What the Flack? Rohini Saldanha | LBBOnline - Little Black Book - LBBonline

Rohini currently heads corporate communications for Wunderman Thompson South Asia. Her career has seen her assume various roles in the media and communications industry spanning public relations, marketing communications and advertising. Prior to Wunderman Thompson, she has worked with Hill+Knowlton Strategies, India, in the MarComm team working on a diverse set of clients across lifestyle, consumer, media and entertainment and corporate verticals. She has single handedly spearheaded a high-intensity, high-profile, global short-term assignment titled 'Hajj-Operation Arafat' with the Ministry of Culture and Information (MOCI) of Saudi Arabia from the H+K India office. In 2018, she was given additional responsibility to head external and internal communications for Hill+Knowlton Strategies India.

Prior to Hill+Knowlton, she has worked with Weber Shandwick's consumer team in Mumbai, on a variety of lifestyle and media brands. She has garnered travel and tourism experience working with several marquee travel and tourism clients such as Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Skyscanner, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Tourism Council of Bhutan. In her early career, she has also worked with a nonprofit - The Akanksha Foundation and advertising agency Bates CHI&Partners.

Rohini has been a jury member at The Drum PR Awards 2021, AdForum's PHNX Tribute 2020, a featured panelist at Adgully's marquee 'Women Disruptors' event, and a speaker at FICCI Frames' 'Shoot at Site' Tourism Conclave in 2013. A Master of Science (MSc) in International Business from the Robert Gordon University, U.K., Rohini has graduated with a distinction in Bachelors of Mass Media from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, with a specialisation in advertising.

A self-confessed foodie who is also a fitness enthusiast, Rohini likes to travel and enjoys a good conversation.

LBB> Tell us about your current role and what you do?

Rohini> In my current role as head corporate communications, Wunderman Thompson South Asia, I am responsible for leveraging the 'Wunderman Thompson (WT)' brand name in South Asia through a well-defined communications strategy. My objective is to build and establish company identity, drive positive perceptions, and bolster our company image and reputation among relevant stakeholders by keeping Wunderman Thompson in the news, and top of the mind for media through distinguished, positive, and consistent brand messaging with a strong focus on the business, our work, talent, and our culture.

LBB> And how did you get to where you are today?

Rohini> My career has seen me assume various roles in the media and communications industry spanning public relations, marketing communications and advertising. I graduated with a distinction in Bachelor of Mass Media from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, with a specialisation in advertising and did my Master of Science (MSc) in International Business from the Robert Gordon University, U.K. I strangely began my career with an advertising agency, a WPP agency - Bates CHI&Partners, working as a brand executive. I then did a short stint with a nonprofit – that was for unprivileged children, and then joined a boutique consultancy that represented several marquee travel and tourism clients, which was my first tryst with PR and marketing. I then branched out to bigger, global PR firms such as Weber Shandwick and Hill+Knowlton Strategies, where I worked on a diverse set of clients across lifestyle, consumer, media and entertainment and corporate verticals. In fact, at Hill+Knowlton Strategies, I got the opportunity to single handedly spearhead a high-intensity, high-profile, global short-term assignment titled 'Hajj-Operation Arafat' with the Ministry of Culture and Information (MOCI) of Saudi Arabia from the H+K India office. In 2018, I was given additional responsibility to head external and internal communications for Hill+Knowlton Strategies India.

Looking back at my career, I realise that every challenge that presented itself unlocked growth, new learnings, and made me stronger as an individual and professional. 

LBB> What does your average day look like?

Rohini> I like to plan ahead. So, I usually know what is lined up for the day and the week. That enables me to coordinate with teams well in advance allowing me to strategically map our comms approach. So, it's usually not chaotic and fairly well structured. Since I look after external and internal communications, media relations, crisis communications and social media management, I have a fair idea of what I need to promote for that day, week and month and will coordinate and encourage teams across our offices to send in updates pertaining to our work, our brand, our culture, and our opinion.

LBB> For your organisation, what is the key function of PR and comms? Is it about company culture? Attracting clients? Empowering talent? Something else?

