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Making the most of the Big Idea

making the most of the big idea

By JEREMY PROBERT

Recently, I got to listen to Andrew Simon, Global Creative Director of Edelman (a huge US-derived PR conglomerate). The subject matter was ‘The Blending of Earned and Paid Media’, a topic of some interest to us at 4TC as we operate in both spaces.

Why do we operate in both space? Well, because sometimes you can’t get the earned coverage you need and the best way to gain exposure for your message is by paying for it (and don’t start me on advertising vs advertorial). At other times you may want to amplify your earned media and therefore choose to support it with paid-for content.

The talk – and the learnings therein – were very much based on the assumption that your organisation or brand has a ‘big idea’ (a creative concept, a cause to champion, an issue to address) and if not, that it can find one.

Don’t let that put you off – great ideas don’t come in boxes of six and while you’re looking for yours, best to be prepared to exploit it when you find it.

So what are the things to consider when exploiting an idea and the story that you build around it?

What people care about is being rewarded with entertainment or utility. ‘Entertainment’ is not just the funny and the quirky, but stuff they care deeply about. ‘Utility’ is about receiving something of value they can share.

This is JFDI (Just Effing Do It) by another name. Kick off your communication activity and see where it goes, developing it and adding bits to it as you go along. Seize the moment and the opportunity.

Which is a bit weird, but what it means is ‘see it through to its natural conclusion’. Don’t give up halfway, don’t curtail the opportunity. Keep looking at how you can amplify it until you can’t anymore.

What does success look like? What do you want to achieve? Work back from there to see/decide how to make it happen.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. This is really around issues and challenges. Look at the issues and challenges that face your brand – both those that have always been around and any new ones on the horizon and think, well, how can I turn these to my advantage?

(This is about campaigning and/or championing the cause of people and groups. It’s not suggesting that if, for example, you’re a mining company which has just buried 24 employees, you should be looking to leverage the positive.)

Simply put, build it and they will come. If you have a great idea and it gains traction, then it’s likely to feed off its own success, breeding further success. It’s the principle of contagion.

If a creative idea takes off, and it’s being pushed out across paid and earned media, with a multi-disciplinary team, then it’s going to get complex and possibly messy. Don’t worry too much about that – trust your instincts, run with what seems right, stop what doesn’t. You won’t have time to do a quick consumer poll to test the water.

Amplify your story in any and all ways. If that means throwing money at it – sponsorship, native content, promoted social – then do it to take the story to its natural conclusion. It’s not over until it’s over – keep it going until it can go no more.

Don’t just waffle on – do something. Raise an issue, combat a problem, challenge an attitude or position. Say/do something that actually means something.

It’s all sound advice – don’t overthink it, seize the day, wring every last drop out of it, accept that there’ll be a certain lack of control and be prepared to expend resource as necessary.

There’s just three final thoughts:

  • An idea of the budget you’ve got to spend, and agreement to spend it, is central to the process
  • This way of working requires you to be able to move fast, get agreement quickly and change direction on a 5 cent piece
  • There’s always an element of risk in this because you cannot – completely – know where it’s going. You can best guess but you can’t guarantee. The more accepting of that risk you are, the better.

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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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Sleep difficulties due to pandemic lockdowns putting physical and mental health at risk

'Sleep difficulties due to pandemic and lockdowns putting physical and mental health at risk’

  • Expert warns of increase in number of people experiencing poor quality sleep
  • Coeliac Awareness Week ‘Sleep Session’ to provide simple, practical, and effective advice

An increasing number of people are experiencing sleep difficulties due to stress, anxiety and changing lifestyle patterns brought on by COVID19 and the pandemic lockdowns.

That’s according to Health Scientist and Sleep Coach Tom Coleman, who says that people experiencing poor quality sleep are putting their physical and mental health at risk.

Mr Coleman will be speaking about the importance of sleep as part of Coeliac Awareness Week 2021, which runs from Monday 10th to Friday 14th May. His ‘Sleep Session’ will focus on the importance of sleep to the physiology of a healthy body and examine how mental wellbeing and emotional stability are regulated by the quality of sleep.

