Your campaigns need data-driven insights: Pritu from Vedantu

In this episode of Data Champions in Communications, we spoke to Pritu Hait from Vedantu, discussing his accidental communications journey to being a data nazi. 

1. How did you end up in comms?

PR and communications just happened to me. I would describe it as a beautiful happenstance. Post my graduation from Mass Media with a specialization in Advertising, I was more inclined toward the idea of campaign creation and events, but the idea of public relations stood out to me as a synthesis of the campaign, communication, events, and building regulations. Having started with AdFactors PR, I have had the opportunity to get trained and learn the basics under one of the best in the industry today (Mr. Bratin Roy, who is currently the communications leader at AB InBev). Following this, I worked with two more agencies, MSL India and Ketchum, before moving to the other side of the table.

As someone who has always enjoyed working in a fast-paced environment, today I am totally fascinated with the start-up environment. Currently, I am working with Vedantu, the pioneer of LIVE online learning and the second-largest K12 EdTech, which is on a mission to make quality education accessible to everyone.

2. What was your first interaction with data?

When I was in college, I used to work at a call center for one of the American banks where I was introduced to data. It was fascinating. Back then, I kind of intuitively understood not just what data was, but how it can help to highlight results and give you perspective. Today professionals use data every day and I believe that if you share a strategy without backing with data, you will certainly come across as someone with a personal opinion and view. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the client side or the agency side, a strategy or campaign needs some data-driven insights that give you the perspective to make your next strategic move. In the end, it helps us to measure impact and align business objectives.  

3. How did you start using data in delivering campaigns?

I use data to analyze competition mapping and set benchmarks for a particular campaign. If you are doing an industry story for the sector or showcasing business impact, data plays a huge role to convince the stakeholders to look into the story.

4. Did you come across any challenges in communications where data helped solved the problem?

As a communication professional, data always has some relationship to what you are doing. Measuring impact and demonstrating results is possible only through data. In PR, it can be challenging to measure qualitative and quantitative impacts created by compelling stories. Having the right data in place will always help to overcome the challenges like convincing business leaders or aligning the right metric set for a particular campaign or overall communication objectives.

5. What is the most important metric for you?

PR is very dynamic. It is evolving faster than we anticipated. There are various metrics or data points that we consider measuring the impact like SOV, category of media coverage, headline SOV, tonality, metros vs non-metros, standalone vs industry vs brand mentions. But, measuring the qualitative vs quantitative data at every point is a standard for all the communications personnel. 

6. What tools are your favorite for data insights?

In measuring our efforts manual, we use a couple of tools to get the right insight into the data. It will be difficult to pick one because today we have multiple tools.

7. How do you see data and comms evolve in the coming days?

AI-enabled tools that can help with both micro and macro data on PR efforts will help to overcome a lot of challenges to build the right narrative for any campaign from a communication standpoint.

9. What is your two cents for budding comms professionals?

Be a good listener, connect with the leadership team, observe, and create a compelling story.