Rohini> Our main objective with our PR and marketing efforts is to drive preference for our agency brand as an integrated solutions partner with a focus on our work, our people, brand, and opinion (thought leadership) addressing various stakeholders such as media, industry, clients, new biz prospects and talent. Through our comms function, we hope to position Wunderman Thompson as a thought leader in the advertising industry, drive awareness of our capabilities, attract and engage top talent, and re-enforce our growth story & leadership position with relevant stakeholders.

LBB> PR has always been about finding the story / finding the angle. What is your process for staying ahead of the content curve and serving up something fresh and engaging?

Rohini> As a PR professional, you are a marketer who is a master storyteller, so you need to be always curious. Curiosity implies having a hunger for knowledge, to always be in the know, and an analytical mind to question. Thus, to stay up to date, I ensure that I subscribe to newspapers, periodicals and podcasts covering diverse subject matters with different writing styles, to help gain a perspective and form an opinion. As a PR professional you need to be able to build strong connections with multiple stakeholders — including journalists and the media, government agencies, and other prominent industry bodies — and leverage them to shine the spotlight on your client (for all the right reasons 😊), so networking forms a big part of your role. Lastly, it helps to have a mentor in the industry who can provide you with the right advice when you reach a roadblock, or your sounding board when nothing seems to be going your way. 

LBB> Historically Advertising folk have a very different relationship with the media, especially the press, than PR folk. Advertising is about buying ad space and being able to dictate how and where something is presented - that's a degree of control you can barely dream of in PR. Does that tension still exist, and if so how do you navigate that tension?

Rohini> Absolutely. That's a perpetual struggle. Advertising/ marketing and PR are speaking a very similar language – just with slightly different dialects.  They are natural team-mates that work towards the same central purpose - to create a favourable image in the public mind- be it a favourable image of a product, a service, or a company. Together, they're powerful in helping a brand tell its story and generate awareness. However, with PR unlike in advertising, you get to make an impact, with more credibility and believability because a story was independently verified by a trusted third party, rather than purchased. With PR, a brand can pivot their strategies to bring a brand's purpose to life thereby building trust and increasing brand loyalty.  

Moreover, with advertising, you can pay for an advertisement to be shown in the media as many times as your budget allows, however with PR, an advantage is that there are multiple ways of repurposing content across different mediums to different audiences (need be) and can be more effective at reinforcing the message.  As a business you need to consider the differences between advertising and PR to determine which approach is the best for your message. The approach you choose will also depend on the type of message you want to communicate. The most powerful method of communication is when advertising and PR are used together as part of a strategic integrated communication campaign. 

LBB> And what other common misconception do you advertising/production people have about comms and PR?

Rohini> Most people have a very lop-sided idea of PR – they think of it as merely media relations, press release dissemination and coverage.  

Let me first clarify what it really is not. No, it's not just about issuing press releases or about selling / spinning a story. Neither is it only about coverage!! And you don't always get to attend the fancy parties and award nights. You just might be there to promote it! Jokes aside…. You must discern whether a certain piece of content needs a slight prod, push or all out promotion. I think objectively analysing a piece of work and figuring out what the strat approach for leveraging the same would be. People have a false assumption that every piece of work deserves the same treatment which is a misconception that needs to be busted. 

LBB> To what extent do you feel 'the work speaks for itself'? To what stage of growth can a business rely on this mantra to gain more clients? 

Rohini> Goes without saying that the exceptional works grabs eyeballs, particularly of new clients. However, new business prospects when signing up a new agency, also consider a company's identity, image and reputation in the industry and its culture. This is when PR and comms play a vital role in forming the right perceptions and bolstering its leadership position making it a magnet for new clients.

LBB> When it comes to getting coverage/PR for a creative campaign in the consumer press, how should creative teams go about working with their agency's comms and PR experts?

Rohini> Creative teams are so focused on getting their own campaign timelines out, that they seldom realise that they have plan well in advance when it comes to garnering the required media mileage for their campaigns. Timing is everything when it comes to PR and once a piece of news becomes dated, all your best efforts will be futile. When you want to pull out all stops in securing maximum media mileage for your work, creative teams need to ensure that all details pertaining to the work - films/ creatives), success stats, unique features of the work to highlight,  client's expectations from a media coverage point of view (titles and quantum), to how they see PR delivering against their business/ campaign objectives, key markets, target audiences that they would like reached need to be shared with the comms person for them to assess, evaluate and decide on the best way forward.

