Today our series features Paphada Tuanghirunvimon of Vero PR –  GlobalCom PR Network’s partner agency in Thailand – who gives us some insights into “Tops and Flops” in the Thai market.

PR topics: tops and flops – what works best in your market?

Like in any other market in the world, how up-to-date a PR topic is determines the level of success of a PR project – whether it’s a single press release or a spectacular press event. In Thailand, the media give credit to government agencies as the impartial bodies in expressing their opinion to support or object to advocacy campaigns. Thus, PR practitioners in Thailand always vie for support from credible public agencies and influential government officials to help voice their messages. PR topics with overwhelming commercial content frequently flop in Thailand.

How important is industry expertise in your daily PR work?

It is very important in Thailand that PR practitioners have a profound understanding of their own businesses, as that can help them communicate efficiently with key stakeholders and the public. The industry expertise also determines the success of a PR campaign as it will help practitioners select, design and sharpen relevant PR topics to attract media attention.

Are integrated international PR programs beneficial for your work?

There are both pros and cons for international PR programs. Of course, as an international initiative, the campaign will be regarded as significant due to the scope of implementation and impact on a huge target audience. However, PR messages used on most across-border campaigns are almost always designed to be very neutral (boring) and lack localized angles. That destroys the actuality of the campaign. Even more, the danger of international campaigns is that the news is “no longer new”, because the media elsewhere could have already digested it.

The positive side of the story also exists. PR practitioners can learn from others and share experiences with those who had already executed the campaigns in other markets.

*The series is based on phone or face-to-face interviews and written input, therefore please excuse language mistakes which might reflect foreign language influences.