INTERNSHIP REPORT

‘Summer Internship at Ketchum Sampark’

Mumbai, Maharashtra
2nd July 2018 – 2nd September 2018

Student Name: Shrey Mehrotra

Master in Journalism & Mass Communication
Diploma in Advertising & Public Relation

Jagran Institute of Management & Mass Communication

Noida

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PREFACE

Currently, I’m completing my masters in Mass communication & Journalism from

Jagran Institute of Management and Mass Communication (JIMMC). I’m in my second year and
therefore I had to undertake an Industry specific internship. This was my first internship so I
wanted to experience the functioning of PR industry in a metro city. I was asked to choose any
one from Delhi and Mumbai. So I selected the city which never sleeps; the corporate hub of
India, the city which can provide me experience in all aspects - Mumbai.
The reason due to which I chose my internship in Mumbai was driven by many
thoughts and facts that I kept in mind before my internship. “It is better to learn to walk before
you learn to run” goes the wise saying and has really proven its worth. I didn’t get the internship
in best PR firm like Ogilvy or Ad Factor but I chose Ketchum which is also known as one of the
best PR agency in the world. Ketchum was most-awarded PR firm at Cannes 2017 claiming 26
Lions. Mumbai is considered as the city of dreams too, so to learn and for my personality
development I chose to join the head office branch of Ketchum. The capital hub of India will
always give you something to learn.
I believe that you can gain maximum benefits from people’s experience and knowledge
when they are more approachable and patient while guiding you in your work and I was more
than fortunate to have such guides during my brief tenure at Ketchum.
This industry internship has taught me how Public Relation is important as a
profession. I realized while working in Mumbai that there is tremendous available potential in
the city to utilize PR. Getting to know all these media people and gaining exposure were
something which I can’t get in any two tier city.
In this internship report I will give details of my experience during my internship
period. The report includes an overview of the internship agency and the activities, tasks, and
projects that I have worked on during my internship.

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Acknowledgement

Penning down my thoughts I must say that the success of this internship has been
possible due to the combined effort of a lot of people. It is because of the efforts of my teachers
and N.R Mohanty sir, Director, Jagran Institute of Management and Mass Communication,
Noida, to lead us to gain industry experience that this internship came with. I have to thank my
mentors Ms. Noveena Chakravorty, Ms.Tanya Bhutani and Ms. Anjali Dogra who guided us
from the beginning to the end and gave valuable advice every time.
I cannot thank enough to Bibek Chattopadhyay Head Corporate Communication
Ambuja and my seniors in my internship Kavita Nagvekar, Satyaki Haldar, Bhagyashree
Jadhav, Avijit Singh, Kiwishika Prasad, Ashmita Singh, Rixion Pinto and Parthivi Mistry and
our company Senior Partner Suman Das Sarma for supporting me all the way through my
internship and teaching me details involved in PR world and even guided me the nuances of
relationship building at a professional level.
All my friends and family member are an integral part of my support system. Without their
blessings and wishes I could have never been able to make it up to this level of knowledge and
experience.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………..

1.1 Introduction to PR ……………………………………………………

1.2 About Ketchum Sampark ……………………………………………

2. My Work Profile ……………………………………………………………………

3. Appreciation Mail by seniors ……………………………………………………

4. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………….

5. Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………

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INTRODUCTION TO PR

Public relation (PR) is the way organizations, companies and individuals communicate with the
public and media. A PR specialist communicates with the target audience directly or indirectly
through media with an aim to create and maintain a positive image and create a strong
relationship with the audience. Examples include press releases, newsletters, media note, public
appearances, etc. as well as utilization of the World Wide Web for digital media. There’s an old
saying: “Advertising is what you pay for; publicity is what you pay for.” Therefore public
relation isn’t an easy profession to define. In fact, in 2012 the Public Relations Society of
America (PRSA) accepted a few thousand submissions before finally agreeing on a definition:
“Public Relation is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial
relationships between organizations and their publics.”
OBJECTIVE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
The main objective of public relations is to maintain a positive reputation of the brand and
maintain a strategic relationship with the public, prospective customers, partners, investors,
employees and other stakeholders who leads to a positive image of the brand and makes it seem
honest, successful, important, and relevant.
FUNCTIONS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
Public relation is different from advertising. Public relations agencies don’t buy ads,
they don’t write stories for reporters, and they don’t focus on attractive paid promotions. They
rather promote the brand by using editorial content appearing on magazines, newspapers, news
channels, websites, blogs, and TV programs. Using earned or free media for promotion has its
own benefits as information on these mediums aren’t bought. It has a third party validation and
hence isn’t viewed with doubt by the public.
The functions of public relations manager and public relations agencies include:
1. Anticipating, analyzing, and interpreting the public opinion and attitudes of the
public towards the brand and drafting strategies which use free or earned media to
influence them.
2. Drafting strategies to support brand’s every campaign and new move through
editorial content.
3. Writing and distributing press releases.
4. Speech writing.
5. Planning and executing special public outreach and media relations events.
6. Writing content for the web (internal and external websites).
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7. Developing a crisis public relations strategy.
8. Handling the social media presence of the brand and responding to public reviews
on social media websites.
9. Counselling the employees of the organization with regard to policies, course of
action, organization’s responsibility and their responsibility.
10. Dealing with government and legislative agencies on behalf of the organization.
11. Dealing with public groups and other organizations with regard to social and other
policies of the organization and legislations of the government.
12. Handling investor relations.