LBB> When a business is faced with very bad news, what's the key to getting through it?

Rohini> It must be recognised that in today's environment, especially in the competitive marketplace, the company name must evoke trust and respect if its brand is to find a place on the consumer's choice-list. We unfortunately live in a world of proliferation and, concurrently, elimination. 

Every crisis must be carefully evaluated, and the response must be tweaked according to the situation. There is no 'one size fits all' strategic response in a crisis; two identical scenarios can have different responses as they may be taking place at two different times, in two different domains, or with varied company cultures. 

But more often than not, a crisis always merits a response – as they say, 'Feed the shark before it feeds on you!" In today's day and age, it does not work if you choose to lie low. Silence can be misinterpreted and misunderstood and can backfire. Crisis needs to be addressed head-on with a smart strategy when the fires are the hottest whether it is with a direct apology acknowledging the issue or a statement that clarifies the company's standpoint. But always, brands need to respond to a crisis to educate and inform stakeholders with facts and a lot of empathy.

LBB> Generally speaking, how do you approach the hack/flack relationship? 

Rohini> There is no one size fits all strategy ever when it comes to PR. You must adapt with the times and tweak your response accordingly. It's fool hardy to believe that PR is about finding a spin or a hook or fighting a crisis on the opposite end of the spectrum. Sometimes, it could be as simple as not saying something when provoked or not jumping on a trend bandwagon because everyone is doing it. Only the wise will know that PR does not 'constant' promotion. Actively posting on social channels or pushing out content can be perceived as the company in question does not understand PR thoroughly enough to know how to harness it to their advantage. 

LBB> What are the most useful tools in the arsenal of a PR / comms professional working in advertising / creative industries right now?

Rohini> • Knowledge – with data, tech and martech shaping creative campaigns, as a PR professional, you get to know how to creatively integrate them when communicating with a brand's business.

• Creative collaboration - Ability to meet and network with some of the most brilliant creative and strategic minds and sharpen your storytelling and analytical skills. 

LBB> In your opinion, how has the role of a PR / Comms professional evolved during your career span? Have things changed greatly or do core tasks / principles remain the same?

Rohini> The essential tasks remain the same but digital has upped the game on how brands communicate. Brands need to connect with consumers at a deeper, more meaningful, authentic manner than ever before and they never had a better time to make their brands more relevant. With a boom in tech and digital technologies, a PR professional needs to be nimble in their thinking and have the ability to cleverly craft, calibrate and communicate a content strategy that evolves with changing behaviours of customers. 

LBB> What frustrates you about the way the media and PR have changed over the years?

Rohini> I wouldn't say 'frustrates' but rather pushes one to be vigilant, cautious, and innovative enough to make a meaningful impactful with audiences. Optimizing paid, earned, and even owned media begins with understanding each channel's strengths and weaknesses. The post pandemic world has given to a rise in digital consumption, with social media and influencer marketing revolutionizing the way brands interact with their customers, nudging PR experts to recalibrate their strategy of engaging with them on that platform.

One must constantly monitor where your audience is, what content are they consuming and how they are engaging with brands, and mapping how you want to communicate with your audience, what is the message you want to craft to capture their attention and make a meaningful impact. While earned media is usually the most credible, the rise of digital technology is making the scales tilt more towards paid efforts. 

With diminishing attention spans, videos formats and visual storytelling are the most preferred forms of how consumers want to consume content. As a PR professional it becomes critical to analyze data and measure the effectiveness of your campaign and recalibrate accordingly. With technology continually evolve, media and PR must be agile enough to adapt and evolve too. This in turn puts the focus on crisis management and brands need to be prepared to respond to crises quickly and effectively.

LBB> And what excites you?

Rohini> I think the excitement and satisfaction of developing a data-driven, insight-led approach, enabling you to mobilize a client's public in a meaningful way that creates measurable outcomes for them. 

Whether you're employed by a PR agency working on multiple accounts, or representing an individual or a company, what you're doing is not just building brand awareness. You're strategically building the reputation, trust, and credibility for the client you manage.  In a way, it's a job that puts you in the driver's seat, helping to drive a brand's narrative, control the messaging, and how you want your brand to be perceived or just set the record straight, clarifying biased views and misconceptions.