Apoorva Yadav completed an internship at Kaivalya Communication, a public relations agency in Lucknow, India. The internship report provides an overview of the agency, details Apoorva's work experiences, and reflections on their learning and goals. Apoorva helped with media relations, writing press releases and media kits, organizing press conferences, and learning crisis management strategies. The report concludes the internship provided valuable insights into utilizing PR for tourism and promotions in Lucknow, as well as growing interest in media among youth.

1. Name – Apoorva Yadav
Industry Internship Report
Public Relations Agency
City - Lucknow

2. A report on
Public Relations Advisory & Brand Management
Agency
At
Kaivalya Communication

3. Preface
Currently, I am completing a Bachelor`s degree in Media & Communication at the
Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communications in Pune. I am in my second year and
therefore I had to undertake an industry specific internship. After doing my previous
internships in cities like Pune, Delhi and Raipur (my hometown), I wanted to
experience the functioning of corporate agencies in completely new non-metro city
where more than half of India`s population resides. I searched for places like Indore,
Lucknow, Ahmadabad, Chandigarh and destiny had to bring me to a place where an
eclectic mix of culture and corruption, traditions and tyranny, struggle for success and
scorching heat, Nawabi food and Non-tolerance among its people co-exists – Lucknow,
the capital of India`s most populous and powerful state Uttar Pradesh.
The reasons due to which I chose my internship in Uttar Pradesh were driven by various
thoughts and facts that I kept in mind before my internship placement. “It is better to
learn to walk before you learn to run” goes the wise saying and has really proven it`s
worth. Instead of starting my first industry internship in the top 5 PR agencies like
Ogilvy, Adfactors, JWT, etc…to name a few or in the Corporate Communications
Department of a Multinational Giant like the Tata or the Aditya Birla Group, I chose an
upcoming national player - Kaivalya and for the good. One of the major reasons why I
opted for this Uttar Pradesh in particular, was due to its cultural heritage and unique
ability to inhabit diverse cultures in one singular landmass. Secondly, Uttar Pradesh is
the hot bed for politics and investigative journalism both of which are strongly linked to
building a reliable and effective Public Relations network within the community circle.
I believe that you can gain maximum benefit from people`s experience and knowledge
when they are more approachable and patient while guiding you in your work and I was
more than fortunate to have such guides during my brief tenure at Kaivalya.
This industry internship is also a kaleidoscope of the way Uttar Pradesh as a state
perceives Public Relations as a profession. I realized while working in Lucknow that
there is a tremendous untapped potential in the city to utilize PR for its advantage as far
as tourism and BTL programs for promotions of products is concerned. It was also an
observation that I made within the youth while exploring the city that there is a growing
bent of mind towards the way their life is affected by media.

4. In this internship report I will give details of my experiences during my internship
period. The report includes an overview of the internship agency and the activities,
tasks and projects that I have worked on during my internship. Writing this report, I will
also describe and reflect my learning objects and personal goals that I have set during
my internship period.
Acknowledgement

5. Penning down my thoughts I must say that the success of this internship has
been possible due to the combined efforts of a lot of people. It is because of the
efforts of Prof. Anupam Siddhartha, Director, Symbiosis Institute of Media &
Communications, Pune, to impart us maximum industry experience that this
internship came into being in the first place. I have to thank Prof. Tarun Ghosh,
our Internship Coordinator and mentor who guided us from the start to the end
of our internship. I also want to thank my Placement cell for providing me such
a valuable agency for my internship.
I cannot thank enough my internship senior Aditi mam, Arushi mam, Tripti,
Amir Sir, Vineet Sir, Tarun Sir and our company MD; Vishal Sir for supporting
me all the way through my internship and teaching me the details involved in
the PR world and even guided me the nuances of relationship building at a
professional level.
All my friends and family member are an integral part of my support system.
Without their blessings and wishes I could have never been able to make it up
to this level of knowledge and experience.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….6

6. 1.1 Introduction to Public Relations……………………………………………7
1.2 About Kaivalya Communications………………………………………….12
2. My Work Profile………………………………………………………………..14
3. Recommendations………………………………………………………………18
4. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….19
5. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..20
An Introduction to Public Relations
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations definition of public relations:

