SINGAPORE: A savvy public relations strategy is still important in the digital age, especially when building brand awareness, according to a senior executive at a Singapore telco.

“We believe PR is the only channel that can get us reach, attention, impact and credibility all at the same time,” said Gaurav Gupta, senior manager of omnichannel for Singapore telco Circles.Life, at the recent Digital PR Strategies conference in Singapore.

“It is not just about publications writing about you,” he explained. “It is also what your customers think about you, what your employees say about the brand and the company they work for, and even what influencers and bloggers write about you.” (For more, read WARC’s report: How PR, out of home and stunts drive marketing at Circles.Life)

“What we recognise is, we are operating in a market which is saturated and is governed by giants, “ Gupta continued. “If we don’t have deep enough pockets… [we’ve] got to have great ideas. That’s the only way we can counter that.”

PR plays an important role in driving word-of-mouth referrals for the challenger brand, generating massive growth to the tune of 43%. Almost half of all new customer acquisitions are referrals from existing customers.

Circles.Life has a unique customer referral programme which sees users earn an extra 1GB of monthly data for every five successful referrals they make through a unique and customisable referral code, optimised for easy sharing on social channels.

“People refer people, and people do spread the word,” said Gupta.

“The best way to get people talking about you, is to get people to talk about you. We did that by focusing on great products, and giving a fabulous user experience.”

Sourced from WARC