The health scientist and sleep coach will outline the many stress and physical triggers that cause disruption as well as providing simple, practical, and effective advice on how to regulate this most important aspect of living a healthy life.

Mr Coleman said: “Sleep is the ultimate act of self-care. Not a single aspect of physiology or psychology isn’t affected by sleep. When you’re asleep, your immune system is awake, the good bacteria in your gut is active, and your body is repairing the wear and tear of the previous day. These are all vital functions that are required to maintain a healthy body and mind, and they can only be achieved through good quality sleep.

“This is true for everyone but particularly for people suffering from auto-immune conditions such as coeliac disease or severe gluten intolerance. By the nature of their conditions, people with these conditions need to pay particular attention to their body’s ability to regulate their immune function and health in general.”

“Over the past 12 months I have witnessed a significant increase in people experiencing sleeping issues caused by the worry and anxiety of the COVID19 pandemic.

“We all should be spending roughly 36% of our lives asleep. But currently the levels of stress are high due to pandemic concerns, and the ‘always on’ nature of working from home and spending an increased amount of time on screens, particularly at night.

“People need to give themselves the opportunity to bring themselves down form this arousal continuum, to live in the now rather than constantly think about the future.”

Gill Brennan CEO of Coeliac Society Ireland said: “Coeliac Awareness Week will have lots of events focused on helping people take care of their nutritional health and mental wellbeing, as well as various activities that will be fun for all the family – including live cooking demonstrations, a kid’s corner, and a laughter yoga session.

“There are around 50,000 coeliac sufferers in Ireland, but as many as 37,000 are undiagnosed. These people are living with an untreated lifelong autoimmune condition, which can have a massive impact on their health. There are also over 400,000 people who are gluten intolerant.

“That’s why Coeliac Awareness Week is so important – it’s an opportunity for people with unexplained symptoms such as bloating, stomach pains, diarrhoea, constipation, anaemia and fatigue to ask, ‘Could it be gluten?’. The Coeliac Society can provide information about getting tested, diagnosed and start living a gluten free lifestyle.”

Find out more Coeliac Awareness Week, coeliac disease and living gluten free at the Coeliac Society of Ireland.  

Top 10 tips for a good Night's sleep

Trying to stick to a routine when it comes to bed is really important. We should try go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time. When you stick to a regular sleep schedule, the brain learns unwind and relax when it’s time to go to bed.

Light plays a key role in regulating circadian rhythm, the body’s internal clock that tells us when we should be awake and when we should sleep. Morning light anchors our circadian rhythm and sets a timer for melatonin release later in the day. It also boosts our “cortisol activation response” which energises us for the day ahead.

Exercising has all round benefits for health. Both aerobic exercise and resistance exercise can improve sleep quality. Physical activity improves sleep quality, reduces wake episodes and shortens “sleep latency” – the time it takes to get to sleep. Remember that exercise can delay sleep, so ensure you leave about 3 hours between exercise and sleep time.

Nutrition is another fundamental role in our health. It is recommended to avoid large meals and spicy foods prior to bed. There are certain foods like whole grain and proteins both of these contain tryptophan which can increase the sleep hormone ‘melatonin’.

Monitoring and limiting your caffeine intake is important. Stimulants like coffee can have a negative impact on your sleep maintenance and quality. Alcohol is a sedative which sends signals to the brain and can also interfere with sleep quality and restoration. You should not drink coffee after 2pm and you should stop drinking alcohol 4 hours before bedtime.

While lowering sleep pressure can help with exhaustion, it can also make it difficult to fall asleep at night. People who have trouble falling or staying asleep at night should avoid naps. If napping is necessary, it is recommended that the nap length is 20 to 30 minutes and earlier on in the day, to avoid sleep disruption at bedtime.

Using electronic devices which give off blue light at night can disturb both the quantity and quality of sleep. This blue light emitted by technology devices impacts the natural production of the sleep hormone, melatonin, and can throw off circadian rhythm. By putting your phone down an hour to 40 minutes before going to bed can help improve sleep quality.

