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Skip The Word Salad – Get To The Meat Of Your Communication

SKIP THE WORD SALAD – GET TO THE MEAT OF YOUR COMMUNICATION

Probably safe to say that everyone’s familiar with ‘Bullsh*t Bingo’ – it’s a game to be played in meetings, the object of which is to tick off a list of cliches, jargon, acronyms and references to currently fashionable topics and issues.

Ideally you jump up and shout ‘Bingo!’ when you’ve got them all – although I doubt whether anyone’s actually done it in a real, life-or-death meeting scenario. Like when Vladimir Putin is chairing his weekly catch-up, for example. 

Maybe less familiar – you probably need to be a communicator for this – is the concept of ‘word salad’.

A word salad is a whole pile of words thrown at a piece of paper in the hope that they’ll become ‘writing for communication’. (Normally produced by the inexperienced, but don’t worry, we’ll soon have you writing taught, tight, concise and – above all – comprehensible copy, just you stick with us.)

‘Word salad’ also refers to copy which is the written equivalent of ‘Bullsh*t Bingo’. A loosely strung-together collection of cliches, jargon and buzzwords, masquerading as something like a news release, or a mission statement or a corporate position, but somehow failing to communicate anything useful at all.

This type of salad can be so generic that you could put any company name, or strategy, or product into it and it simply wouldn’t matter. Try this on for size:

“(Strategy name) inspires us to become so much more than we’ve ever been. We are expanding our vision, breaking the limits and embracing a new mindset, one that seeks to transform all facets of (industry sector/product category) for the betterment of our families, communities and the societies in which we operate. Powered by our diversity, (company name) leads the way the world moves by delivering innovative, clean, safe, and affordable (industry sector/product category) solutions.”

A properly weaved word Waldorf. Vision, mindset, transformation, family, community, society, diversity, innovation – we’re leaving nothing out, here.

Yet this isn’t made up – it’s a real example from a statement put out by a massive global conglomerate. We’d bet it’s a ‘committee word salad’, where tens of people have all had a go at it and it’s been re-written and re-written again, and then a smattering of senior execs have leant down from on high and have said things like: “I think we should include diversity,” and it’s been re-written again. And again.

No matter. The lesson is that there is no benefit in this type of communication. It says nothing positive about you. In fact, while your aim may have been to show how ethical and involved you are, it actually serves to demonstrate that it’s lip-service you’re paying to all of these things, no more.

Don’t be tempted to try and stuff everything in there – just like a proper salad, sometimes less is more.

If you’re concerned that your communication is more Russian salad than sliced tomato with olive oil and salt – we’d be happy to talk to you.

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NEWS & VIEWS

Things we’re thinking and things we’ve seen

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What’s the Future for AI and Content Generation?

what does ai mean for content generation?

I’m not very good with source material. I read something and think ‘oooh – that’s interesting, and no mistake’ and it’s only later, when I want to reference it, that I realise I’ve not a scooby where it came from. Example. Recently, I read something on Twitter which, as far as I could see, was about the use of AI in PR. If journalists think that they’re being spammed by PR practitioners now, just wait until Robocommunicator gets here. It struck a chord – and then came the dawning realisation that I had no idea what it was referencing and even a quick root around in Google didn’t throw anything up. But, actually, that’s not a problem. Because I am absolutely certain that AI is being used in communication in one form or another. Whether or not we’ve got to artificially compiled media releases, I don’t know, but I’d bet a million squiddlies against a bent sixpence that we have, or that we’re about to. And my certainty stems from the fact even I have considered whether it’s possible to create an algorithm that could produce – once fed a certain number of facts, premises and parameters – a half-decent media release.

When all’s said and done, there are – as we all know – things that a media release needs to contain to be functional and things that need to be added to make it ‘news’. Just in case anyone’s forgotten what they are:

Needs to be based around the who, what, why, where and the when. And – sometimes – how. It should be three paragraphs long and needs a quotation in the second paragraph.

