[Music]
[Applause]
good morning it’s great to be here today
in a stunningly beautiful place amidst a
great audience like you I’ve spent 23
plus years in advertising PR and
communication working for brands
organizations nonprofits and
governmental organizations it’s only apt
that I speak about an insight that’s
been gaining on me in this area over the
last few years if you look at the slide
there are two pictures it’s not just the
colors that are contrasting but the
contrast is also in the terms of the
values and of the persona of the two
people in focus in those pictures the
first one has Mahatma Gandhi on his
famous dandy saltmarsh a momentous civil
disobedience movement that culminated in
India’s independence how himsa based
civil obedience movement that went on to
inspire millions of people across the
world on great icons like Nelson Mandela
Martin Luther King to Barack Obama
recently can you guess the other person
in picture I can understand it is Justin
Trudeau the youthful cool social savvy
Prime Minister of Canada
it’s a lovely picture of him waving
while is on his morning jog at a group
of students on their way to a prom party
an image that went socially viral you
may ask me what’s wrong about the
picture it later transpired that the
whole photo op was actually set up and
well planned Trudeau’s official
photographer had actually gone ahead and
set up his equipment to capture this
picture trust as all research and
studies have pointed out is the biggest
and the most important found
block for any reputation perception and
image building process as all these
studies and research will now tell you
we are at a point of time in history
where it is at its lowest in what we
call the post truth era now the natural
question is we shouldn’t be here in the
first place we spend billions and
billions of dollars today more than ever
in image building and communication
building and brand building processes
more than ever today we have
sophisticated tools and platforms that
allow us to communicate and build an
image instantly to millions in a well
controlled
planned manner now is also the time
industry when presidents prime ministers
heads of companies and organizations
feel so vulnerable against a small sniff
or a snigger the natural question that
arises is why we have come here because
we treat the process of image and
reputation building as a professional
plastic one with scant regard for what
is at the core or what is inside when
what you project is farther from reality
and the audience figures that out much
later they head in two directions the
first is they retreat into their own
shells of mistrust and the second is
once they figure out everyone and anyone
is into it they also decide to play
along and thus starts the Vizia cycle
let me explain this to you better with
an exercise and pardon my sense of
vanity
I called it Xavier’s image balloon
exercise
here is a balloon that’s only filled
with air and I have a small pin in my
other hand let me see what it is
God now all it took was a gentle touch
of this small pen for this balloon to
burst there’s nothing that remains of
this blown balloon with just air inside
now let me take a similar balloon with
sand filled inside let me do the same
paint breaking that I did before and you
see one more time one more time one more
time one more time nothing happened the
balloon stays intact and the reason why
I did this exercise is to make the point
that I was actually just stating before
is that when your image perception
building process has substance a task or
has truth at its core then you don’t
have to be worried against any attacks
or net because it’s capable of standing
those attacks by itself simply because
it had substance at its core however
when you don’t have substance and you
only have air and you spend billions and
billions of dollars in blowing that
balloon bigger and bigger or that image
and reputation bigger and bigger you are
going to be wearing off
even a small pinprick because it can
just destroy that image in seconds into
tatters like this balloon the other
thing is that
for us it was easy to blow air into that
balloon but it took us much much longer
time and it was more difficult to fill
sand into this balloon there are two
clear disincentives for brands
organizations and governments to
disregard this the first is that
continuing with this current ineffective
approach will only drive marketing
branding communication costs up further
the second is that how much of our you
invest your vulnerability against any
attack will only increase remember it
all took a small pinprick and what
happened to the balloon
fortunately they incentive to change the
current ineffective process is higher
today the threshold of expectations of
citizens consumers from brands
organizations and governments are so low
that they are willing to forgive you for
your mistakes and errors when you admit
to it candidly in fact it may even work
for your brand or organization or
government that they will end up
preferring you over others because of
your candidness your billions of dollars
of marketing and branding now work
better csr is a classic example when you
build a large factory in a rural area
where you are the largest employer don’t
grow about building a school in that
area as a favor because there are
visible tangible benefits to business
for you to be building that school in
that area instead why don’t you try
doing something beyond genuinely good
that uplifts that community and see the
credibility and trust for your brand
really go up
there is a larger benefit impact out of
this substance driven get real approach
it gets trust back into the system it’s
not going to happen overnight
considering how disillusioned most of us
have become but it’s worth a try
for millions of professionals like me
across the world we’re doing amazing
work in this areas this also provides an
opportunity transform our role from
being seen as mere gatekeepers and spin
masters I am working on a framework that
allows governments organizations and
brands to navigate this better but more
of that later thank you for being such a
great audience
loud being here thank you again
[Applause]
[Applause]