7. Public relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what
others say about you. Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation,
with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behavior.
It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual
understanding between an organization and its publics.
In the present day media-saturated culture, effective PR plays a vital role in
any public undertaking. Image and public opinion means everything,
especially due to the increasingly influential realm of media and
communication. To win the trust of the people, one has to survive and win
in the stiffly competitive media race.
Public relations, is basically the art and science of presenting the best
possible image of people, governments and organizations. Working behind
the scenes PR professionals, send press releases, court journalists, research
on public interest and analyze their opinion to position their clients as
influential role models, ethical businessmen, duty bound public officials, or
at the very least, not criminals. It is sometimes difficult to judge public
relations apart from advertising. Public Relations focuses on building an
image and advertisers strive to sell a product or service. Marketing and PR
are comparatively more related. Marketing uses research and targeted
communication message and medium to achieve a desired action while
professionals working in the field of public relations make continuous
efforts to gain unpaid publicity by writing newspaper articles or through
TV news segments. A basic definition of public relations is to shape and
sustain the reputation of a firm, institution or an individual in front of the
client's various "publics." Now, the question arises of what is a "public"? A
public is someone who ever had or ever will form an opinion in the future
about the client and his product or service offerings.
In the arena of Public Relations, these “publics” vary depending on the kind
of work done by client. Though the list involves uncountable number of
targeted public group, the most important ones include potential clients,
members of media fraternity, members of local community, students and
their parents, NGO`s, online fan groups, voters, NRI citizens etc… the list is
simply endless.

8. The success of any Public relations campaign requires an in-depth study
and understanding of the interests and problems of each of the client's
many publics, be it small or big. The public relations professional must
know the technique of effectively addressing those problems and concerns
using the most powerful weapon of the PR trade: strong Publicity.
Entrepreneur.com defines PR simply in terms of publicity work, describing
it as "Using the news or business press to carry positive stories about your
company or your products; cultivating a good relationship with local press
representatives" [source: Entrepreneur.com] 1*. In several cases, the main
duty of the public relations professional is to draft press releases, which are
sent to targeted members of various media channels. However by
restricting the scope of public relations definition to publicity alone would
be to undermine the augmenting influence and reach of PR.
For instance, "public diplomacy," a branch of government public relations is
shaping the image and repute of a nation in the eyes of both traditional
allies and enemy states for the purpose of international trade, rights,
defense and security and even cultural exchanges in innumerable incidents.
Nowadays, the task of public relations professional is no more restricted to
desk job faxing or mailing out press releases but the horizon of work has
widened to a much bigger picture. All the more, the Public Relations Officer
acts as the public face on behalf of the client. Now the duty of a PR person is
to organize and increase the social outreach and volunteer programs for its
clients. It is the work of the PR representative to cultivate and grow
relationships with the client`s potential investors and media persons. This
process many a times also involves creating communication channels with
other target “publics” in order to create a more effective publicity campaign.
And it's the PR executive who owes the responsibility to attend the TV news
program to answer the tough questions during interviews.
The history of PR dates back to a time when Public relations made an entry
with the growth and development of various forms of mass media. With the
arrival of the 20th century, a slow but steady public dissent stirred up
against the ruling powerful monopolies and affluent industrialists by the so
called "muckraking" journalists. Earlier public relations agencies combated

9. the bad press by creating positive stories about their clients in several
newspapers.
Now known as the father of Public Relations all over the world, Ivy Lee, a
Former journalist, used the first press releases to give away newspapers "the
facts" about his misinterpreted clients, namely the railroad and tobacco
industries, and J.D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil in front of public and the
media.
Lee and company became a marvelous example of whitewashing even the
darkest corporate sins so much so that Public Relations professionals earned
the image as "spin doctors."
A lot of time has passed away since the days of Lee but now to label today's
professionals in this field as dishonest or dubious individuals would mean
to ignore how pervasive and integral their work has become to people and
organizations of all types and sizes. In today`s context, not just profit
earning big business and government but even upcoming artists, small
business ventures, activists, authors, politicians, non-profit organizations
and even places come under the circle of public relations. As rightly said by
Daniel J. Boorstin:
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations
officers.
The media industry just like any other sector works as a whole component
which involves Journalism, Public Relations, Advertising and Audio Visual
Creations. No component can solely flourish on its own. The major task that
is to be done by Public Relations professional is to carefully select the
component that he or she can use to bring the maximum positive output for
the client. This specifically goes for dealing with journalists. As one of the
key work to obtain free publicity for the client is to draft press releases and
send it to newspaper agencies for publishing it. He or she has to formulate
a story angle which innovative and fresh in idea and still compelling
enough for the journalist to make it clear why his clients service or product
or even personal history for that matter is important to be read by the
readers. Be it newspaper, radio stations or Television, stories that consists of
a “human interest” angle in them always have an edge over a normal
release. One should always remember that PR is an unpaid form of creating