Contains one or more (preferably more) of a list of things – money, technology, human interest, controversy, celebrity, sex or ‘futurology’ – linked to, or part of, the subject matter.

As I’m briefing an AI, here, I’ll also state the incredibly obvious – it has to be true and backed with evidence.

So – is this the end of the communicator as we know her, him or they? I’d say no – in the medium term – for two reasons.

First, no-one’s been successful (or at least not that we know of) in creating a ‘true’ AI – one that is conscious, one that can think for itself, has its own personality and makes its own decisions.

Second (and see above) writing a media release isn’t rocket science – you’d spend as much time feeding the information into the algorithm as you would simply writing it yourself.

That being said, of course, if you don’t trust your writing skills, and it normally takes five attempts to get approval, then an AI with machine learning capability would probably be more consistent out of the box. And would soon learn to create content in a client’s preferred style.

Maybe you’re right to be concerned.

(This blog was created by 4TC’s new communication composition algorithm, Scribl.)*

 

*No. No, it wasn’t.

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Thinking about authenticity? Authentic communication is a good start

Thinking about Authenticity? Authentic communication is a good start

You can’t go anywhere these days – in marketing and communication, anyway – without someone getting all authentic on you. Authenticity is a business imperative.

As such, authenticity needs measuring and tracking – and where better to start that with your communication? After all, if your communication strategies and activities aren’t seen as authentic, then how can you be?

Based on decades of communication and journalism experience, 4TC has developed a self-assessment tool – it’s part of the Authentic8 | Communication Authenticity & Effectiveness Audit.

The Authentic8 Self-Assessment module is based around a simple, thought-provoking questionnaire. It will provide you with a clear indication of where you are on your communication authenticity journey – and the things you might consider to help you go further, faster. Click here or below to give it a go.

Take the Authentic8™ Self-Assessment

It’s probably worth reminding ourselves why authenticity is important, what it means and how it manifests in communication.

  • 90% of people use authenticity to decide which brands they like[1]
  • 83% of marketers consider authenticity to be important to their brand
  • 57% of consumers believe that less than half of brands communicate authenticity
  • Authenticity (in leadership) is the strongest single driver of work happiness and job satisfaction – two key factors in employee engagement

Authenticity is a key factor in business success – but (and in case you’re wondering) what is authenticity? We came up with a definition (based on our decades of communication experience) which no-one (so far) has disagreed with.

Authenticity is:

  • Honest – representing something as it actually is
  • Targeted and Personal – talking to the right people, through the right channels in the right language
  • Professional – transparent in response, able to admit fault and apologise
  • Inclusive – bringing the team along on the journey
  • Not a ‘Tick in the Box’ – false impressions, inconsistency, greenwashing, avoidance

[1] Stackla Research – 2017/19

The 4TC Authentic8 Self-Assessment is based on the eight pillars of communication that underpin the entire Authentic8 audit process.

Language is about the way you speak or write, the flow or words and your choice of words.

Tone is about the overall sense of what you are communicating and what that says about you. How does it make someone feel towards the subject/brand/organisation?

Is your communication structured – beyond language and tone – to contain clear messaging that is important to your target audience?

What does your communication consist of – does the content you choose to communicate add value, does it serve a purpose, and does it benefit your audience?

The accessibility of your communication is as important to your authenticity score as is language, tone, messaging, and content. It speaks to the clarity and visibility of your communication.

Tolerance for inauthenticity may be higher amongst some audience groups than amongst others. Communication should be viewed in the context of who will be receiving it.

How does you communication reach its intended audience? Are you using the right channels – e.g. web, email, social media, news media, internal platforms – and are you executing a strategic approach to delivery?

Engagement is the culmination of language, tone, messaging, content, accessibility, and delivery. It is the ultimate barometer of the effectiveness, and therefore authenticity, of your communication.

Evaluating your communication in the context of each of these elements provides insight into your communication’s authenticity and therefore its effectiveness in communicating your business or organisation’s stories and truths.

