Creating harmony between the team and consultants
In a previous article, we shared about how to work with your consultants successfully. We pointed out that you are only in control of what you can control. This sounds like an obvious statement. Unfortunately, many of us communicators spend a huge amount of time trying to control (or influence) systems, processes and teams that […]
How to work with consultants successfully
It’s almost a seasonal event, like Sakura season in March/April and beer in October. “My agency/consultant/project contractor was not able to deliver again!” “We gave them lots of chances to produce results, and the only thing they did well, was disappoint us.” “As the lead, I had to put them on notice. They are not […]
Storytelling: Positioning vs. messaging vs. narrative
When it comes to the basics of our scope as communicators, we often focus on activity-driven efforts, that result in an output or outtake. This is sometimes done at the expense of the fundamentals. What are we trying to share with our audiences, to influence them to do some action, in our interests, that will […]
How do you use communications and PR to grow?
Strategic communications and PR practitioners play important roles as a function and team member to leadership. We are often advisor, counsel, sounding board, mirror and therapist. When we have clutter, and lack clarity, or confidence, our counsel is likewise impacted. We stick to advice and recommendation that we are comfortable with, that we know can […]
Why does strategic communications matter to your organisation?
Let’s directly address what too many leaders or managers are thinking about when it comes to strategic communications and PR, shall we? If I had a dollar for every time I was asked about the value that communications/PR can bring to the table, I would have done a FIRE and be somewhere in Bali enjoying […]
Challenges with levelling up your team?
The communications and PR discipline, function and team is business-critical for brands and their reputations. As communicators, we rediscover our value through every single issue and crisis we must deal with (hello pandemic of 2020 – 2022, you were a really fun ride). Aside from issues and crisis management, our reality is in making sure […]
Understanding and relating to the different roles in your team
Much of our interaction with others revolves around communications, problem-solving, showing empathy and dealing with acts of micro-aggression. Humans have evolved to think in terms of groups and tribes. We are a social species, and many of our actions came from the need to work together, and collaborate to solve for bigger goals. Seen from […]
Not all campaigns will be winners
When you have achieved 80% of expected outcomes: “Your campaign results are not good enough!” When your campaign brought in 50% of all the leads for the month: “These leads aren’t warm enough. We cannot convince them to do a trial or buy our product.” When your messaging resonated with the 5 media that cover […]
Giving and receiving a brief
Several of my previous posts focused on the strategic thinking, concept and planning stages of a programme or campaign. I wanted to pick a topic to drill down into. One of the most important and critical steps for many projects is also one of the earliest steps in the process – giving and receiving a […]
Measure and justify qualitative outcomes in communications
In a previous post, we shared about measuring what matters. A key point made was to set outcomes and measure these outcomes in relation to business goals. With qualitative outcomes, this is even more important. Choosing NOT to link goals and outcomes is a wasted opportunity. I brought up the task of being creative in […]