In Good Times and In Bad: Attract and Manage Attention in Today’s Digital Media Landscape

1. In Good Times and In Bad:Attract and Manage Attentionin Today’s Digital Media Landscape Paul Sullivan April 16, 2014

2. Communication Checklist Sullivan’s Top 10: Here’s the stuff that works for me (*75 resources): • Have a Vision you bring to the public conversation. • Communicate your Vision as a Brand Promise. • Use all channels for your content. • See every media encounter – including crisis – as an opportunity. • Build a community of supporters: Find your friends.

3. Communication Checklist • Be helpful: Be their expert friend – or friendly expert. • The customer is always right. • Tell one great story made of many great little stories. • Be Creative! • Knowledge is power: use it wisely grasshopper.

4. 1. That Vision Thing Once you’ve figured out what you want to do ask three BIG questions: • What do we want to say? • Who do we want to say it to? • What do we want them do once they get the message? • Fight fragmentation: Now more than ever, you need a compelling, consistent vision.

5. 2. The Brand Promise Mission statement: a solitary thing devoid of accountability: • Brand Promise: The interactive mission statement. • It must be worth making and worth keeping. • It connects at an emotional level. • Creates a bond of trust and loyalty right out of the box. • If you don’t make it, you can bet someone else will! • Pro-active versus reactive.

6. 2. The Brand Promise Promise wagers the value of the brand: • Not just a logo – It’s your DNA. • Cornerstone of your communications plan • Promise-Messages-Audience-Objectives-Initiatives-Measurement. • Perception/positioning vis-a-vis target audiences. • Competitive advantage.

7. 2. The Brand Promise The Signal, Not the Noise: • Confers top of mind status to your company. • Addresses the right people – inside and out. • Fosters trust through accountability. • Adds perceived value to what you’re offering. • Increases prospect of success. • Crisis plan starts with the Brand Promise. • If you’ve kept your promise, you’ve done your job and can measure the results.

8. 2. The Brand Promise Strategic considerations: • Message flows from and communicates the brand promise. • Every message supports and demonstrates how the promise is being kept. • Every interaction is an opportunity to fulfill an objective (and keep the promise). • And that includes every media interaction. • Regardless of media contact, pro-activity is key.

9. 3. Use All The Channels So many channels, so little time! • Technology is good. SEO etc. is not baloney. Content is better: gives you something to rank/link/friend/retweet. • Demonstrate keeping your brand promise through content marketing. • Information and knowledge add value to your messages. • So many channels: both an opportunity and a threat. • Without a strategic comms. plan you can get lost in the noise. • Focus on message: Communicate news your customers can use.

10. 3. Use All The Channels Where’s Brand Central? • Probably your web site because it allows you to do so much. • The epicentre of your media ecosystem + your storefront. • Blend traditional media with social media. • Connect the dots. • Keep the conversation going through each cycle. • Start high level and allow customers to drill down based on their own interest. • Tell stories: Use tried and true storytelling techniques.

11. 4. Opportunity Everywhere Crisis? What crisis? Every interaction is an opportunity to communicate your messages: • Your brand promise is most important during times of crisis. That’s when you can be sure people are watching. • Review brand promise/communications mission. • Identify positives and negatives in advance.

12. 4. Opportunity Everywhere Before you interact: • Prepare a key message and a Q&A document. • Prepare these documents by looking at your organization… • From the outside; • Through the media’s eyes; • Through your critic’s eyes. • Invest in media training: it works.

13. 4. Opportunity Everywhere Take control of the interview: • Pursue your agenda and bring questions back to it. The reporter does. • As a spokesperson, you need to build the case. • Seize the opportunity. • Have a clear, positive point of view. • Marshal your evidence (build a case). • Sum up at key points during the interview.

14. 4. Opportunity Everywhere Bridge to your messages: • Turn negatives into positives – there are two sides to every story and every negative has a flip side. • Bridge to your key messages. • - “I think the real issue here is…” • - “What’s important about this is…” • - “What I can tell you is…” • - “First, let me put this in some perspective…” • - “Another way to look at that is…” • Examples are powerful bridging tools.

15. 5. Find your Friends The best advice ever: • Yes, you make the brand promise to everyone. • Yes, the customer is always right, even when he’s … • But, supporters are special: Troll repellant! • Will go to bat for you on Yelp and Trip Advisor. • They have friends too. • They are authentic and confirm that the brand promise is being kept.

16. 6. The Expert Friend Now that you have friends: • Be helpful: Be the expert friend or the friendly expert. • Expert friends understand the relationship. • Expert friends understand the need. • Expert friends understand the language. • Expert friends understand the concerns. • Friendly experts never exclude.

17. 7. The Customer Is Always Right This is the crisis mantra: • Keep making your brand promise. • Always engage the unhappy customer at the point of unhappiness. • Respond to online complaints even from trolls: everyone else is paying attention too. • Speak to your entire community including supporters. • Be an expert friend to your customers.

18. 7. The Customer Is Always Right In times of crisis, don’t turtle: • At all times, be helpful. This is both an attitude and a focus. • Try not to let the lawyers launch a coup. • Participate in your online community. • Don’t leave your customers hanging. • And remember this is an opportunity to make the promise.

19. 8. One Great Story What’s Your Story Morning Glory? • Makes the brand promise. • Has a narrative structure: Chapters drive the plot. • Narrative governs rollout, releases, content production, character development, personality, voice. • You’re in it for the long term. • If you were telling a bedtime story to your favourite kid how would you tell it?

20. 9.Be Creative! Journalism 101: What is news? • Any change that affects our well-being. • Problems, issues and controversy. • Interesting opinions and findings. • A story that will interest the target audience. • What is happening in the world of the reader, listener or viewer. • Can answer the “so what?” question.

21. 9.Be Creative!There are many ways to tell your story • Hard news • Soft news • Good news • Case studies • Matte stories • Blog posts • Tweets • Infographics • Columns • Features • Investigative • Anniversary stories • Opinion Editorials • Slide Shows • Vlogs and Pods • Weather reports

22. 9.Be Creative! Pull them in…Be Intriguing! • Relevant, topical, current • Understand that your audience has 21st century disease • Take them somewhere different: show versus tell. • (*Noah Kagan and the 24 hour/$1k profit story) • Make sure it answers the So What? question. • Make a case for the brand promise. • Take out the adjectives and add interesting facts. • Feature other members of the audience.

23. 10. Knowledge is Power You Know Nothing, Jon Snow… • Knowledge can be turned into illustrations and examples, the gold nuggets of storytelling. • Knowledge makes you confident enough to be pro-active. • Knowledge gives you the inside track on any interaction. • Knowledge makes you useful to your friends.

24. 10. Knowledge is Power You Know Nothing, Jon Snow… • Knowledge is what you learn from your mistakes. • Knowledge makes you a great marketer. • Knowledge can be shared and promises kept. • Knowledge is the currency of the information economy.

25. Contact Us Paul Sullivan / Trevor Boudreau BreakThrough Communications 660-789 West Pender Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6C 1H2 T: 604 685 4742 F: 604 569 0742 E: p.sullivan@breakthroughpr.com / trevor@breakthroughpr.com www.breakthroughpr.com