Decluttering and Demystifying PR, the Teamwork way

By Nikky Gupta

In the winter of 2009, when a group of media professionals conceived the idea of Teamwork, the public relations market in India was already overcrowded with hundreds of big, medium, small PR firms with some or the other new company being floated by PR amateurs every other day. So we cannot claim that we came up with some path breaking idea that would transform the world.

But yes, there was something that these media professionals had observed working in the field and felt closely and reached a conclusion that despite being over populated the PR industry in India still lacks on many fronts. They felt that the top-liners of the industry had made brand building, image and reputation management a cliché than an actual exercise. At the same time, there were too many smaller players who had nearly made PR synonymous to Press Release distribution.  

Metaphorically saying, the PR scenario in India was as opaque as Delhi’s hazy whether at that time.

The people behind Teamwork were driven by the thought of bringing transparency and efficiency to the industry so that organizations can look at PR as a productive and reliable medium to make inroads into the hearts of their public and win their trust, the most critical element for organizational or individual success. The seed of revolution were sown and the blossom came faster than expected…

Passionate towards healthcare communication, the team forayed into the formal business from a tiny room of a 400 sq ft DDA flat at Shahpur Jat locality of the capital city with a young cosmetologist as its sole client. The initial infrastructure of the company mainly included a laptop and a few sets of visiting cards. With its meticulous approach, understanding of healthcare issues, and remarkable capability for media friendly content, no need to mention media contacts, we soon won the trust of our sole client who himself turned into our brand ambassador and started recommending teamwork in his circles.

Soon Teamwork signed another client, this time a medi spa which came through the recommendation of our first client. This instilled a notion in our heart that the core objective of the company shall always be to render PR services to our clients to the best of their satisfaction and they themselves will help us in growing.

Within months into business, Teamwork Communication Solutions Pvt. Ltd. emerged as one of the fastest growing PR and brand management consultancies in India. With a team of young dynamic, and go-getter media professionals at the helm, the company soon became a name to reckon with, and a host of clients varying from individuals to small start-ups to big corporate found a prolific partner in their pursuit to prominence and success. 

Teamwork has always believed in a famous saying “It is not enough that one has clearness of vision, and reliance on sincerity, one must also have the art of expression, or he will remain obscure.”  We are convinced to the core that the size of a company does not matter, what matters is how creatively and distinctively it connects to its target audience and wins their trust.  

Professionals at Teamwork are always busy in churning out those breakthrough ideas that transform the image of our clients and enable their business stand apart in highly competitive and cluttered marketplace. Creating strategies that are not only unique, creative and innovative but also “different with a purpose” is not less than a religion for our team. Our war-cry is produce results, whatever it takes.

As a proof that the company has been able to stay focused on its mission, Teamwork was awarded as the Best Healthcare PR Agency in 2013 and Specialist PR Consultancy of The Year award in IPRCC Awards 2013 where it was selected by a jury comprising stalwarts of corporate communication, PR and media led by Dr. Sanjay Baru, former media advisor to Prime Minister of India.

Teamwork bags specialized agency award at IPRCC Award 2013

India’s only super specialized PR agency in healthcare, Teamwork Communication Solutions, received accolades at the India PR & Corporate Communications Awards 2013 for its work in the field of health and persistent efforts to highlight issues of public health concern.

The agency that has worked incessantly in the field of healthcare PR and conducted numerous campaigns to bring awareness about select health issues bagged the award for ‘Specialist Consultancy of the Year’ in a gala ceremony on Friday night.

The award recognizes the work done by the PR agency and specialist division with a PR consultancy whose business is concentrated on a specific sector, whether an industry sector, a market segment or a PR discipline, in this case it was healthcare PR.

The awardees were selected by a jury comprising 14 eminent Indian communications, PR and media professionals.

“It is a great honour to be recognized for our efforts which we have been putting in to make healthcare communication a specialized segment in India that also caters to pertinent public health issues. At Teamwork, our effort has been to carve a niche for ourselves in this domain and make healthcare communication a tool that would eventually make a difference in the lives of people,” said Kamal Narayan, Director, Teamwork Communication Solutions.