The temperature in your bedroom has a big impact on how well you sleep. The recommended temperature for your bedroom is 18-20 degrees Celsius. In the evening, our bodies are conditioned to feel a small drop in core temperature. Turning the thermostat down at night will help regulate your body’s temperature and signal that it is time to sleep.

Having a good night’s sleep depends on your bedroom environment. Creating a sleep-friendly bedroom atmosphere is an essential aspect of sleep hygiene that will help you get quality rest night after night. A decluttered bedroom with warm and appealing colours with an appealing layout can improve sleep quality.

Sleep problems are often caused by stress and anxiety. The stress response can be turned off by activating relaxation responses such as breathing techniques and visualization exercises, according to studies. By partaking in these it can help calm the mind and help ourselves drift off to natural sleep. Writing or keeping journals can help declutter and our mind and help us destress.

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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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Should you – Can you – Measure Authenticity?

Should you - can you - measure authenticity?

We’ll start from the premise that authenticity is a good thing. A 2019 survey found that 90% of consumers believe authenticity is important when deciding which brands they like and support – up from 86% in 2017 – and 83% of marketers agree saying authenticity is very important to their brands.

Authenticity is, of course, not just about brands, it’s also about businesses and organisations, and about workforces, and about individuals. However you look at it, Authenticity is an important thing.

There’s power in using your authentic voice

Former US First Lady Michelle Obama wrote: “There’s power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice.”

Employee perception of authentic leadership is one the strongest single predictors of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and work happiness – all factors in a high employee engagement score.

According to Gallup, the most engaged teams in its (sizeable) database – when compared with the least engaged teams – experience an average of 44% less absenteeism, 10% higher customer scores and 21% higher profitability.

So, authenticity is key to trust, to belief, to propensity to engage and to propensity to purchase. Authenticity is a business imperative, however, you cannot (as a brand, as an organisation, as a leader) be perceived as authentic unless you communicate your authenticity.

Communication strategy is linked to authenticity

Emmanuelle Probst, SVP of Brand Health Tracking at IPSOS, in his 2018 article What Makes a Brand Authentic suggests finding your authenticity in stories about your brand or organisation, and developing those stories to communicate it. Most importantly, he says that the stories have to ring true.

Your communication strategy is inextricably linked to how authentic you are seen to be. Unless you communicate your authenticity, none of your audiences are going to know about it, or understand it, or engage with it in a positive manner.

But the story you’re telling – your communication strategy – has to ring true. If your communication is inauthentic, you will not be perceived as having that quality.

If, therefore, we’re measuring authenticity, then surely a good place to start is to measure the authenticity of a brand or organisation’s communication strategy, direction, activity, and the materials that support them.

There are eight elements that contribute to authenticity in communication and against which communication activity and content can be measured:

The written and spoken words your organisation uses, as well as the choice and flow of those words

The overall sense of what you are communicating and what that says about your organisation and its character

The structure of your communication, containing clear messages that are important to your brand or business

The content you choose to communicate should add value, serve a purpose, and benefit your audience

The clarity and visibility of your communication – as important to your authenticity as language, tone, messaging, and content

The context of who will be receiving your communication – authenticity of communication matters more to some audience groups than others 

The strategic approach to delivery across the most appropriate channels and platforms 

The culmination of language, tone, messaging, content, accessibility, audience identification and delivery and the ultimate barometer of the effectiveness, and therefore authenticity, of your communication

An organisation’s communication (external and internal) can, and should, be benchmarked against each one. This will provide an indicator of how authentic – and, therefore, how effective – communication is, in terms of overall strategy as well as individual programme elements.

Certainty and consistency

Getting communication right and embedding it as a process – a ‘how we do things around here’ – provides certainty and consistency. It enables all your stakeholders to understand and engage with the story of your authenticity, your beliefs, your behaviours and your way of doing business.

 

4TC has developed its proprietary Authentic8 Communication (Authenticity and Effectiveness) Audit to enable businesses and brands to assess their communication strategies and activities for authenticity and, therefore, for effectiveness.