good morning it’s great to be here today
in a stunningly beautiful place amidst a
great audience like you I’ve spent 23
plus years in advertising PR and
communication working for brands
organizations nonprofits and
governmental organizations it’s only apt
that I speak about an insight that’s
been gaining on me in this area over the
last few years if you look at the slide
there are two pictures it’s not just the
colors that are contrasting but the
contrast is also in the terms of the
values and of the persona of the two
people in focus in those pictures the
first one has Mahatma Gandhi on his
famous dandy saltmarsh a momentous civil
disobedience movement that culminated in
India’s independence how himsa based
civil obedience movement that went on to
inspire millions of people across the
world on great icons like Nelson Mandela
Martin Luther King to Barack Obama
recently can you guess the other person
in picture I can understand it is Justin
Trudeau the youthful cool social savvy
Prime Minister of Canada
it’s a lovely picture of him waving
while is on his morning jog at a group
of students on their way to a prom party
an image that went socially viral you
may ask me what’s wrong about the
picture it later transpired that the
whole photo op was actually set up and
well planned Trudeau’s official
photographer had actually gone ahead and
set up his equipment to capture this
picture trust as all research and
studies have pointed out is the biggest
and the most important found
block for any reputation perception and
image building process as all these
studies and research will now tell you
we are at a point of time in history
where it is at its lowest in what we
call the post truth era now the natural
question is we shouldn’t be here in the
first place we spend billions and
billions of dollars today more than ever
in image building and communication
building and brand building processes
more than ever today we have
sophisticated tools and platforms that
allow us to communicate and build an
image instantly to millions in a well
controlled
planned manner now is also the time
industry when presidents prime ministers
heads of companies and organizations
feel so vulnerable against a small sniff
or a snigger the natural question that
arises is why we have come here because
we treat the process of image and
reputation building as a professional
plastic one with scant regard for what
is at the core or what is inside when
what you project is farther from reality
and the audience figures that out much
later they head in two directions the
first is they retreat into their own
shells of mistrust and the second is
once they figure out everyone and anyone
is into it they also decide to play
along and thus starts the Vizia cycle
let me explain this to you better with
an exercise and pardon my sense of
vanity
I called it Xavier’s image balloon
exercise
here is a balloon that’s only filled
with air and I have a small pin in my
other hand let me see what it is
God now all it took was a gentle touch
of this small pen for this balloon to
burst there’s nothing that remains of
this blown balloon with just air inside
now let me take a similar balloon with
sand filled inside let me do the same
paint breaking that I did before and you
see one more time one more time one more
time one more time nothing happened the
balloon stays intact and the reason why
I did this exercise is to make the point
that I was actually just stating before
is that when your image perception
building process has substance a task or
has truth at its core then you don’t
have to be worried against any attacks
or net because it’s capable of standing
those attacks by itself simply because
it had substance at its core however
when you don’t have substance and you
only have air and you spend billions and
billions of dollars in blowing that
balloon bigger and bigger or that image
and reputation bigger and bigger you are
going to be wearing off
even a small pinprick because it can
just destroy that image in seconds into
tatters like this balloon the other
thing is that
for us it was easy to blow air into that
balloon but it took us much much longer
time and it was more difficult to fill
sand into this balloon there are two
clear disincentives for brands
organizations and governments to
disregard this the first is that
continuing with this current ineffective
approach will only drive marketing
branding communication costs up further
the second is that how much of our you
invest your vulnerability against any
attack will only increase remember it
all took a small pinprick and what
happened to the balloon
fortunately they incentive to change the
current ineffective process is higher
today the threshold of expectations of
citizens consumers from brands
organizations and governments are so low
that they are willing to forgive you for
your mistakes and errors when you admit
to it candidly in fact it may even work
for your brand or organization or
government that they will end up
preferring you over others because of
your candidness your billions of dollars
of marketing and branding now work
better csr is a classic example when you
build a large factory in a rural area
where you are the largest employer don’t
grow about building a school in that
area as a favor because there are
visible tangible benefits to business
for you to be building that school in
that area instead why don’t you try
doing something beyond genuinely good
that uplifts that community and see the
credibility and trust for your brand
really go up
there is a larger benefit impact out of
this substance driven get real approach
it gets trust back into the system it’s
not going to happen overnight
considering how disillusioned most of us
have become but it’s worth a try
for millions of professionals like me
across the world we’re doing amazing
work in this areas this also provides an
opportunity transform our role from
being seen as mere gatekeepers and spin
masters I am working on a framework that
allows governments organizations and
brands to navigate this better but more
of that later thank you for being such a
great audience
loud being here thank you again
[Applause]
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