WHAT IS CORPORATE PUBLIC RELATIONS

Corporate Public Relations is a planned and coordinated activity which works towards
projecting an image of an organization to the public as well as its employees. It presents the total
picture of the organization, its multifarious activities and the planning, coordination, analysis
and synthesis of its many divisions. The central idea of corporate public relations in scholar’s
definition of Public Relations as follows.
“It is a distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual line of
communication, understanding, acceptance and co-operation between an organization and its
publics; involves the management of problems of issues; helps the management to keep itself
informed on and be responsive to public opinion; defines and emphasizes the responsibility of
the organization to keep abreast of and effectively utilize services as an early working system to
help anticipate trends; and use research and sound, ethical communication as its principal
tools”.
FUNCTIONS OF CORPORATE PUBLIC RELATIONS
The main function of corporate PR is to connect with various publics using means such as press
releases, social media, products and events to facilitate the building and managing
relationships. No matter what PR industry you chose one thing remains the same, knowing your
audience is essential to running and executing an effective PR strategy.
DIGITAL PUBLIC RELATIONS
Digital PR is a tactic used by brands to increase their online presence through building
relationships with key content writers and online journalists to gain ‘press hits’, or citations, and
high quality backlinks. Digital PR, when done properly, increases a brand’s reach and visibility
and in turn has a positive effect on search engine visibility through effective onsite SEO, driving
increased referral traffic. Here is the image which can tell how Digital PR works for the client.
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Typically, when people talk about traditional PR, they are referring to traditional media:
newspapers, TV, radio and magazines. With online PR, traditional media brands may still be a
target, but often online PR targets online properties, along with an array of other platforms and
networks, from search to social. This online approach influences:
 Columnists & traditional writers (just like traditional PR)
 Bloggers: personal & professional
 Websites & brand sites
 Twitter users (based on their followings and interests)
 Social media users: Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, SU, Reddit, etc.
 Awards, events and exhibitions
 Directories, lists and organizations
 Web searchers

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ABOUT KETCHUM SAMPARK

Ketchum Sampark, one of India’s leading Public Relations & Communications Consultancy
Firm offers an extensive and experienced network of communications experts to help companies
operating in India, as well as those looking to expand beyond its borders, achieve their goals.
Ketchum Sampark’s 24 year track record as one of the top PR agencies in India is demonstrated
by its local understanding of the cultural, commercial, political and media characteristics of each
regional Indian market matched with the expertise of Ketchum, a Global leader with worldwide
network of over 100 offices and affiliates. The agency's comprehensive public relations and
communications services include Financial Communications, Corporate PR, Brands and
Marketing, Technology PR, Employee communications, Issues and Crisis management, Public
Affairs, Social Media and Digital PR to serve the communications needs of India's largest
companies as well as the biggest multinational corporations doing business in India. With a team
of more than 140 professionals spread over seven offices across India, supporting some of Asia's
and the world's biggest brands, Ketchum Sampark has an impressive client retention rate of
seven years and has rapidly become one of India’s leading communication consultancies besides
being one of the most respected public relations agencies in the region. Ketchum is also a part of
Omnicom Public Relation Group.
Ketchum is a global communications consultancy built on an individualized scale. A trusted
partner who is equal parts creative and analytical. Who is generous with our clients and selfish
on their behalf. Who has rejected the limiting boundaries that divide and diminish. We are
Ketchum.
Their services include:
 Crisis Management: We help clients anticipate vulnerabilities and provided strategic counsel
for a variety of crisis situations in virtually every industry.
 Digital: Driven by analytics and measurement to achieve results, Ketchum Digital creates
meaningful conversations across all channels to engage consumers in real-time.
 Entertainment: It offers a range of services—everything from talent procurement to branded
content, event creation and execution, music marketing and entertainment publicity. Their team
of experts works seamlessly to bring our clients entertainment activations to life and to their
targeted consumers.