10. publicity. So, if the journalists are not paid for writing or publishing stories
that will add to the goodwill of our clients, why will they ever publish one?
The answer lays in this that PR professionals spend a lot of time cultivating
relationships with journalists of newspaper agencies, radio and television
for this purpose. One way to do this is by researching which journalists
writes on which beat. What they know about the client's industry or
personal interests. A PR professional may contact the journalist to find out
more information about the kinds of stories or articles he or she looks for
and how he or she likes to receive a story pitch. A journalist will be much
more willing to read a press release that has something new to offer, is
timely, is from a recognizable source and targeted specifically to his or her
field interests.
Another main job of a public relations person is to draft a press kit. The
importance of a press kit or media kit can be estimated from this that
journalists generally ask for this after a press release is issued in which
everything that the journalist needs to understand about the client`s work
and profile is mentioned. People working in the Public Relations field are
regarded as the experts in the subject of media relations. They're often
invited to train employees on how to effectively communicate with the
media, specifically during print or Television interviews.
It is the duty of the public relations department to organize and hold press
conference for the client, when appropriate. The motive of the press
conference should be to attract journalists to showcase some unique
features, experience, exciting events and important officials on time during
the entire function. A press conference is the key for the professional to
open up new avenues, media contacts and build long-term relations with
journalists for its clients. This relationship building effort promises the
increased scope of journalists to write feature articles or stories including
your client.
One more integral part of Public Relations is how quickly and effectively
one can handle a crisis and lower the damage it brings to the client. Crisis
Management thus is an inevitable part of the PR industry. There can be
various causes why a crisis can occur. It may be due to some natural
disasters, a technical failure within the company, some human error or a
wrongdoing of the Executive and any legal issues that the company faces. It

11. is during this time that the need for an official spokesperson of the company
is felt the most. Instead of showing a rude, insensitive or an unfavorable
behavior it is wise to ask for a public apology which will take a company
long way to heal wounds of its damaged reputation. It is also during this
time that the relations developed by the PR professional with the press walk
on a litmus test.
Above mentioned were some key aspects of PR industry and I in my
internship have tried to gain the most from all the above fields of this sector
and will discuss in detail in my report.
About Kaivalya Communications
2*
Kaivalya Communications is a full-service public relations advisory with domain
expertise in the Healthcare, Telecom, Beverages, Education, Real Estate, Banking etc.
Their mission is to provide result oriented PR services to their clients that help them
achieve their strategic communication objectives.

12. They are dedicated to their clients, ethical and responsible in their practices and
passionate about the work they do. They develop and deliver public relations
programme that have a ‘real measurable impact’ in enabling their client`s business.
Founded by a young and energetic group of people, Kaivalya Communication aims to
give best and expert Public Relation services. The team has a work experience of
various media sector like Print, Broadcast, advertising etc. which helps them in
suggesting their clients what is the best for them. At Kaivalya Communication, they
believe that Public Relations is the best way for enhancing brand visibility, image and
value. They focus on quality and long term strategies enabling clients to generate
ongoing, targeted press coverage that positively affect their overall business. The
agency has a fresh and dynamic approach to PR which helps them design innovative
concepts. They listen to the client`s need, gain insight, develop strategies and focus on
its impeccable execution to exceed the client`s expectations. They believe that our
client`s image and reputation is foremost for their company growth and therefore their
dedication and hard work towards it acts as a foundation for their dream to be the top
most PR agency of India. They render their services across India with the presence of
its team in Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, New Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand,
Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana.
Kaivalya Communication is known for implementing creative and customized public
relations programs designed to impact client`s specific business goals and objectives.
Their services include:
• Crisis Management: It can take years to build an organization`s corporate
reputation, and only minutes to tear it down. When crisis occurs, Kaivalya
Communication provides their clients the necessary crisis management. They aid the
client to put the right spin on the situation, intervene with the press as needed, and
protect the company`s image.
Their team experts, who have handled several corporate crisis, develops a
comprehensive crisis planning and communications programme to prepare your
company to give right crisis response.
• Media Tour: In order to build stronger relationships with Journalists they plan tours
and organize series of meetings for the client in selected cities.