If you would like to know more about anything you’ve read here, or would like to discuss the Authentic8 Communication Authenticity and Effectiveness Audit, please get in touch with us at info@4TC.ie

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Media Relations in PR – a Game With Rules

media relations in pr - a game with rules

We’ve been thinking about media relations recently – the term used to describe the relationship between the communications industry (PR) and the media (the journalists who create the content that fills the digital, print and broadcast space).

There was a time when it also meant individual communicators creating personal relationships with specific journalists – compiling a ‘little black book’ of contacts, armed with which favourable coverage was almost guaranteed.

(This, of course, is hogwash. While favours might be called in on occasion, if your story is a turkey, it’s a turkey and good journalists don’t do turkey.)

Since the advent of digital media, however, much has changed. Advertising revenue is spread much more thinly, all media finds itself under cost pressure and the result is fewer journalists covering much more ground.

A story only gets covered if it’s something people will want to read

Broadly speaking, there is very little time for building personal relationships and a story only gets covered if it’s actually a story, one that people will want to read.

Media relations is, therefore, how communicators and journalists co-exist. It’s our job to tell our client’s stories in a positive way, and make them newsworthy, and it’s the journalist’s job – broadly speaking – to report the news.

That’s not to say – in any way at all – that it is the journalist’s job to report our stories.

No, it’s their job – or their editor’s job – to decide what is news, what their readers will be interested in and, if our story fits the bill, to make use of it in their reporting.

Let us be very clear, however – the PR/media relationship is a transactional one. If a journalist decides to use our story – if we have made it sufficiently newsworthy and value-adding – then we expect a name-check in return.

If we’ve given you a story about a brand new, labour-saving widget that will be a boon to the ordinary householder, then name the company that’s producing it.

There’s little love lost between PR and the media

Trouble is – and it’s the communication industry’s fault – there is little love lost between us and the media.

Our industry doesn’t always get it right. Some of us bother journalists with turkeys. Our industry spams the media. Some of us make unnecessary phone calls at inappropriate times.

This has led to a relationship that sometimes loses sight of what it should be. The media view PR as somehow ‘pulling a fast one’ – and therefore not meriting the give and take of a normal transactional relationship.

Recently, on behalf of a client, we undertook a piece of simple research – perfectly valid, wholly representative, providing watertight results – to generate a few statistics that could be used to help tell our client’s story.

We wrote the story up and we did it in a style that was easily accessible and which could be reproduced without too much editing (we’re good at this – it’s the product of years of experience).

The story received quite a lot of coverage – because it was reasonably newsworthy, fairly amusing, and relevant to almost everyone.

How the media game is – and isn’t – played

One radio station, however, took against it, deciding that it was facile and quite clearly designed, in some way, to take advantage of them.

Well, OK. If that’s what you think.

Remember, we’ve already told you that you don’t have to report this. It’s your choice. If you don’t want to – throw it in the bin.

Thing was – they did report it. They discussed it for three minutes on primetime breakfast show radio. They filled their programme and entertained their listeners with our story – the product of a reasonable amount of work on our part.

And at the end of their discussion, the presenters agreed – between them, live on air – that they weren’t going to mention our client’s name.

Come on lads, that’s not how the media relations game is played, and you know it. At least you should. Makes us not want to send you stuff anymore, which is a shame.

If you’d like to know more about media relations – or any other aspect of the communication mix, or even just which radio station we’re talking about – contact us on info@4tc.ie

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Evaluating Communication – Can You Be More Specific?

Evaluating Communication - can you be more specific?

I’ve been thinking about outcomes and evaluation and measurement recently. This particular train of thought was prompted by a request for information about what the individual elements of a specific campaign might deliver.

Which is an eminently fair question.

However, it’s not like we’re in advertising, or sales promotion, or CRM here – I can’t say that each €xxx spent will deliver xxx eyeballs, a click-through rate of x.x%, and an uplift in sales in x region of xx%.

I just can’t.