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 Sports: Ketchum Sports works with our clients to get more out of their sports relationships
and partnerships. Our dedicated team of specialists can help navigate everything from
sponsorship negotiations to bringing the partnership to life in the pages of audience-relevant
media outlets and beyond.
 Change Consulting: Ketchum help companies accelerate growth by changing customer and
employee behavior, fast. We focus on customer experience, corporate culture activation,
organizational change and employee engagement.
 Content: Ketchum have assembled all-stars from broadcast, film, music, advertising, sports
and analytics. Together they support client teams around the world, helping them produce
creative content every day. We build powerful brands and drive compelling conversations in
real-time driven by results.
 Reputation Management: We exist in an age where information is shared instantly and
radical transparency is becoming the new normal. Reputation by Permission, our approach to
reputation management, acknowledges that terms like "control, protect, safeguard, and manage"
are anachronisms, and the notion of transparency is now a table-stakes expectation for any
audience segmentation.
 Analytics: Ketchum’s award-winning, integrated analytics consultancy provides customized
solutions that combine the best of quantitative, qualitative and digital research and analytics, as
well as strategic planning and insights. Data is everywhere and easy to get, but applying it to
strategy, implementation and evaluation can be overwhelming. Like a compass, we help clients
navigate through the sea of data noise and be data smart – we know what data you need, how to
efficiently get it, and how to convert it into prescriptive solutions for your communications and
marketing business goals.
 Financial Communication: Whether you’re engaged in a major financial transaction,
promoting financial products or building your brand, financial communications is more than just
a deal or an earnings call. It’s a continuation of a corporate story, tailored to your audiences and
stakeholders.
Ketchum Sampark has number of clients in different industries. Some of its client is: (a) Ambuja
Cements Limited (b) Cathay Pacific Airlines (c) Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys (d) Bajaj Auto
(e) Skoda India (f) Axis Securities (g) AVG America Investments (h) Animal Planet (i)
Discovery Channel (j) Harbinger Group (k) Aditya Birla Group (l) ISUZU Motors etc.

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Clients of Ketchum Sampark

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MY WORK PROFILE

While joining the agency, I had one basic aim in my mind that I wanted to understand the
functioning of an entire PR agency and not restrict myself to one specific department. As it was
my first industry internship, I was excited and nervous at the same time regarding my office
environment and the way I would be observed by other employees. But all my apprehension
never came into being as I was fortunate enough to work under so many individuals like Kavita
Nagvekar, Satyaki Haldar, Bhagyashree Jadhav, Avijit Singh, Kiwishika Prasad, Ashmita Singh,
Rixion Pinto and Parthivi Mistry. They are not only kind and knowledgeable but also knew how
to teach a trainee.
During the first week of my internship I was treated as active member of Ketchum Sampark
which made me giving my best performance every time I took a task. On the first four weeks of
my internship I was the part of “Corporate Team” so I was assisting my seniors for Press
Release follow-ups wherein I’ve to chat with journalist and make an update report of their status
to know whether they’re covering the release or not. For the follow-ups I also got appreciation
mail from my seniors. During the internship I’ve covered number of press releases of different
clients which are:

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 Cathay Dragons: Cathay Dragons celebrates 10 years of passenger flight operation from
Bangalore to Hong Kong.
 Ambuja Cement: Ambuja Cement continues to lead in water stewardship.
 Ambuja Cement: Ambuja cement leads skill India mission in Rajasthan.
 Cathay Pacific: Cathay Pacific successfully concludes trail for next-generation track and
trace.
 Animal Planet: Animal Planet sharpens focus on conservation with a brand new philosophy
“Human Like Us”. [ Entertainment PR]
 TLC: TLC offers once –in-a-life time opportunity to people stuck in the most boring job. [
Entertainment PR]
After the follow-ups the next task was the documentation work. In documentation I’ve to make
monthly reports for the client in MS Excel. There were clients of three different industries I was
handling viz Cement Industry, Auto Industry and Aviation Industry.
Cement Industry: For the client Ambuja cement, the first monthly dossier was made of June
2018. In making of dossiers I’ve learned how the coverage reports of different events performed
by Ambuja is segregated and then the different section of coverage were made like print, online
and magazine. Further, for Ambuja cement’s Skill Development Initiative I had made another
dossier for the month of July. The process involved in this was the same as the previous one.
The dossier includes the publication name, headline, date and link in case of online coverage.
Auto Industry: Total productive maintenance (TPM) report for the Automobile client
Bajaj Auto was the different one. Here I’ve have to separate the coverage on the basis of cities
and events occurred. The further integral segregation was on the basis print, online and
magazine. Particularly TPM consist the columns of publication, headline, date and the language
sections.
Aviation Industry: Coverage dossier for aviation client Cathay Pacific was different
from other industrial reports. Here dossiers were divided into general coverage, initiated
coverage, online coverage and other coverage. In general coverage all the updates related to
client are mentioned and in online the updates posted on web was individually noted. The
coverages I get from disseminating the press release, which was the effort of our PR agency,
were included in Initiated coverage. The additional work was making the report of competitors
of Cathay; individually each competitor’s file was managed so that client can go through their
activities.

