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.
