one of those 40 people who will be the face for communication industry in India for next one year. But this comes with lots of responsibility. Now I think with this tag we have more responsibility to contribute to the communication society. And rightly said Shashank, we have something to celebrate in the year 2020. So Shashank, I would like to have a small insight from you. The market has gone through tremendous changes and we have seen a lot of new marketing interventions coming up and a whole set of new ideas and trends going on in the year 2020. So what according to you are, you know, the new set of skills that might be required or are required right now to sustain in this prevailing market? See, when it's for any communication professional, what I understand is that research lots of reading and data analysis pays a big role. I'm sure people must have seen this during the pandemic. The data mining has played a big role in communication. And after all, on the basis of that, the content curation, because ultimately content is the king and you have to make sure that you are putting the right side of content to reach out to the each stakeholder. When we talk about the consumer marketing, consumer product PR, we have to do separate set of content writing while we do investor piece, then we have to do separate set of content. So content curation, but the backbone of content curation should be research, lots of reading and data analysis. I think rightly said Shashank content has taken over everything else in the prevailing scenario. And also, what would you like to comment on the importance of dynamic messaging that has come up? You know, static messaging has gone to the backstage and we are more into dynamic messaging, omnichannel presence is very much important right now for all the brands and your clients, of course. So your comments on that? See, when we talk about that, the current media scenario is like, we have to be hyper connected with digital world. And we are when we are hyper connected with this digital world, we have to see and we have touch upon each and every part. And for that, I think what we need to do, we need to come out from the traditional PR we were doing earlier. And with this pandemic and doing things virtually, how you have to play on your relationship, how you have to do right set of writing, right set of research and everything. I think each and every communication professional could understand that we have to go with the digital world. We have to go dynamic. We have to go, we have to come out of our comfort zone to deliver the things now. Okay, so while I was going through your profile and I was saying that you have seen both sides of this business, you have worked on the client side, you're currently working on the client side and you're also working on the agency side. So tell our viewers about what kind of changes did you notice or observe during your role at the agency and the clients and how does it feel being on the other side of the table? This is very good question, very close to my heart, I would say. See, I started my career as a journalist, but very soon I shifted to PR industry. And my longest and most of the time I spent in agency side at value 360 communication. And I'm very thankful to my all mentors, Mr. Gaurav Patra, Mr. Kunal Keshav Sinha, Manisha Chaudhary. I'm very thankful that they gave me right set of learning. So while I say about the learning perspective, you get chance to work on different set of clients. You get chance to explore different areas. As a professional, I worked on different areas. I worked on technology, automobile, sports, startups, I explored each and everything. So I think working in agency, you really get good chance to explore yourself to identify to carve out what exactly you like and which set of brand you would like to work on. And soon I moved to the copcom side. The biggest change of what I can say I could see is when you work in a brand, you understand the gene and you understand what exactly each stakeholder in that brand look forward from PR or their communication channel that you really can't carve out from the agency perspective. From agency, you always you always meet the copcom, you always take a brief and you work accordingly. But when you are at copcom side, and I would say nowadays it's not just copcom, it the role has become mark on you have to see it from the marketing side, you have to wear the marketing hat while you are doing the PR. Okay. So also in doing the same question, I'd like to ask you what changes according to you has the client and agency relationship gone through these specific 10 months that we spend in the lockdown or the air of the virus? Yeah, I think in these 10 months, the relation has become far better. I would say the more you have more on the close group, you spend more cycles to understand each other, you spend more and more cycles to understand the needs. Because if we see everything in this pandemic, your time and entirely lockdown period, I think PR is the one channel which really worked very well for each and every brand. Because we had to see that what all going on whether we are taking right set of steps or not, whether it's like workforce, stop working from office, while we are resuming office with how much percentage of employment we are resuming the office, each and every step PR played a big role. And I think in that the agency side and copcom, they worked, they collaborated well, they worked really very well. And you will definitely see that so many good campaigns came out from this. So many companies, so many brands did really very good campaign. We also did one, we did, we came up with our job shield. And during that time, our agency worked really very well. We did CSR project with Delhi Police, Gurgaon Police, Noida Police, Bangalore Police. That's how the close collaboration was there, I would say. Okay, Shashank. So let's break the monotony and let's talk something different from the serious talks. How has been your work from home experience and running a team at home and also managing of course a personal life? How has been that entire experience for you? See, this is one thing, everyone has two perspective to it. One is I'll take the first part now. I really worked, I really enjoyed working from home. I could spend more and more time and we actually explored so many things which we never did virtually. We explored so many new things, so many new tools, technologies. Personally, at our level in our department, we adopted so many new technologies. Being a technology company, it's always on the higher side that we do everything right, set, we address every opportunity with the technology. And I think during this time, we explored a lot on the technology side. On the personal life side, each and every communication professional will agree with me. I think the only issue was that there was no office timing. There was no perfect timing to start the work, and timing for you. So that was the case. But I think I'll take it as a positive side that we could gather so many good learnings working in the lockdown. Awesome. And I think, rightly said, we don't have any start timing and we don't have any log out time right now. But anyway, everyone has gotten used to it and we are all enjoying this phase, right? So moving on, you talked about you being a technologically-enabled company. And so my question has to be around, are the PR and corporate