Raheem Akingbolu
Asalvo has been thrown at the Nigerian public relations and marketing communications industry by a former top player in the industry, Dr. Phil Osagie, who challenged stakeholders in the industry to do a complete rethink of philanthropy and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Preaching the ‘charity begins at home’ creed, Osagie also called on clients to always go far beyond the Motherless Babies Home by championing their own philanthropy programmes consistently. “Then they can have the convictions and the expertise to propose and execute well-thought-out CSR strategies for their clients,” he stated.
Osagie spoke at a special educational session organised by the Lagos NIPR, where he outlined seven new rules for success for the Nigerian PR industry that is believed to be facing two major challenges- a proliferation of many agencies and a revolution of rising clients’ expectations.
The PR expert who was a leading player in the country before relocating part of his business interest to abroad, noted that the present practice of most companies limiting their charity programmes to “over trumpeted visitation to an orphanage around Christmas, reflects a tokenism that does not capture the essence of meaningful corporate philanthropy and a key manifestation of public relations- to do good and communicate, forget not.”
He identified the seven rules to include; identity and solve a PR problem only you can see, in-depth understanding of the new media, know Google and Big Data and content is King, layout is Queen. Others are; apply the long tail theory in PR and marketing, rethink philanthropy and think like the rich.
Under the first rule, which borders on the need to identify and solve a PR problem that can be seen, Osagie stated that it called for the skillful application of the blue ocean strategy to the PR business by creating uncontested market spaces and making competition irrelevant through the relentless pursuit of differentiation
On the in-depth understanding of the new media rule, he pointed out that it means taking PR beyond press releases and media relations and emphasise the dynamics of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Wikis, Digg and other social media platforms, which he said should be included in the bouquet of offerings to clients.
His third rule, which he called ‘Know Google and Big Data’ was like a wakeup call on professionals on the need to know how to be found quickly on Google through key words research and Search Engine Optimisation. “PR advisers need to understand Big Data. which allows you to gather information from a variety of platforms and situations to create demographic models and buyers’ personas. This ensures Strategic PR messaging and micro targeting,” he stated.
The expert used the whole of the fourth rule to speak on the importance of content by declaring that compelling content as opposed to mere promotional content can be created through the application of what he termed ‘Curve Psychology’; curiosity, urgency, relevancy, value and emotion.
Speaking further he said his fifth rule on the long tail theory suggests that, as the Internet makes distribution easier and word of mouth recommendations increases, demand will shift from the most popular products at the “head” of a demand curve- to the aggregate power of a long “tail” made up of demand for many different niche products.
“Now that consumers can find and afford products more closely tailored to their individual tastes, they will migrate away from homogenised hits. The wise company, therefore, will stop relying on blockbusters and focus on the profits to be made from the long tail. In the PR industry, press releases, events and media relations are the head. Other services such as training, gut research, strategic surveys, digital footprint management for CEOs can be offered as the tail,” he stated.