Yes, we can agree clear objectives. Yes, we can be clear on what and when and how much and to what end. We provide years of expertise in how best to deliver the activity. But the nature of the game is storytelling and media relations and – this is the first biggy – I cannot guarantee the outcome.

Way back when, in the days when we used to carry press releases up and down Fleet Street in cleft sticks (no – no, we didn’t – get a grip), there was a thing that I will call Queen Mum Syndrome.

This was based on every newspaper and broadcaster in the land already having front pages and programming schedules ready in case today was the day the ageing Queen Mother popped her clogs.

This was in the UK, but the rule applies across all countries – just substitute an elder statesman, or woman, a major celebrity or sporting icon, and think about how the media will react when, god bless them, they pass on.

Suffice to say, no matter how good your story, if you release it on that day you are going to get next to no traction at all. Despite what you might be told in pitch meetings, unless you are paying for coverage, outcomes are not guaranteed – they depend on many factors.

The second biggy is that storytelling is a long game. Yes, you may luck out and your first story goes viral (as the kids would have it) but usually you need to invest time and effort into building momentum and watching results grow. That’s why it’s called ‘campaigning’.

So asking about what individual elements of the campaign will deliver is never going to be met with a specific answer. We can say what they are intended to deliver and what the delivery might look like – but before the fact, we cannot guarantee anything.

After the fact, you get into the realm of evaluation and measurement, which is a nasty mixture of bog and minefield, if ever I’ve seen one.

Again, way back when, the debate around evaluation and measurement in communication (and how, if a solution was reached, communication would immediately become a serious profession like accountancy) was in full swing. It still is.

Fortunately, there’s now an organisation called AMEC which champions proper measurement in communication (with its Integrated Evaluation Framework).

AMEC does battle with the evil that is Advertising Value Equivalent (a calculation that provides a very rough idea of what coverage might have cost, had you bought it).

Most media monitoring agencies still offer an AVE service however, because they’re still asked for it – and you’d have to be stupid (as a business) to say ‘no’ when it’s a) easy and b) a money-spinner.

Why are they still asked for AVE? Because it’s cheap and easy. Look at the AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework. Have a think about how much it would cost – in terms of money and time. Then look at your budget, and decide whether you want to spend some arbitrary figure – probably 25% of your total outlay – on evaluating your activity.

There is some good news, however. Evaluation – knowing whether your campaign has achieved against your objectives – can be simple, cheap and obvious.

I’m talking about getting phone calls from potential investors or business partners, or seeing an increase in sales, or outlets wishing to stock your products. Perhaps an increase in productivity, or positive feedback from your employees.

Once upon a time, after a busy day, I repaired to the pub for a restorative pint or two. My day had been spent talking to the media about a story dealing with lifestyle trends and some of my company’s products.

As I stood at the bar, I earwigged on a conversation taking place next to me. Two blokes were having a heated discussion about my story, the one I’d issued that morning, and which they’d clearly heard on the radio, or read in the evening paper.

That, I thought – as I scarfed my pint – is a result.

If you’d like to know more about getting results from your communication, contact us at info@4TC.ie

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Successful Communication Means Writing for Your Audience

Successful Communication Means Writing for Your Audience

“If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.” David Ogilvy, 23 June 1911 – 21 July 1999), advertising tycoon, founder of Ogilvy & Mather, and known as the “Father of Advertising”.

There are many variations on this quotation – appears no-one can really decide (or remember) what it was that David Ogilvy actually said about writing. What’s certain, however, is that he believed in talking to his audience on their level.

Here are a few pointers to getting it right:

You’ll sometimes hear people saying ‘why use four words, when one will do’, and we’d wholeheartedly agree – unless that one word is ‘footfall’, or ‘outputs’ or ‘aligned’.

Even better, hear the voice you want to use in your head, and write that. Write everyday conversation. Leave your parties of the first part to the lawyers. Don’t think that lots of big words give your topic weight or make it more important.

