A new client joins the agency. Everyone is happy. A new adventure is on the horizon. The first step is the immersion process and the development of a communication strategy. It is essential that the consultants analyze and understand the company, soak up the business model and know how to identify the competition and, above all, explain why the client measures itself against these other companies. This dive, which takes time, is an indispensable step in developing a coherent long-term communication strategy. During this process, it is natural for a client to ask: “All this strategy stuff is all very well, but when will we be in the media?“. He thinks, with very good reason, that this is what he hired you for: “Look at the interview they did with the competition. Could we do something similar? And, of course, we consultants can get nervous when we see the client getting impatient, while we continue to scrutinize what communication plan suits his needs.
This is perhaps the first dilemma that consultants may have with their client: Do we start generating impacts even if we are not clear about what their key messages are? Do we wait to understand the company in depth and develop a solid and meaningful strategy before launching into the media? It is not easy to find a solution. A consultant does well to arrange an interview with a relevant media, but does much more good if he explains to his client what the relationship with the media consists of before launching into a meeting with journalists. Within this field, there are always different sets of games and alignments, but it is important for the client to understand – and this is almost always the case – that there are no instant results in communications. Even if we have completed the immersion and understand the client’s key messages and business, there is still another step: the journalist has to go through this process as well. It is very difficult, unless you are the next star startup in artificial intelligence, to get a (good) interview without the journalist knowing who you are, what you do and why what you say might be relevant to their readers.
Communication is a trickle, a constant action that slowly, and almost imperceptibly for the client’s target audience, fills the glass. Like a seed, which you sow and water until it sprouts and grows. It is a slow and careful process. If there is no quality substrate or if the humidity and temperature conditions are not adapted to its needs, the plant does not grow properly.
Communication is strategic and a long-term project. The other is not communication, but punctual actions without consistency. It’s like the friend who shows up at a party every so often and then you don’t see him the rest of the year. You’ll have a few laughs with him, but let’s face it, he’s not a friend either. That’s why, most of the time, when a client simply wants to send a press release, without having previously thought about a strategy or having a certain media relations path, the results are not good. Journalists usually send irrelevant press releases to the trash -some may receive up to 300 emails a day-, and, if the stars aligned that day and they happen to open the email, they will ask themselves: “And who are these people? Why are they appearing now? Click, to the trash.
In communication, it is not so much the size of a company that matters as the quality of the information it conveys.
Let’s take the case of a customer who has something relevant to say. Well, what differentiates you from the rest of your competition, and why should what you say be more important than what others say? Unless it is the biggest fish in the ocean, there is always someone with the biggest mouth. The food chain is an inescapable law. It competes with other voices and opinions, and this fact can sometimes go unnoticed by some clients. Journalists, with all the reason in the world, are more interested in larger, relevant and well-known companies: their voice has more impact and resonates much more than a small company. Therefore, if your communication is not strategic, if you don’t have your eye on the long term, you will be at the bottom of the food chain.
A very illustrative example, derived from our long experience in this sector, can be found in the fund industry. According to FundsPeopleIn Spain there are more than 200 international fund managers marketing their investment products, not counting the national ones! This is the jungle; if you are not well prepared, your voice will be buried under the weight of the market. However, if you are, I assure you that your voice, however small it may be, will resonate loud and clear.
Do not send information to journalists simply out of a compelling need to get noticed.
Let’s add complexity to the equation. The client believes that what he has to say is extremely important. Fine, but important to whom, to him or to journalists? Perhaps he has won a distinguished award or reduced his carbon footprint by 50%. I don’t doubt that the information is relevant, but I wonder to whom it is relevant. Companies are often unaware that what is important to them does not necessarily correspond to what is of interest to the public, for whom journalists are their mouthpiece. Moreover, not taking this distinction into account is counterproductive and risky, because if we send journalists information that is not of interest to them, we are likely to end up, once again, in the wastebasket.
It is rarely seen, but there are companies that set KPIs on the number of press releases to send per year to the media. “At least one a month”. But why? About what? First you will have to analyze what information you have; then, what communication tool is more correct for that content. You may have to go through the advertising department and pay for advertising space because, perhaps, the content is not newsworthy.
There is nothing journalists -and good agencies- hate more than communications that are sent for the sake of sending, that burn journalists, that block their e-mails and that saturate and annoy them.
What should agencies and consulting firms do?
First, educate and guide the client on what the relationship with the media means and implies, what needs journalists have and what is considered information of interest. A good agency has to know how to say “no” to the client when he insists on doing something that does not make sense. We are there to advise, not to agree to everything the client wants -who does not always know about communication. It is good to disagree, discuss and, of course, agree. If we are consultants, we are there to give our expert opinion – we are not paid to play along!
Secondly, that the client understands that communication is a long-term investment. That before arranging an interview, sending a note, calling a journalist, they have to know the company, what relevance it has in its sector or what differentiates it from its competitors, but, above all, who is behind it. And for that, in general, it is important, as far as possible, that journalists meet the spokespersons of a company face to face. Journalists are not entities hiding behind an e-mail, nor are they little monsters who want to reveal sensitive company information. From experience, we have found that good interviews, for example, are conducted when the journalist knows who the interviewee is – both in relation to the company and the person.
And finally, the agency has to know the news very well and anticipate the needs of the journalists. When we know or sense what is on a journalist’s agenda, it is much easier to propose an interview, an exclusive or an analysis on a certain topic, because what he needs is a hook or information that provides value to explain or interpret what is happening.
In fact,current events are more important than anything else, even journalists. There is a Christian saying: “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans”, which, in this profession, would come to say that communication is uncontrollable -although it is manageable-, and that current affairs, sooner or later, play by their own rules. Agencies cannot guarantee with total certainty that information will be published, but they can be sure that their client understands how the art of good communication works.
In short, when a client wants to ‘go out’ in the media without a clear strategy or a long-term project, without the agency having a good understanding of what it does and why it does it, it will be a good time to explain what your job is and what a journalist does. If he turns a deaf ear, don’t send him home, because don’t forget that he is the one who feeds you. Keep the ace of “I told you so” up your sleeve and, when you have to use it in the game, explain again with conviction what your role is and what is the best way to achieve what you both want: a quality communication that brings prestige and recognition to the brand, that differentiates it from its competitors and that, in the long term, consolidates a reputation that bears fruit in the company’s profitability.