Authentic8 is borne of many decades of PR, corporate communication and journalistic experience. It blends independent assessment with self-assessment and examines communication strategy, content and tactics both from an external and an internal point of view.

4TC’s Authentic8 tool can be tailored to the specific needs of individual businesses and provides an analysis of communication authenticity and effectiveness, accompanied by recommendations on actions that might be taken to enhance your performance.

For further information, contact us at info@4tc.ie

Photo by Mariah Solomon on Unsplash

 

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What the Carlow school uniform story tells us about accuracy and reputation

What the Carlow school uniform story tells us about accuracy and reputation

About 10 years ago a journalist colleague told me they had never encountered a story that was worth going to jail over.

It happened while as we discussed a story about alleged banking corruption, what we intended to publish, and how strong and assertive the language and headline could be.

His argument was not that there would never be a story worth going to jail over – the fact that some 248 journalists globally are languishing in jail for doing their jobs suggests there are stories that are. No, it was that journalists have a responsibility to ensure that they are operating fairly and legally when reporting and that there can be consequences when they don’t.

This much was clear following last week’s false news story about Presentation College Carlow, which quickly transformed into a story about journalistic ineptitude, and the dangers of following bad reporting and sensational content.

“Female students at a Carlow secondary school have been told by teachers not to wear tight-fitting clothing to PE, as it is distracting for male staff.”

Thus tweeted journalist Kacey O’Riordan, attracting more than 10,000 likes and 4,000 retweets. The very fact that the tweet was presented as a statement rather than an allegation should have caused alarm bells to ring. But no, what followed was a frenetic and unprofessional rush to judgment by a journalists, commentators, politicians, and members of the public.

  • “There is an old-fashioned narrative or viewpoint within the school, and this has stemmed from this,” said a radio presenter who had no specific familiarity with the school.
  • The Lord Mayor of Dublin chimed in on Twitter, accusing teachers of “shaming and blaming the wrong party”.
  • The Labour Party issued a press release demanding that the school “apologise to the students and parents”.

The problem was that it was a story built on second-hand information which the reporter ran without verification. Others similarly failed to verify the facts, or lack thereof, as the story spread like wildfire.

By the time the school stated that asking students to wear the correct uniform at PE was part of a regular reminder of school rules and regulations, the damage had been done. The story was all over national and local media. Teachers had been demonised for being sexist or, worse, paedophiles, all based on unreliable, second-hand information. Some tweets were deleted, including those that started the furore, but no clarifications or apologies were forthcoming.

Elaine Byrne’s article in the Business Post provides a good analysis of the basic lack of professional standards employed by journalists and media organisations.

In journalism, there are stories where you’ll get away with reporting rumours – the stories where the information doesn’t defame anyone. You’ll find lots of them in the sports section.

But when a story contains allegations that are potentially damaging to people, journalists must tread carefully – and so must anyone who chooses to comment on social media or anywhere else. If something is true then you’re on solid ground – but here the terrain was clearly shaky.

Why did it happen? It might be the rush to publish on Twitter – generating attention for an upcoming story – meant the usual checks and balances weren’t applied. Either way reputational damage was sustained by individual and organisations. Media organisations may not be responsible for their reporters’ personal social media accounts, but mistakes like this reflect badly on them.

So what's the lesson for businesses, brands and communicators?

Personal social media accounts, despite stating ‘opinions are all my own’ or ‘do not reflect those of my employer’, cause collateral damage. With that in mind, here are three things to think about:

Whether you’re a journalist, commentator, politician, CEO, or self-opinionated spoofer, you need to be able to stand over what you say and write. If you can’t, you will be called out on it.

It doesn’t need to be your mistake for it to impact on you. Retweeting or liking might not be an endorsement but it can impact on you by association.

If you do get it wrong, issue a correction – and do it quickly. You may also need to consider apologising. Admitting you got it wrong speaks to integrity, and your colleagues, customers, followers, and members of the public will respect it.

If you would like advice on your business or brand’s reputation, issues management, and social media, get in touch with 4TC.

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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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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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