Very few things are actually fun – and new products or services aren’t on the list. Besides, who actually gushes to friends and family about how ‘fun’ a thing is – or, worse, how ‘fun’ they are?

Same with being super-something. Being super-something simply means you can’t think of a proper superlative to describe how something you are.

There may be a million different reasons for people to do the thing you want them to do, or buy the thing that you want them to buy. But you can’t list them all – so pick the two or three that will most suit your audience, and that are the most easily explained, in common language.

Just because something is important to you, doesn’t make it important to everyone else.

Authenticity is not best delivered by half-a-dozen people working on a story, and it will be obvious. Discuss it beforehand. Agree purpose, direction and parameters – then let one person get on with creating the content.

Plain language is a discipline, forcing you to evaluate the way you communicate. Sometimes jargon and techspeak is an easier way to go than spending the time translating it into plain language that people will understand. And plain language does not devalue the product or concept that it is describing – if anything, it clears its path.

By which, obviously, we mean run it past someone who’s not been involved with the product, concept or project that you’re building a story around. Someone who doesn’t share your localised language, your buzzwords, your jargon, your shorthand. See if they understand what you’re saying – if they do, you’ve succeeded, if they need explanation – then it’s back to the drawing board

Writing in the vernacular actually isn’t that difficult. It just takes a bit of a shift in thinking and a little bit of practice.

We can help you with both things – and we’d be happy to talk to you about it.

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Everyone Likes A Tech Story

Everyone Likes a Tech Story

Find the right angles, look for the hooks – everyone’s got something to say. We’d be happy to talk to you about finding your story, and telling it.

Everyone likes a tech story. We’re all fascinated by the rise of the machines. AI is the big buzzword, even if, truth be told, we’re not really sure what AI is. Just a few years ago – no more than seven or eight – the big buzz was around the IoT, or Internet of Things. Now, with the advent of 5G, the Internet of Things is set to become a real thing and – no exaggeration – revolutionise our lives.

Just as a refresher – because what with the information overload that is modern life with a smartphone, it’s sometimes difficult to see the tech for the vapourware – the Internet of Things (IoT) is machine-to-machine communication, without a human intermediary. It will enable smart cities – in which everything will be available, where you want it, when you want it.

We’re talking driverless taxis, parking spaces that let your car know they’re free, real-time information about queues, about loos, about booze and about news. Stuff that changes from location to location. You literally ain’t seen nothing yet.

It will also enable the rise of the machines. Not – I am fairly confident – robots from the future, but definitely smart appliances in the home. “Smart appliances?” you mutter, suspiciously. Yes.

Toasters that anticipate how much toasting they’ll be doing and on what setting, based on information received from the breadbin. Mattresses that may firm or soften their springs, acting on updates from the wine cooler. (OK – I made that one up.) Fridges that know when you’re out of milk and either add it to your grocery order themselves, or Whatsapp you to make sure you buy some.

Flights of fantasy? Nope. Samsung have not only already produced a ‘smart’ fridge, but are actively promoting it.

Recently, on this very blog, we talked about stories and what makes them. We identified a selection of things which – if they appeared in your story – would go a long way to making it newsworthy, and lead to the media coverage you’re looking for. One of them was technology – read the first two sentences of this post again, they explain why.

Samsung, of course, have got this covered. They’re not short on a bit of tech. But the way they got coverage for their smartfridge was nothing less than opportunistic genius. Because one of the other things that makes a story is human interest. And another thing that makes a story, which doesn’t get talked about in a communication context so much, is – sex.

Samsung came up with ‘refridgerdate’. A service you can sign up to in which the contents of your fridge match you with other people who have similar contents in their fridges. All done by the fridges themselves. Yes, you’re shaking your head. Yes, well, you’re saying, that can’t be real.

Doesn’t matter. It’s a fantastic story and, as it should have, it got the coverage. I listened to a radio piece – the presenter knew that it was stretching the boundaries. He said so. Samsung admitted that only 15 people had signed up – and they were all employees.
It didn’t matter. In the slightest. I smiled, because it was funny. It was up-to-date. It was relevant to one of the biggest shifts that will happen in our lifetimes. It pulled the strings and made itself news.