13. • Media Relations: Executing high-impact media exposure on local and national level
based on in-depth understanding of client goals and positioning and extensive media
contacts and relationships.
• Writing Services: The agency understands how to differentiate their clients from
their competitors, and how to craft a message to maximize placement opportunities
and create a great buzz for the brand. Writing services will include creation of press
kit, press releases, industrial stories and by line articles for the client.
• Celebrity PR: The agency helps in correctly position the celebrity in public, manage
the media and make sure that the celebrity does not get into any kind of controversy.
• Press Conference: They organize press conference for our clients during new
launches, product showcasing etc. They target only that media form which generates
maximum press coverage.
• Press Briefings: They also organize press briefings for their clients for any major
announcements such as major change in the business direction etc.
• One on One: One on One interactions with the journalists for feature stories,
issue/trend based stories etc as per the requirement of the client.
• Media Monitoring Report: They conduct company, competitor and industry
specific media tracking on daily basis.
[Source – Kaivalya communication website: www.kaivalyapr.com]
My Work Profile
While joining the agency, I had one basic aim in my mind that I wanted to understand
the functioning of an entire PR agency and not restrict myself to one specific

14. department. As it was my first industry internship, I was excited and apprehensive at the
same time regarding my office environment and the way I would be perceived by other
employees. But all my apprehensions never came into being as I was fortunate enough
to work under the direct mentorship of our Managing Director; Vishal Sir who was not
only kind and knowledgeable but also knew how to teach a trainee the nuances of an
internship program which I experienced the first time.
During my first day of joining itself I was treated as an active member of Kaivalya
which made me give my best performance every time I took a task. On the first week of
my internship I was assisting employees in Client Servicing department wherein we had
to prepare daily reports for each of our clients and send it to them before lunch. Under
Client Servicing, I was initially asked to scan and edit the newspaper cutting which
were related to our clients or their competitors. After which my senior, Aditi mam made
reports by seeing these cuttings and sent daily updated reports on the industry.
I was fortunate enough that I also got the opportunity of main desk job of preparing
client reports and sending it directly to them in the second week. In the second week, I
took up the task of Newspaper Tracking under which one has to read the newspaper
thoroughly and track relative news for the client or its competitors. The following is the
list of news papers that I used to track every day before sending media reports:
1. Business Standard (English)
2. Business Standard (Hindi)
3. The Times of India
4. The Financial Express
5. The Economic Times
6. The Hindu
7. The Indian Express
8. The Pioneer
9. The Hindustan Times
10. Amar Ujala
11. Dainik Jagran
12. Rashtriya Sahara
13. I-Next

15. Initially, my speed of tracking newspapers was very slow and I could track only 4-5
papers in an hour. Realizing my weakness I began reading all the newspaper articles
much faster and till the time I finished my internship I could track all the above thirteen
papers within the time limit of an hour, which for me is my personal achievement.
Later on when all the newspapers were tracked I used to scan and edit those articles
from the newspaper. After this we had the task of checking the office mail id and collect
scans of articles from other cities where news about our clients or their competitor were
published. Following is the list of the eight cities apart from Lucknow from where daily
news scans were collected:
1. Kanpur
2. Varanasi
3. Agra
4. Meerut
5. Gorakhpur
6. Dehradun
7. Bareilly
8. Allahabad
After taking in all the scans my next job was to compile Media Monitoring Reports for
our clients and send it to them so that they remain updated with the current happenings
in their industry. The clients for whom the reports were made were Airtel, Amway,
Trinamool Congress, Diet Mantra – a diet consultancy firm, MeraDoctor – a doctor on
call service, Dr R.K. Mishra – a plastic Surgeon, Nutrilife – supplements provider for
weight gain and loss, Dr. Malaykant Singh – a Psychiatrist and DNA Bio Axis – a gene
test service provider. I with my two other office employees – Tripti and Arushi Mam
were in charge of making reports for these clients. In order to gain knowledge of
making reports in all fields I got the opportunity to draft reports for all the clients of
Kaivalya during my brief tenure in the agency.
After compiling all the reports my next task was to update the Press Release sheet of
Airtel and its competitors on a daily basis which was called “ACE Sheet”. Under this
ace sheet we used to measure the length and breadth of every article that we sent to
Airtel in our reports. It was an important task for me because Airtel was one of our
main clients and a lot of accuracy had to be involved while making an ACE sheet for
them. The length and width of an article was measured and then we had to check the

