Uninor Launch Press Meet

Hello Peers!

In my previous posts I have set platform to discuss my experience thus far in my internship placement. While I believe most of you are interning at in-house PR/Corporate Communication departments of organisations with your principle obligation towards only that particular organisation, mine is different proposition all together.

Uninor a joint venture between Telenor and Unitech is the latest to enter India's already crowded mobile service provider market. Understandably, Uninor wanted a grand launch to catch the nation's attention through blanket media coverage. Perfect Relations was entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating simultaneous launch across India.

In Hyderabad Perfect Relations, a team of five professionals were working tirelessly to attract the media for the launch. It was during this advanced stages of organising the launch that I joined Perfect Relations and I was immediately put into the Uninor account to assist the core team.

Upon my joining the team, I was thoroughly briefed about the status by the team head. It seems there were many events happening on launch day across city and therefore we were competing for media attention with other agencies and organisations.

The question then was: how to attract the media to our event?

The answer, my team head told me lay in dedicated effort and undivided attention to media. The team huddled together to list out all local and regional print and electronic media that were seen as essential for boosting client's appearance and credentials. Once this list was ready, the team members divided among themselves the media outlets they would personally visit based on their level of bonhomie with the specific members of the media outlets. While I was a spectator during this entire process, the learning I derived out of this experience is invaluable.

It became clear to me public relations and more so professional public relations (in this case media relations) was all about being proactive and taking the initiative in seemingly tough situations. This to a large extent is what I have learnt in my PR classes but to experience it and be part of it first hand is an all together different feeling.

The Launch Day: December 3, 2009

The launch was planned for December 2, 2009. But due to circumstances beyond our control (which I cannot share with you all due to company policy) the launch was pushed to December 3, 2009 after much uncertainty over new launch date. All my senior colleagues in the team swung into action making numerous courtesy calls, emails and alerts to media informing them of the change in launch date and what to look for in the postponed launch. All the while, the team head educated and kept me informed about the calls being made, the need for those calls, how they phrase the conversation and much more. I gained invaluable experience in handling media by simply being part of the team and observing my vastly experienced senior colleagues performing their job.

The postponed launch and the subsequent press meet was scheduled for 11am initially and later rescheduled to 3pm, again underscoring the fluid unpredictable nature of press conferences. The entire team met in the morning for a briefing session. My senior team members were entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring large media presence and co-ordinating the conference, while I was given the task of putting together the media kits. Additionally, at the launch I was to take notes during the Question and Answer Session between Uninor Spokesperson Mr. Dushyan (Executive Vice President) and the gathered members of the media. This notes would then be immediately sent across to various news wires and Perfect Relations offices across India for synchronization. Understandably, I felt giddy and overwhelmed by the key task entrusted to me and not to forget that was my first ever experience of a live press conference, let alone having played a part in its organizing.

The questions form the media ranged from Uninor's brand positioning strategies to service quality. The spokesperson, I observed, answered all the questions orienting them to Uninor's "strong brand value proposition". This was interesting and I made a mental note to ask my team head about my observation. But that could wait. Soon after the Q&A session I was told by my team head to telephone the office and pass my notes verbally to my supervisor for immediate dispatch to national media outlets.

Once that was done, I was free to interact with members of media and tend to my hungry stomach. I was introduced to certain members of the media by my senior colleague and was an experience I will carry with me for a long time to come.

Back in the office, after i had finished word processing my notes, I was told by my supervisor that the spokesperson was briefed about possible questions by media and the preferred line of answer. That was why the spokesperson stuck to his answers pegged to the launch's key messages. Haven't we studied this in our PR 250 (Media)? Well again, seeing it and experiencing it personally in a professional environment is a different ball game than coming across it in a classroom.

Tight Spots During the Launch

All right people, what I have written thus far has been a narration of my first project as an internee. It was not as smooth as I have made it appear in my linear narration. There were times, rather instances, when I had to step back from a certain development and think ' whoa! this is not how i was told in the class' before I let the development seep into me. For instance, even few hours before the grand launch the media kits were not ready. There were some sudden changes made to the press release and therefore requiring reprinting. There was a palpable sense of chaos as the team head dashed few urgent emails and made emergency calls to get the media kit ready. I was roped in to assemble the kits as other colleagues were occupied making last minute media calls. It was while I stood assembling the kits that I realised preparations are never as smooth even when the agency in question is the premier agency in the country. The scurrying team members running around in the office making last minute preparations was an indication to me that the cool demeanour exuded by PR professionals in the open is a mask that hides their anxiety felt within. This realisation strangely had a calming effect on me as I started to see my senior colleagues as humans, as fallible as any next door neighbour. This also pointed to a fact that while perfect planning is a must in a professional PR, it is also equally important to react and adapt to the changing situations quickly (ideally in real time).

I would like end this post of mine with a cliche to sum up my experience:

'All is well that ends well'

Oh yeah, below I have pasted the Q&A notes I took during the press meet ( P.S. I don't know how to attach the file to my post so decided to paste the text directly into my post)

UNINOR LAUNCH 3/12/09
Press Meet
Question and Answer Session
(Prepared by Suhas Tadas)

Question 1: Indian Mobile Telecom market has been introduced to per/second billing. How will UNINOR then make its 29paise its USP?
- Our USP is our strong brand value.
- Its about owning the number 29
- Our tariff plan is the lowest in India

Question2: Why should a customer choose UNINOR?
- UNINOR is not here to grab entire market but to penetrate significant share of the telecom market (8% by 2018).
- Indian market has a huge potential and those customers who identify with our value system will subscribe to our service.

Question 3: From your presentation, we understand only 50 cities/towns of Andhra Pradesh are covered through UNINOR. Is this network enough? When will UNINOR expand?
- 50 cities/towns are reached but in the process 2000 villages are also being reached.
- 2.8 crores (28million) people being reached through existing network.

Question 4: What is UNINOR’S game plan? How will UNINOR differentiate from competitors? Is UNINOR late in entering the market?
- India has a churn rate of 40% (people wanting to switch networks). We will aim to tap into this market segment.
- Our strong value driven services will help differentiate our brand from our competitors.

Question 5: A general complaint in Andhra Pradesh is call dropping. How will UNINOR address this issue? How will it increase the number of towers?
- UNINOR has invested and devoted resources to strengthen the network to ensure no call dropping.
- Partnered with vendors like Oracle to strengthen CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
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Question 6: Has UNINOR done any research on name, logo, and design before the launch?
- Not exactly but these things have been tried and tested in 11 other countries and the success there has been phenomenal.

Question 7: What is the number of customers UNINOR is targeting for first year?
- We are driven by our strong brand value and are not number driven.
- Believe in long term projection. 8% by year 2018.
Question 8: UNINOR aims to break even by year 3 and be profitable by year 5. How much revenue do you foresee?
- We are not concentrating on numbers

Question 9: How much investments have been made till today?
- 1.2 Billion USD

Question 10: Whare your outsourcing model? To whom have you (UNINOR) outsourced?
- IT to Wipro
- 5 other big vendors (Tata, Huawei, Alkatel…)
- Call centre to Spaarsh in Andhra Pradesh.

Question 11: Do you think number portability will benefit you?
- The Indian market has huge potential and we are aiming to penetrate the market based on our superior services and brand value not only number portability.

Question 12: Why did you not break down call plans to seconds? Why per/minute?
- Average Call Length 110seconds in India. Our call plan is based accordingly.
- We identify with customers who call a lot or talk a lot.