Your business may not be a tech giant. You might not think that you’ve got a story that could be news.

Well – don’t think like that. Find the right angles, look for the hooks – everyone’s got something to say. We’d be happy to talk to you about finding your story, and telling it.

 

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Plain English and Authentic Communication

Plain English & Authentic Communication

If you’re concerned that you might be on the road to unlocking consumption occasions, we‘d be happy to talk to you about a sense check on the language you’re using and some recommendations for improvement – as and if necessary.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was a company with a really impressive brand. One day the lawyers arrived and slapped a whole bunch of new rules on it, one of which was that it now had to capitalise BRAND in all of its external communication.

Come on – the communicators said – it looks ridiculous and, as this is earned media we’re talking about, it’s not going to survive into actual coverage and, more than anything, it is wholly inauthentic. No, said the lawyers, you don’t understand. You will do as you are told and whenever you mention the brand, you will refer to it as BRAND.

All the joy and spontaneity that you’ll find in a young, growing brand, or in a new industry sector, or a start-up company was sucked away overnight. And, probably as a knock-on effect, there was a shift in the language used when talking about the brand – notably it moved away from plain English, from how people actually talk, to how the brand guardians think people talk.

It’s not an uncommon phenomenon. Lots of big brands have suffered the same fate. Here, for example, is a compare and contrast – two food brands, in a 2020 BBC article about changing eating patterns during the lockdown:

“With so many meals being consumed at home it has unlocked many more occasions for consumption bringing families together at mealtimes.”

and

“We knew straight away with more people cooking and eating at home that it would go bananas and May was our biggest month ever.”

The first is a food company with a big brand of sausages. Roughly translated, it says ‘with so many meals being eaten at home, bringing families together, there are more opportunities than ever to enjoy your favourite foods’. Go further – replace ‘foods’ with ‘sausages’, why not? But ‘unlocking consumption occasions’? This isn’t how real people talk.

The second is a young company with a growing brand of tofu – which, the lawyers would say, is not bananas. But as there were no lawyers there, the spokesperson was able to sound genuinely excited about the success the company was enjoying.

And the moral of the story? Twofold. As communicators, we have to realise that the larger and more successful a business or brand becomes, the more rules there are around what you can and can’t do and what you can and can’t say. And we need to work within those.

However, as communicators we have a duty to ensure that the brands, companies and organisations in our care are remaining authentic, using plain English and explaining themselves in the language that their stakeholders would use.

If you’re concerned that you might be on the road to unlocking consumption occasions, we‘d be happy to talk to you about a sense check on the language you’re using and some recommendations for improvement – as and if necessary.

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Spokespeople and Messages

The Right Message, The Right Spokesperson

So let’s talk a bit about messaging and spokespeople and audience engagement.

So let’s talk a bit about messaging and spokespeople and audience engagement.

A commercial radio news bulletin, here in the Emerald City, concerning the renewal of a corporate sponsorship of a leading entertainment venue.

An opportunity, with the right messages and delivery, to enhance the general perception of a company, and get people on board.

 

Include detail, avoid buzzwords

The spokesperson talked about transforming the sponsored building into a ‘smart venue’.  This may well be a thing – but without any explanation, it’s a lost opportunity to connect with the audience. 

Then there was ‘improving customer experience’. Without specifics, why should anyone care?

It is too easy to substitute a shorthand term for the real message. 

‘Smart venue’, when we mean a building that can tell you where things are, tell you how long the queue for the ladies’ loo is and allow you to pre-order two hot dogs and four pints via an app on your smartphone. 

‘Improving customer experience’ when we mean discounted gig tickets, a chance to meet the band and 4G in the mosh pit.

Messages are the detail that gets people interested, draws them in, makes them want to be involved. In this case, however, both key points sounded like buzzwords from an approved list. 

