To honour the top brands born in Bengal and had contributed for the nation’s economy, Kolkata chapter of Public Relations Society of India has recently unveiled ‘#BengalToNation” campaign. As a part of this, the society had shortlisted top brands which had proven that Bengal is a potential market for business. However, the popular belief is that it is against business. In an exclusive chat with MediaNews4U, Soumyajit Mahapatra, Chairman, PRSI, Kolkata speaks on the campaign and the plans of the forum.
Please explain what made you bring a concept called #BengalToNation?
2018 was a landmark year for PRSI (Public Relations Society of India) as the organization completed its Diamond Jubilee. Basically, in order to mark this achievement, we identified 50 brands that originated from Bengal and managed to spread their wings across the Nation. To appreciate their achievement in making our Bengal proud, we released their names on 33rd National Public Relations Day (April 21, 2019) on our website. We strongly hope that our initiative and endeavor will help people recognize these brands and will positively contribute in making and nurture an environment where ‘Bengal Means More Business’. We have further planned to organize an event where we will felicitate the brands. You can say, this is a small attempt on behalf of our organization to contribute to the overall growth and development of Bengal.
What are the key outcomes you are expecting from this campaign?
The basic function of Public relations is to inform key people with information and establish a positive perception among people. From our perspective, we think that Bengal is now undergoing a very critical stage and we should work together to achieve the overall developmental goals. Since all these brands are very successful in their respective field and originated from Bengal this campaign will be a golden opportunity to create more positive perception about West Bengal. We hope this campaign will definitely create an effective brand image for Bengal and bring more investments from inside and outside the country from different fields in future. Investment and building up of new industries will definitely empower our state. Bengal has always empowered and guided the country by its intellectual wealth. But the overall growth and development is somehow hindered for many difficulties. That is why, we launched this campaign to strengthen the process of growth for Bengal.
What are the key modes and methodologies you had adopted for promoting #BengalToNation?
We have utilized different social media platforms to make awareness on this campaign. Facebook posts, blogs and different write-ups on this campaign are being circulated through different channels. Video prepared to create awareness with this campaign .
How many companies are part of this initiative and how is the response for this so far?
Fifty companies have been included in this campaign so far. The response is appreciable. There are also many other companies which also deserve to be highlighted under the tag of #Bengaltonation. We will gradually include those names in the next level.
How are you planning to take this #BengalToNation campaign to the next level?
We are planning one event in the third quarter of this year where we can felicitate those brands and discuss directly with the representatives of those organizations. We are also planning to make one compiled map of their origination & growth. We will give them a platform to share their success stories with everyone. So that the new start ups or people who are new in the business landscape will get motivated by the stories.
What are the other activities planned by PRSI?
On August 6 ,2019, we will organize 8th edition digital media conference titled ‘Engage’ at ITC Sonar with the theme ‘Digital Innovation: Imagination meets Ambition’. Besides this, we regularly organize workshop /seminar on different socially effective issues such as women empowerment, community development and topics related to communication strategies/CSR, media relations, digital marketing, cyber security and more. We aim to provide the aspiring Public Relations professionals a proper knowledge and training besides their academic training. The sole approach of this organization is to maintain the quality and standard of Public Relations as a profession in India.