communication professionals right now enabled or skilled enough to go fully virtual in the times to come? Or do we have the right kind of technologies so that we move to the next level? I think, yes. And I'm saying this, if you see the kind of adoption PR industry has taken, like digital adoption in last five years, I'll not take 10 years, I'll just take five years. Last five years, the digital adoption has been on a very high side. And nowadays, PR agency or a popcorn person, the work is not limited towards the media relation or the media stories. We have to see every opportunity from the 360 degree side. In fact, when any agency work on a, let's say there is a plan for any new project, they are delivering to the client. They always think from the 360 degree perspective, and they always include their digital ideas. And they understand that which all platform they can use. And so many agencies, so many PR professionals, they are using like all digital tools on a very high site. Because we understand our audience. First of all, we have to understand our audience and to reach out to them, we have to go with the right set of platform, platform. We have to adopt that. Of course, I think that we said we have to use all the technologies and all the ways that we can to reach our consumers. So Shashank, moving forward, I'd like to take a fun side for this interaction. You have to list two things that you want to give a thumbs up, that the trend will continue in 2021. And two things that comes down for the trends that you would, you know, would stay back. And we will leave behind for the PR and corporate communications industry. Okay, that's what 2021 you are asking, right? 2021 and the coming years. Yeah. So I would say that now, each and every PR professional need to think from a topical and viral content. And I think the video and digital content will play a big role in that. So the thumbs up, you will see lots of video content, viral content will be coming out from the PR pieces. That's a thumbs up one. The second thing is, I think you will see in next one or two years, one or two years, so many PR professional PR agencies even, they'll come up with so many tools with the use of artificial intelligence and big data analysis. As I said earlier, data analysis has become a very important part for any PR professional life. So I think in the next two, three years, you will see a big jump in that. So that's a second thumbs up from my side. While I say thumbs down, I think first is so many agencies, if they are just working as a media communication channel, they have to come out from their comfort zone. And I think digital agencies will disappear and moreover, PR agencies will convert into PR plus digital. So I would say digital agencies will disappear. That's a thumbs down and PR will merge with digital. That's one. And I think second is the corporate communication function will disappear. Because as I said earlier, the mark on has become new, new black now, I think marketing communication is taking over the corporate communication rules nowadays. Awesome. I think you've summed up very aptly what the trends might be for 2020 and the coming years. So Sushant, I'd like to have a small insight on you from, you know, you run a team and of course you have a lot of members working with you. So what two things do you do to keep your team motivated and together? And these times have been really tough and challenging for everyone around us. So it becomes a mandatory duty for a leader to be a part of this team and take them together. Two things that you did to keep your team together and motivated. Yes. So Anapisa, as I work in a startup, so always startup culture is known to be vibrant. And when I'm working at Droom, you can probably see it in Google Droom, walking culture has always considered as the most vibrant culture in startup industry. And what we do is like, it's not just we have to run after our team always for the work. We have to see how we are making work with the fund. So we do host a Friday evening session where some of our member team member doing the stand-up committee for other members. Then there are some members, they do different sort of dance performance. In fact, we did dance performance during lockdown as well. We did. And we call it as a town hall culture at Droom. We even did some of the yoga meditation session as well for the team. That's what we do. And I think that's how you motivate your team. Work is one thing they have to deliver. They will deliver because that's why they are associated with the team. But yes, we only like to make it fun culture while they are working in startup. And that's what startup is known to me. Work with fun is the key mantra there. If I ask you how did Shashank convert a challenge into an opportunity during these challenging times, then what would that answer be? I think biggest one would be the challenge was that 21 days lockdown period. And during that time only, our management came up with the idea called Germ Shield. And we thought that this is the opportunity. This is the right time because what we did is we helped our real heroes. We always consider that Bollywood people are our real heroes. But I think during pandemic, everyone understood the real heroes were doctors, nurses, the police department because they were taking care of us. So I actually took that as an opportunity and created CSR campaign for entire India. And we actually did help. As I mentioned, Gurgaon Police, Jelly Police, Bangalore Police, Noida Police with our Germ Shield campaign. And though it was challenging to step out during those 21 days because your life was on stake, but I did that because it was my responsibility also to contribute to the society. I went to the DC office. I met them. I took all necessary approvals and we delivered everything. Awesome. And we really congratulate you for your efforts that you put up during that 21 initial days of lockdown. Awesome Tashan, we have come towards the end of our video interaction. So I'd like to ask what message do you want to give to your juniors or your colleagues in this profession? Okay. So one message I would like to give to all the, I would say, budding PR professionals is that you should always be committed towards your work. You should know what you are doing and always deliver with the passion because passion, if you're not passionate about your work, your productivity will be done. So be passionate for your work. Give your 100% to work and result will definitely be there. And one thing because lots of PR professionals generally miss out on that, whenever you are doing do good research and do good data analysis, whatever you are doing, whether you are taking care of PR for any brand, data analysis plays a big role. And if you have any challenge, you are really open to reach out to me. I'll definitely help you out with my best skills, how I do data analysis at my level. I'm open for that. You can always reach out to me on my LinkedIn, on my Twitter, wherever you find me. So all the budding PR professionals who are listening to this interaction, please reach out to Mr. Shashank Sethi for all the kind of good guidance and support. Thank you so much, Shashank, for being a part of this next gen series. And we once again congratulate you on your win. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks, Nafisa, for having me. And big thanks to Exchange for Media team to take this ahead.