The jury members included former media adviser to the Prime Minister of India, Dr Sanjay Baru, who is currently Director Geo-Economics and Strategy, IISS; Anup Jain Sr. Director Strategic Projects Pizza Hut India; Deepa M Thomas, Ecommerce Evangelist, EBay, and Seema Ahuja, Head Corporate Communication, Biocon, among others.

“It is good to see a PR agency trying to focus in a specialized way on a particular domain, in this case health, and this augurs well for the industry. It would be interesting to see more companies establish themselves as specialized companies and develop expertise in select domains,” said Narayan Madhawan, Sr Journalist, Hindustan Times, a member of the jury.

The India PR & Corporate Communications Awards are one of the most prestigious recognitions in the field of PR that recognize the contributions and achievements of PR agencies in a broad list of categories.

Teamwork Communication Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (TCS) is a leading Public Relations advisory with extensive experience in various sectors, ranging from Healthcare to Education to Corporate and Entertainment.

The agency functions as a one-stop shop for all type of media and communication services and its team of young and dynamic professionals makes it a name to reckon with.

It not only offers consultancy and PR services to leading healthcare organizations and companies, it also takes the issues of public health concern seriously.

The agency has conducted a range of media campaigns to generate awareness around several healthcare subjects that need to be talked about and brought into public discourse.

Be it deadly diseases like cancer, tuberculosis, HIV, malaria, dengue, myeloma or those causing impairment and disabilities like glaucoma, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, spasticity, Teamwork Communication Solutions (TCS) has conducted several awareness campaigns around them.

The consultancy has also conducted campaigns to raise awareness on public health issues like smoking and tobacco hazards and the need to contain them.

Other jury members in the panel were Deepak Jolly,  VP Public Affairs & Communications Coca Cola India; LV Krishnan, TAM Media Research; Pranjal Sharma, Editorial Advisor, Columnist, Business World; Senjam Raj Sekhar, Director Communication, Vedanta Group; Sharvani Dang, VP Avantha; Viraj Chauhan, Corpcom director MTS.

The company had been awarded as the best healthcare PR agency in north India for 2012 by Big Brands Academy.

PR nurtures a mutual relation between brand and its customer

In the era of cut-throat competition, where every one is trying to out-do the other, it becomes practically impossible to get a step ahead. While a meticulous planning, strategy, and quality control do matter when it come to winning customer loyalty, the good work of an organization remain obscure until not communicated to its people, customers and other stakeholders.

Today doing good business doesn’t only mean making monitory profits, the reliability and success of a business can only be ascertained by its reputation and appreciation that it gets from its customers as well as employees.

The world has seen a lot of companies and brands that have caught the imagination of the people across the globe. Brands like Apple, HP, Google, XBOX, Blackberry, Zara are just few example of some of the most innovative brands that command wide-spread appreciation from millions of people worldwide.

These thousands of case studies have proved that to achieve the towering success for a brand, one does not need just communication or transmission of information. The communication that is meant to manifest the nature, thinking and vision of a brand needs to be innovatively planned and strategized. Here comes the need of Strategic communication that can take a brand closure to the hearts of its target audience.

Strategic Communication is the most important part of Public Relation which helps in creating an aura around a company and helps it to climb the ladder of brand recognition and recall. A good public relations plays a strategic role which extents the impact and credibility of advertising.

Advertising makes the brands known among the public but public relations develops public understanding and acceptance for those familiar brands with well defined strategies and make it popular as well as adorable. It involves a definite set of activities to formulate public attitudes to influence the public opinion towards a particular brand.

A well planned PR activity not only creates hype for brands but also keeps the momentum with frequent brand exposures. It manages regular communication with the public to keep them informed about every development that occurs in the company, may be communicating about a new product, spreading news about your company or making a major announcement. Most importantly, it develops in the consumer a sense that the brand also care for them.

It is also about targeting the right audience with the right information through the right medium. If the company fails to connect with the relevant audience in a timely manner, its business is a failure. There are millions who do the same business, how could the company beat the competition and prove that it is better depends on the marketing strategies the company adopts. 

After 4Ps – Product, price, place and promotion of marketing, it is the time for the fifth ‘P’ public relations.