Executive PR in India: Agency, Paid Profile or Announcement Feature

A senior leader in India has four main ways to build executive PR: hire a PR agency or personal branding service, pay for a profile in a magazine or list, take an announcement feature when you move, or do it yourself on LinkedIn. Each suits a different need.

At Boardroom CXO we run executive search for retail, jewellery and D2C brands. During a search we look up senior candidates, so we see what each option leaves behind online. We also run one of them, Boardroom Moves, so read this knowing that.

The four options at a glance

Agencies give ongoing support, paid profiles give a feature you pay for, announcement features record a move, and LinkedIn gives you control but costs your time.

Option 1: a PR agency or personal branding service

A good agency or personal branding service gives you steady, professional help over months, from media pitches to LinkedIn posts, and suits leaders who want ongoing presence but lack time.

BestMediaInfo reported in August 2025 that reflective LinkedIn posts by Indian CMOs and CEOs are often written by boutique agencies. A strategist it spoke to said a monthly retainer can cover three to four ghostwritten posts, a content calendar and comment management. The same agencies write op-eds that appear in leading publications. A marketing leader quoted in the piece said CXOs hire these agencies because they may not find the time to post regularly.

What it is good for. A good agency knows which journalists cover your sector, prepares you for interviews and keeps your LinkedIn active when you are busy. For a leader in a large role, or one handling a sensitive moment, that support is worth having.

What to watch out for. Ask what the agency will do each month, not what it will get you. Editors decide what they cover, so be careful with anyone who promises a set number of articles in named publications. Read every ghostwritten post before it goes out and make sure it sounds like you. BestMediaInfo is blunt about the downside: thought leadership, it says, is "no longer earned".

Option 2: a paid profile in a magazine or list

A paid profile is advertising that looks like an article. It can be useful as a polished piece to share, but only when it is clearly labelled as paid.

This is not new. In 2021, Newslaundry documented paid features about company chairmen and executives in Indian papers and magazines, carried under tags such as "Focus" rather than "Advertisement". If you are invited to appear in a leader profile, a cover story or a "top leaders" list, and the invitation comes with a fee or a package, it is a paid profile, whatever it is called.

What it is good for. Done openly, there is nothing wrong with a paid profile. A clearly labelled feature is a normal advertisement, and it gives you a well-produced piece to share.

What to watch out for. The risk is the unlabelled kind. The ASCI Code counts a communication as an advertisement if it is paid for, owned or authorised by the advertiser, even if the public may not recognise it as one. And when we look up a candidate, a list that anyone can pay to join tells us very little about them.

How to spot a paid profile that is not labelled

Look for a clear label on the piece itself, ask who paid, and treat any feature you or your company paid for as an advertisement, whatever it is called.

The Press Council of India's Norms of Journalistic Conduct (2019 edition) say advertisements must be clearly distinguishable from news content. Advertisements or advertorials that look like news should carry the heading "Advertisement/Advertorials" in bold, and supplements should say "Marketing Initiative". In 2025, ASCI added a clause to its Code saying paid posts on media companies' social media handles must carry the disclosure upfront, at the start of the post. What to check:

• Clear labels. Advertisement, Ad, Advertorial, Sponsored, Partnership, Collaboration or Marketing Initiative all mean the piece was paid for.
• Soft labels. Newslaundry found paid features tagged "Focus", "Impact Feature", "Brand Connect" and "initiative". ASCI's general secretary told it in 2021 that terms like "focus" or "initiative" may break the council's code.
• Where the label sits. A tiny note in a page corner, on the contents page or near the masthead is not the same as a label at the top of the piece.
• Who paid. Ask. If you, your company or your agency paid to appear, it is paid content.

Option 3: an announcement feature such as Boardroom Moves

An announcement feature records your move when it happens. It suits the moment you join a new company, but it is one moment, not an ongoing campaign.

Several outlets and LinkedIn pages cover leadership moves in India, listed in our guide on how to announce a new CXO appointment in India. Boardroom Moves is ours, and it works in two ways:

• The weekly Brief goes out on LinkedIn every Thursday. It covers 5 to 6 leaders who moved that week, written from public announcements, with nothing asked of the leader.
• Featured placement is the paid option. The move gets its own LinkedIn post, and with the Plus option also an article on boardroomcxo.com written to rank for the leader's name. The leader sees the draft first and can ask for changes. If we hear nothing within 48 hours, it goes live as drafted.

On boardroomcxo.com, paid features are marked "Featured placement", so readers can tell them apart from the Brief. Every paid profile should be this easy to spot.

What it is good for. A clear, accurate page about your move that comes up when someone searches your name. When we research a senior candidate, a Google search of their name is one of the first things we check. We cover the rest of that list in what a search firm sees when it Googles you. When someone Googles you before a board meeting, this is what they'll find.

What to watch out for. Boardroom Moves is not a PR campaign. It will not pitch you to journalists or write your LinkedIn posts. With any feature, ours or anyone else's, check how paid features are labelled and whether you get a web page or only a post.

Option 4: doing it yourself on LinkedIn

Doing it yourself on LinkedIn gives you full control and your own voice. It costs only time, and time is what senior leaders tend to have least of.

What it is good for. Posts in your own words, about real work, read differently from polished copy. Updating your headline on the day you move, writing your own announcement and posting now and then about your team is enough for most leaders.

What to watch out for. The hard part is keeping it going, which is why many CXOs hand the job to an agency. Posts also drop out of the feed within days, so they rarely come up when someone searches your name later.

Which option should you choose?

Choose by goal: an agency for ongoing presence, LinkedIn for your own voice, an announcement feature for a move, and a paid profile only if it is clearly labelled.

• Steady presence over a year, with no time to spare: a PR agency or personal branding service.
• Something to say and time to say it: your own LinkedIn.
• Just moved: an announcement feature puts the move on record.
• Offered a paid profile: take it only if it is labelled as paid, and judge it as an advertisement.

Many leaders combine their own LinkedIn with a feature when they move. Browse recent moves on Boardroom Moves, or our October 2026 moves report. If you have just made a move, tell us about it here.