The Faculty of Mass Communication & Media Technology organized an expert talk on ’Creativity in Advertising, PR & Digital Media.

The Faculty of Mass Communication & Media Technology organized an expert talk on ’Creativity in Advertising, PR & Digital Media at the SGT University campus. All the faculty members along with the students participated in the session. The keynote speaker of the workshop was Prof. Dr. Pijush Dutta from AIMC and Prof. Pushpa Nair former director (strategy) of Perfect Relations. BJMC sixth-year student Utkarsha was the moderator of the event for the day. The workshop aimed to acquaint students with the creative process of developing
advertisements and integrating public relations and digital media strategies in building a brand.

The event started with a welcome note from the Dean of the Department, Prof. Sushil Manav. Reminiscing his time as a journalist he mentioned that digital media has brought a complete 360-degree shift in the way the media industry operates now. He said that due to the advancement of technology, we have the liberty and the flexibility to use creativity which can give a mileage to the brand and thereby relatively higher media coverage.

 

Prof. Dr. Pijush Dutta said that while developing creative strategies we must remember that creativity is inherent in everyone and the only requirement is to develop ‘out of the box thinking’ and good observational skills to generate an idea. He said a chaiwala became the inspiration behind the jingle ‘’hum ko ye bhi nahi mangta hum ko wo bhi nahi mangta’’ for Binnie chips who was singing a song in his local language and had come to give tea to the members present in the conference room who were brainstorming the idea for the advertisement.

He emphasized the need to understand consumer behavior, their pulse, their psyche and what is it that you are offering to the consumer with your brand. He said as soon as you get an idea just jot it down on a piece of paper even if you don’t use it immediately so that it gets registered in your mind.

He said everything begins with an idea, and you need to have lots of ideas to zero down to the final one and said that no idea is bad; in fact, an idea should be challenging, scary, or anything extremely unusual as well. He divided the students into two groups and asked them to prepare and execute an ad campaign on the ongoing Basant Utsav happening in the university which will be screened on Holi Festival and also asked them to think like an Ad or PR professional and not as students for the same. He talked about the significance of storytelling in this digital age and said with every big idea there is a story and it has to be a story that the consumers can relate to.

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He also gave some tips for digital media storytelling with the help of a PPT presentation. A quiz contest was also conducted to engage the students fully in the workshop and increase their participation wherein various taglines and logos were shown to the students through different PPT slides and students were asked to identify the names of the brand. Winners were given prizes and gifts based on the answers that they gave to the questions asked in the quiz.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prof. Pushpa Nair said we need to have a clear understanding of the difference between public relations and advertising and the importance of integrating marketing efforts. She also mentioned that PR is not just restricted to reputation and good imagery now but is much beyond and due to the rise in influencer marketing there is a complete shift in buying behavior hence strategies to exploit digital media have to be integrated with public relations campaigns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Head of the Department, Assistant Professor Mr. Kranti Anand concluded the event with a vote of thanks to the Dean Sir, the speakers, all the students, and the faculties for such an interactive session and said that the workshop was not only beneficial to the students but was extremely insightful and full of learning for the faculties as well. He mentioned that the main aim behind this workshop was to cover a part of the curriculum and give practical exposure to the students to execute campaigns for advertising and public relations but this has been a valuable addition for each one present in the workshop. The speakers also expressed gratitude to the Dean of the department, Prof. Sushil Manav for the invitation and told all the students that success is assured if they keep the passion alive in the work and never let go of the enthusiasm.