Data has helped in crafting a better quality of communication: Abeer from Kae Capital

While doing his undergrad in Economics, Abeer started losing interest in theoretical Economics and started developing his creative side. From getting recommended for joining comms, and starting an internship in the field to now leading comms and community engagement for Kae Capital.

Here is his story:

Give us a little bit of the backstory about how you came to the field.

The backstory is quite interesting. I did my undergrad in Economics at the University of Delhi. I had absolutely no idea about the field of communications when I started out, but after a couple of years, I started losing interest in theoretical Economics, and instead developed a creative bent with writing poetry and prose. Even my internships during college were not in this field. In my final year, I was given a recommendation by a friend of mine that my talents will be best suited for a Communications role, which is what made me take up an internship right out of college in this field. After a month, I realized that this is the right fit for me, converted my 3-month long internship into a job as soon as the first month ended, and have been in it ever since.

What was your first interaction/experience with data? What did it mean to you then?

In my first job itself, the client I was assigned was in the fintech space, and their communications had a lot of data involved in them. Some were provided by the client, but a lot of it was collected by us through surveys run on select groups, regarding personal finance. That helped me understand just how powerful and engaging communications can become when we move beyond broad statements to factual ones.

How did you start using data/metrics in delivering your campaigns? Can you share a few anecdotes?

My first tryst with data came in with a Women’s day campaign for the fintech client I was assigned. Since it’s a popular day for brands to do something, we had to cut through the clutter and bring out interesting insights before the actual day. We did this through surveys run on Facebook groups, and WhatsApp groups, and just by getting insights from women in our community. The results on how many women invest, how confident they feel, what are the things they feel are lacking with investment apps, and so on were extremely insightful and helped us craft concise releases and snippets to garner media interest.

Did you come across any challenges in communications and did you feel data helped you in any way to solve the problem?

In the communications practice, it is very hard to quantify everything. There’s a lot of subjectivity involved and the interests of the client and the agency aren’t always aligned. Data has helped in crafting a better quality of communication from the brand’s side and helped us garner the interest of the right stakeholders. It has also helped us in reporting our own results. Tools can now help give estimated reach of our news pieces and campaigns, thus helping us quantify the impact created for a client.

What is the most important metric/data point for you as a comms person?

As a professional reporting to someone, the most important metric is quality engagement. In this day and age, getting huge numbers isn’t a big deal. You have tools to boost your campaign on Twitter, tools to get covered in your desired media outlets, but that necessarily doesn’t translate into impact. The key metric for me personally is the number of organic engagements gotten for a client, and organic numbers got on social media (through follower count and engagement). These metrics help create a genuine share of voice for your client/company.

What tools are your best / fav to help you with data insights?

The social media platforms, primarily LinkedIn and Twitter, which I use for Kae Capital, have their inbuilt metrics tools, and I find them to be extremely useful for reporting.

For media, though I haven’t used them in some time, CoverageBook is a great tool, along with Impact. Both have specific use cases and are helpful in translating our efforts into easy-to-understand numbers for the clients.

In these difficult times (slowdown, COVID), what is the role of PR?

The importance of PR is at an all-time high. The time during COVID, post-COVID and the recent past has seen organizations completely rejig how they function. While marketing and communications budgets were the first ones to be cut, the companies quickly realized that there is absolutely no way to get quality talent and have top-of-mind recall without a communications practice (either in-house or agency).

What also occurred was the evolution of PR, from pure-play digital/print media to an integrated communications approach with social media, influencers, and events. Interestingly, during the mass layoffs, which are continuing to date, everyone scampered to their PR people to manage their crisis and save their reputation.

This is not a role that can be automated, this requires a human touch and adaptability, and the onus is on PR professionals to realize the requirements of the time and keep up to date with them at all times.

Which is the favorite campaign that you were part of?

My favorite campaign has to be one I did last year, for a fintech client of mine. They wanted to have a big announcement about their product and how it differentiates itself from the competitors. Being a company based outside of India, they relied on our expertise to help them get into the mindshare of Indian customers.

The campaign we executed was a mix of media, social media, and influencer marketing, all of which I led. This ultimately helped them get covered by top-tier publications, and make it to #2 in the National trends of that particular day on Twitter, despite lots of other things trending on that day.

This campaign went on to win an award as well, earlier in 2022, and I feel truly grateful to the supportive team I had to execute this campaign.

Which metrics do you measure right now and report consistently to your leadership?

As long as you open yourself up to learning, there’s no stopping you in this profession.

At present, for social media, I measure follower increase and engagement (as a sum total of likes, comments, and reshares). For engagement, I report both the average and highest for that month, along with a reasoning for the same.

For media, I just measure the quality of publications gotten for Kae and for its portfolio companies. The number of interactions set and the kind of publications covered are more important than just saying “I got 20 publications to cover us”. The impact is always with quality.

Would you like to share three things that worked for your brand or your two cents for the budding comms professionals?

I don’t want to preach a lot here as there are different things about this profession that attract people and ultimately, you should stick to what you feel most comfortable with, but my biggest learning for all budding professionals would be to never be averse to learning something new. It will always come back to you, sooner or later, and you’ll be glad you invested that time.

I took up social media management as a one-time activity for a client and a year later, that became a full-fledged practice for our firm, with me as the co-lead. Similarly, with design, I took up Canva for a few months, till we onboarded a graphic designer, and now, at Kae, given that we’re a small team, I do all design-related work for the team as well.