 

Suitable spokespeople, not senior spokespeople

Agreeing a spokesperson is not easy – often simple seniority carries the day.

An approach is to establish a panel of ‘subject matter experts’ who take the spokesperson role when it’s their area. 

Another is to spread the responsibility – get agreement that a handful of senior people should alternate as spokesperson, thus limiting the exposure of any one in particular. 

And there’s selection of opportunity – the less able spokesperson gets the less pivotal gigs.

 

Training to tell stories

In the real world, of course, this doesn’t always work. The media want to speak with the CEO, and no-one else will cut it. 

Or maybe the news story is about a ground-breaking use of technology and only the CTO will do. 

Which is where, of course, the message and the spokesperson should be managed in tandem. 

Messages are not buzzwords, and a spokesperson is not someone reading buzzwords off a script. Training and rehearsal – above and beyond a simple ‘briefing’ – help the spokesperson to build their own story around the messages.

Telling a story that they’re comfortable with not only brings the message to life, but allows the spokesperson to be genuine in their delivery.

It’s the combination of interesting detail and genuine delivery, by someone who’s comfortable with the material, that creates audience connection and propensity to engage.

If you would like to know more about messaging, identifying spokespeople and training them to do the best job they can, we’d be happy to talk to you – for free, with no obligations.

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The Art Of The Story

The art of the story

At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, at the heart of every piece of communication is a story.

At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, at the heart of every piece of communication is a story. It might be a story that wants to be told, or needs to be told, or has to be told. It might be a good story, it might be a dull story, it might be – heaven help us – a bad news story. No matter – there’s no communication without a story.

A good story, one that leaps out at you, one that grabs the attention, is a joy to work with. We were fortunate enough, not so long ago, to be involved with the launch of a new company in the technology space – and, hell, did they have the story. An indigenous company, first in the sector, with a billion euro project that will create more than a thousand jobs. This was news.

Which was reflected in the results – by the end of the week, we were able to report more than 50 pieces of coverage, including TV, radio, national, regional and trade print and online and a smattering of international titles. Probably more importantly, our client’s ‘phone lines were going like the Batfone on a bad evening in Gotham.

Now – obviously – something like this doesn’t come along every day. Most of the time, stories are smaller, or more local, more specialist or simply a result of your ‘business as usual’.

Sometimes you might think that you haven’t got a story at all – but don’t panic.

Broadly speaking, there are a handful of things that make news. If you can find one or two of them in your story – or add them as extra elements – then your communication will be that much more effective.

They Are (in no particular order)

As Tom Cruise famously shouted: “show me the money”. Big numbers make news, whether it’s the cost of something (the million-euro Mont Blanc pen on sale at London’s City Airport), investment in something (our clients and their billion euro project) or money spent on something (millions of euro to provide new medical equipment).

Everyone is fascinated by the rise of the machines. Technology that makes lives easier (Siri, Alexa), technology that shapes the future (contactless payments) technology that was science fiction a few years ago (driverless cars). The current massive interest in AI is a case in point.

Things that touch people’s lives, that they can relate to, that are important to them, or that simply give them a warm, fuzzy feeling. Think job creation, think community initiatives, think food and drink and leisure, think health and exercise and – if all else fails – think cuddly kittens.

Because there’s nothing like a good argument, or a challenge to the status quo. Proposing a new way of doing things, questioning established procedures, espousing causes, targeting the unpopular – all of these can get you noticed and talked about. Corporate Health Warning – being controversial can attract unwelcome attention and less-than-positive responses. Preparation, thought and planning are necessary.

The lives of the beautiful, the famous, the rich and the powerful are fascinating. An endorsement from a celeb (whether it’s a politician in a photo opp, a sportsman at your fundraiser, or a blogger talking you up) adds another dimension to what you’re doing and can help your communication cut through.

At the risk of being repetitive – a good story is a joy to work with. If you’d like some help telling your story, we’d be more than happy to have a chat.

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