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In documentation, these were the other assignments I handled:
 I had been assigned to transcript an audio interview of The Economic Times – “Satish John
interaction with Ajay Piramal and Pramath Sinha”. In this I need to write each and every word
of the conversation; it was a 50 minute interview ad it took me days to complete this task. I got
little help from the website called ‘Transcribe’ which helped me in slowing down the
conversation speed.

 PR activity report was I one of the most vital document for our clients. So for Cathay Pacific
our agency mentioned key developments, trade issues and competitors activity in the aviation
sector. In June & July activity report, I penned topics related to ‘Ghatkopar Plan Crash’ and
competitive report of Vistara’s new deal.

 Press Release is one of the essential parts of public relations, an official statement issued to
media giving information on a particular matter. So I was assigned to write a press release for
our client Bajaj Auto on announcing a new twin disc ‘Pulsar NS160’. Press release is attached in
next page.

Bajaj Auto announces new Twin Disc Pulsar NS160

 Priced at ₹ 84,691 /- (Ex- Showroom - Delhi), the new Pulsar NS160 hails with the pioneering
energy of sportiness

August xxx 2018: Bajaj Auto, India’s leading Automobile house launched its latest variant
Pulsar NS160 with twin disc brake.

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The new twin disc provides shriller and a sportier appearance which marks them as the most
significant choice in 160 sport segment. The bike will be available in the market at price of ₹
84,691 /- (Ex-Showroom Delhi).

Commenting on the bike, Mr.Glynn Kerr, Bike Designer said, “In 160 category, Pulsar NS160
is the largest selling sports bike in India. Its presence has already fascinated the youth and other
motorcycle enthusiast. The term Pulsar is enough to recall a fond memory of either owning them
or having ridden one in the country. The new twin disc has always been identical to athletic and
macho charm which makes it the best available option in the marketplace. With the introduction
of XXX, we aim at increasing our next quarter sales by XX %.”

NS160 has 230 mm additional disc brake along with fatter and wider tyers making them its key
highpoints. The bike has the rare 17” 61 P tubeless rare tyre as well as it has wheelbase of
1370mm giving them a seamless steering axis angle to riders. In 160 sections, the bike has
placed itself with the best performance in terms with appearances and technical specs.

The newer Pulsar generates 15.5 PS of power and 14.6 Nm of torque with the fuel capacity of
12L. The new variant entrusted the same 160.3cc oil cooled DTS-i engine which have already
proven its performance earlier. For customers new NS160 comes into market in two vibrant
colors viz. Red Black and Blue Black.

**** Boiler Plate ****

As I was sure that I want to learn more about other departments, so I decided to move in Digital
PR team. Working in Digital PR team was fun. Here is some of the work I did in Digital PR:

 Prepared a power point presentation for Axis Securities (Axis Direct). The main objective of
presentation was to overview the client’s post on social media like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter,
and LinkedIn. It helps agency to monitor the types of post our client is posting. So the task was
to divide the post into different buckets/segments. I made six categories of post after
overviewing the entire social platform.

(a) Coverage (b) Consumer Interaction with Tech (c) Leadership and Live Session (d)
Global Expert (e) Topical Post (f) CSR

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 Next assignment I get was on SKODA‘s Competitors. Here first I need to analyze the number
of likes, subscribe, Followers and number of views on FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and
YouTube. The further work required is to find out the Response rate, Engagement rate, Activity
rate, Impressions (Twitter), PTAT analysis (Facebook) and number of post (Instagram).
Through the help of various websites like Twitonomy, Likealyzer, SME Rush and Follower
wonk made the work stress-free.

 Ketchum was pitching for SKODA, so digital team was making online strategy for that.
Therefore, I’ve been assigned to make report on “India Car Brands”. I have to research the after
sale campaigns of top 10 auto brands in India including SKODA. Research includes any
online/digital process or aftersales process or ATL/BTL campaigns or any kind of aftersales
model.

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 Next I need to do Online Research Management (ORM) for our client Harbinger Group. For
digital outreach program I’ve to make bloggers list in six different sections which were – Digital
Marketing, Tech, Leadership, HR Training, Personality Development, and Corporate Training.

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Appreciation Mail by seniors

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Conclusion

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Bibliography

1) www.ketchum.com
2) www.ipr.org.uk
3) www.feedough.com
4) www.mediavisioninteractive.com
5) www.socialmediatoday.com
6) www.value360india.com

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