16. newspaper it was published in and the daily ad rate of that particular newspaper. From
these calculations we totaled the entire amount that Airtel was benefitted from publicity
and saved its marketing costs.
Next major task in any PR agency is to draft a press release which I had already
discussed earlier in my first chapter of this report. Due to sufficient knowledge of
speaking and writing in Hindi, I had the advantage of writing Hindi press releases for
our clients. Initially I was given the task of translation of press releases from English to
Hindi. My first ever translation of press release came from Airtel after which I had
translated several releases for the Trinamool Congress, Meradoctor, Dietmantra, DNA
Bio Axis and Amway.
By the fourth week I was adept in Client Servicing department but there were a lot more
areas where I had not gained any experience at all. Media Round was one such
department. Under this department, any one of the employee from agency had to meet
some journalists on weekly basis to develop and maintain effective relationships in the
professional circle of media. Therefore, in the fourth week I decided to accompany my
seniors to a media round at Amar Ujala office where we met a few journalists writing
for business columns. The meeting lasted for half hour and it was one of a kind
experience to get a chance to interact with the senior business journalists of the paper.
I also learned from my boss that Kaivalaya has official webpage on facebook and linked
in and was updated after every press conference or achievement of the agency. As I had
a past experience on Social Media Marketing from one of my earlier projects, I gave
them my views on online publicity enhancement of the agency. I was amazed to see
their response and keenness to listen to my opinions on this subject.
Apart from all this there were regular meetings held at office attended by everyone
under which we had to update our boss on client status, new press releases that came
and pending releases that were to be issued within a stipulated time.
During the sixth week my work involved to go on media rounds distributing press
releases to newspaper agencies and prepare new releases for upcoming clients. We
also organized après conference of Blue Monarch Builders in Lucknow on the
inauguration of their new real estate project which was attended by all senior
members of press present in Lucknow and Kanpur.

17. While there were several pending releases that required approval another task in hand
was to organize and update the Media List. Under this list the name, contact id and
phone number of all journalists of big and small newspapers were to be written in
which I assisted my senior employees.
During my last day of internship it was an emotional departure from the agency and
my guide & mentor, Vishal sir wished my good luck for my degree and future with
warmth and joy.
Recommendations
The industry exposure that I received during my internship will always be valuable
guide for me in the future. The working environment at the agency was one of
encouragement, warmth, innovation and synergy. These qualities made Kaivalya a

18. stand apart in its sector. However like any other organization it faced a few shortfalls
which I believe if improved upon can bring Kaivalya to even greater heights at the
national PR stage.
The agency faced a shortage of employees due to which the workload on every
person was double the times required. Only if it could convert its employment
programme to meet the demands of aspiring professionals the agency could grow
better.
I also felt that as a PR agency they need to improvise on Social Media Marketing
skills and develop an effective online PR program for increasing awareness and
publicity. I felt a need for them to improvise on their website content and visuals
which always act as first impression about the company in front of the audience.
A proper way to manage the above loopholes would bring the company to
unfathomable success and lead to even more publicity for Kaivalya Communication
is what I deeply felt after interning there for six weeks.
Conclusion
My internship had been one of the most fruitful experiences a trainee would wish to
have once in his or her lifetime. Kaivalya Communication not only gave me the
experience required to face the industry competition but also gave me some really
good friends and teachers that I will cherish for an entire lifetime. The amount of

19. dedication and professionalism I saw in the employees working at the agency
motivated even me to stay back willingly on certain days till late evenings and finish
the given task in hand.
During the six weeks that I stayed in Lucknow also helped me to understand the
mindset and functioning of a city known for its politics and hardcore journalism. One
of the toughest part of this internship has been to cope up with the tight restrictions of
not working late nights or travelling alone for safety reasons. Despite this I had a
worthwhile learning experience from the place, its people and the culture the city of
Nawabs – Lucknow had to offer. I definitely will cherish these golden days of my
internship, my entire life.
Bibliography
1. Definition of PR from Entrepreneur – Source: Enterprenur.com

20. 2. About Kaivalya Communications – Source: Kaivalayapr.com and brochure of
Kaivalaya Communication
3. Lucknow Library for quotations on Public Relations.