pr trends in pakistan

8/3/2019 PR Trends in Pakistan

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management and communicating that direction to key stakeholders through relevant

mechanisms.

What is the current definition of PR in Pakistan, how important this department is in the

current time?

The leading companies in Pakistan are practicing public relations in accordance with

international best practices. Globally, managing the flow of information between an organization

and its audience is dubbed as the main objective of PR.

Over the years, companies in Pakistan have started paying special attention to Public Relations.

You can see the impact of this focus reflected in the growth of the affiliated industries such as

PR agencies, press monitoring agencies and more recently, dedicated event management

companies. However, to be fair, the local PR industry is still in its infancy especially in terms of

the tools used.

Another important factor that will play a positive role in making PR discipline more effective

and prominent in Pakistan is the tremendous boom in our media industry. This has given rise to

unprecedented opportunities for companies to enhance their corporate image, brand equity and

goodwill through PR activities.

What are the key PR norms globally?

If I were to put my pulse on the global norms, I would say that word of mouth is still the way it is

done. The objectives remain the same; the technique has changed immensely. Currently there is a

lot of buzz on the digital media and we see more individual publishing, that is, blogging and

social networking. This is primarily because the leading markets needed alternate channels tobreak from the information overload that took place during the last few years. People were

literally bombarded with advertisements from multiple and countless channels.

Today communication is more personalized and interactive. There is a lot of effort put into

measuring impact and taking a more targeted approach that is highly segmented.

What are the key PR tactics that are commonly used in Pakistan?


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There are three types of companies in Pakistan ones that dont engage in PR; ones that are

actively involved and then there are companies that indulge in what they think is PR.

Speaking for companies that really and truly do engage in PR work over a broad spectrum of

areas that includes corporate communication and image building through press statements,

events, interviews and speaking engagements; stakeholder mapping and relationshipmanagement; strategic and crisis management as well as media relations. A very important factor

is also measuring the success of PR activities as well as constantly seeking to identify and

leverage local media trends and engage in new media.

What should the media agency client relationship look like? How does it look like in

Pakistan?

The strength of the agency-client and agency-media relationship really determines the overall

relationship which should ideally be built upon credibility, sincerity and maturity. In Pakistan, it

is at a median curvestill growing with mutual understanding and trust.

In the best case scenario, the agency should act as an extension of the clients enterprise and the

media should accept it as such. The client in turn should have the comfort to rely on the agency

for strategic and valuable inputs including shifts in public opinion, implications of projected

policies and other elements in the larger picture.

Who should media approach for comments?

There are two sides to every story and sometimes even more. The responsibility of presenting a

balanced view lies with the media. This is something they owe to their readers and audience.

When official comment is sought and included this also helps boost the credibility of the news

piece.

Any company with a well established PR department is likely to maintain a Press Center or

Media enquiries page on their official website that contains the spokesperson details and contact

information. There is also usually an officially designated spokesperson of the company. For

other companies this might be Head of External Relations, Corporate Communications or Public

Affairs Manager and so on. When there is no such rep listed, one can always contact the Head of

Marketing for the companys official version. PR agency contacts usually maintain more than


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one client portfolio and hence can always come in handy when it comes to attaining such

information.

What happens when an incorrect story is filed or media behaves unethically?

Fortunately, with the tremendous growth in print and electronic media, the ethics and standard ofreporting has also improved significantly. Yet, sometimes it does happen that an incorrect story

is filed in print or electronic media. This may be unintentional on account of poor research or

pure error such as a misplaced decimal or digit. In either case, it has tremendous capability to

damage the image of the company as well as create legal and financial ramifications if this is

related to financial performance, ratings etc. In such cases, organizations first response would be

to seek out the source of the story and share the correct version. Depending on implications,

there is usually a need for a clarification or rebuttal to present actual and factual information.

Retractions do not look good on the medias part and hence, it is best that caution is exercised

early on.

Where does a social / digital medium fall in the local PR grid?

The social media has arrived in a big way. Being a two-way communication channel social

media has brought some revolutionary changes in PR and how one goes about it. That said, the

importance of the web cannot be neglected.PR department owns the responsibility for web

strategy development relative to blogging, pod casting or RSS, social search, social networking,

micro blogging and, to some extent, web content management. The online media is no longer a

peripheral medium but rather a core discipline to be maintained by a dedicated resource.

Inter Services Public Relations

History

The public relations requirements of the Armed Forces are looked after by the ISPR Directorate.

The ISPR Directorate was established in 1949 as Army's Colonel Shabaz Khan was appointed itsfirst director-general. Commodore Maqbool Hussain is the only naval officer of the Pakistan

Defence Forces to have privileged to head the directorate. The majority of its executive heads

had come from the Army Branch, and as of today, Army's 2 star rank officer is heading the ISPR

directorate.

In Pakistan's military staff appointments and assignments, the ISPR is one of the most

prestigious directorate of Pakistan Armed Forces. Its executive officer is also a chief military
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_officerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_officer


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spokesperson of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The director-general directly reports

to Chairman ofJoint Chiefs of Staff Secretariat, Chief of Army StaffofPakistan Army as well

the head also directly report to Chief of Air StaffofAir Force,Commandant ofMarines, and

the Chief of Naval StaffofNavy and the Coast Guard.

Operatrions

The ISPR directorate is staffed with combined military of Pakistan Defence Forces alongside

with large sum of civilian officers. It functions as a part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Secretariat

and its purpose is to garner national support for the Armed Forces and strengthen their resolve to

accomplish the assigned mission while undermining the will of the adversary.

It also acts as an interface between the Armed Forces, the media and the public. It formulates

much of the media policy of Pakistan's military, safeguards the Armed Forces from negative

influences and monitors both international and domestic media

Principal Media Network

The ISPR also issues notices regarding military exercises and notifies relevant parties and the

public media about Pakistan's indigenous ballistic missile testing program. Apart from

functioning as the public relations body of the Pakistan Army, the ISPR handles exclusive

dissemination of information regarding Pakistan's military operations in Wana & Swat. The news

of a clash in Balochistan between military contingents and unknown armed personnel resulting

in the death of the tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti was also verified once the ISPR issued

comments on the news. The news regarding the recent events of the Lal Masjid conflict was also

disseminated by the ISPR.
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pr trends in pakistan

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