The Holmes Report wrote about the PR personalities/firms helping Lalit Modi tell his side of his story – do note I’m not referring to any personal opinion on whether he is right or wrong; that is completely beyond the scope of this post.
On November 3rd, The Holmes Report wrote about how Chime Communications (London) may be in talks with Lalit Modi to handle his PR, along with long-time friend Dilip Cherian, in India.
As a PR/media professional, this news should interest you in light of what Lalit Modi pulled off, last night. What a PR agency may have considered doing earlier is to get the most credible/known journalist to interview Modi and air it/print it in a known/credible media publication/channel. Other media, in turn, will opine on it, while merely quoting from the original interview. The credibility factor is not involved here at all – or, Modi and his friends create their own platform for credibility, depending on how much you trust the way it was executed and ‘aired’.
Clients continue to ask PR agencies about media ‘coverage’ and the measurement in India still struggles to go beyond column centimeters. In such a media-centric PR, the kind of advise that Modi may have got from his agency (agencies) is interesting. Of course, his story is indeed different – it is topical and of immense interest to the media. But, perhaps because he has lost trust in traditional media not communicating what he wants, Modi chose to be his own media so that he can control the messaging.
This is what most clients dream of, in PR 1.0.
But, also consider how Modi’s actions changes the status quo.
1. He treats media as one among the public – there’s no special concession given to them just because they have the power to amplify his messages. Now, with his online pull, he can amplify his own messages too.
2. The media did amplify Modi’s messages, but were forced to line up in front of YouTube together – there’s no exclusive, no competition to get it first and in fact, no space to ask questions either. Yahoo India put out the transcript of the interview as-is within 30 minutes of the video going live, while TV news channels in India were constantly scrolling Modi’s utterances right from 9 pm, with the exception of NewsX, DD1 and Lok Sabha channel.
3. Earlier, media decided when a piece of news should go on air/print – now, Modi crafts all that. He issued a teaser, first on November 23rd and then again on November 24th. Yesterday, he did what TV news channels spend a lot of time doing – announcing a program/breaking news – oh so casually, on Twitter. It all seems perfectly orchestrated and expertly executed too.
4. There is definite professional help in choosing the way the ‘interview’ (if you call it that) is filmed. The choice of the ‘host’ (former BBC Sports Editor and sports/business commentator, Mihir Bose), the way the host is allowed to ask questions that the media usually does, the way Modi answers them with well-scripted panache…all have a media’ish charm to them – just that there is no media involved. Modi does everything himself, with a little help from friends.
5. Take a look at some of the comments on his YouTube channel. Media can (and will) add their opinion on what Modi says. They would even, understandably, want to make their reporting sound neutral by adding opinions of others involved. But on his own channel (on YouTube), Modi presents what he wants to, in his own words. There’s no messaging dilution with others’ opinions. It goes without saying that people will buy/not buy what he is saying depending on their preconceived notions or the lack of it.
Now, you may ask…can any other PR client pull this off? After all, media is interested in Modi because he’s not available to them and since he hasn’t said anything on this topic for quite some time.
I get that question. And, not every PR client can pull this off. But I believe this is a classic content play, one that PR is less known for and one that is drowned in the relationship play. As a PR professional, our first job, in my opinion, is to create compelling content for the client, from what they tell us. The ‘compelling’ part comes from knowing our target audience right and be aware of what will interest them.
The second part is, of course, promotion of that content.
Modi had the content part on a platter, due to what he is and what he hasn’t said so far. Where he and his friends used their creativity is in the promotion part – on how to package what he had to say, how to time that appropriately and how to promote it exceptionally well.
It’d be interesting to see how this helps the man and his cause. If he was looking at visibility for his messages, he has got it!