Be On Message

Bridging – The art of not answering the question

When it comes to Media Relations everyone wants to know how to Bridge. That’s the skilful art of avoiding the question and delivering your message.

Unless you practice bridging constantly you will fail miserably if you try to do this when the camera is glaring at you and a microphone is shoved in your face.

So let’s start with bridging statements that can work.

My favourite is, “I see the point you are trying to make, however, let’s look at the facts” and then give the answer you came to give when you agreed to the interview.

A common bridging statement is “that’s an interesting question, but we need to remember” followed by the answer you want to give.

The challenge for you is developing a series of statements that when they come out of your mouth make sense and take the reporter and viewers to the place you want them to go.

You know you’ve succeeded when the follow up question relates to your answer, rather than the original question.

Key Message Development

The challenge is the same for all of us. How do we make our story stand out? How do we keep it simple? How do we make it memorable? I was recently conducting a media training session for a Chamber of Commerce. One of the attendees worked for the local library. She was in the session because the library was about to start a public awareness and fundraising campaign and she wanted to be ready for the media. I asked, “who needs a library any more? After all we have the Internet!” I was blunt about it the way I did when I was a reporter. She stumbled and fumbled and tried to come up with an answer that made me and the rest of the people in the room care. All of her reasons were the same ones we’d heard for years – no one cared. So – as a group we went to work on the topic. We all agreed the Internet was chipping away at public perception about why libraries were needed. Then over the course of the next few minutes little gems started to trickle out, one person volunteered they like to go to the library to tune out the rest of the world. Another said, that while it was true they could find much of the information on-line they had no one to turn to for help when they got stuck. Another person observed that while we are connected on-line we’re not connecting. In less than 15 minutes we took a heap of information and boiled it down the two key messages. 1. in an electronic world we need the library more than ever – the library is a place where you connect – with information, with people and the world at large 2. the library is a place of sanctuary – a place to turn off all of the electronics and think. Are these knock your socks off key messages? No, but they work, they’re simple and they’re easy to remember. As well, if you break these statements down you actually have more than two. As a television reporter I would be happy to grab the first 11 words of message one as an opener to my story. Open with Librarian on camera “in an electronic world we need the library more than ever” Cut to images of people on their phones talking, texting, at a café with laptops but not talking to the person next to them. Voice over Oh we’re connected for sure, but we’re not connecting. Go to any mall and you’ll see teens on a bench texting one another but not talking to each other. Cut to shots at the Library Voice over continues At the Library, texting is a no no, talking on the phone is frowned on, but contrary to what you’re grandmother may have told you, talking is allowed – in fact it’s encouraged. (now comes part two of message one) Clip the library is a place where you connect – with information, with people and the world at large From the perspective of a friendly reporter this is an easy story to do and it’s an easy one to buy into. That’s because all reporters want to support the concept of the library and books and a place of high thought. Libraries are a metaphor for SMART and we all want to be smart.

Trust

According to Concerto Marketing 83% of people will recommend your company to someone else if they trust the company will fulfill it’s value proposition.

 

82% will keep coming back to a company they trust.

 

78% of people look for a company they can trust when shopping.

 

50% will pay more for products and services it they trust the supplier.

 

When Maple Leaf Foods discovered Listeriosis had shown up in the food products it makes and that people had either died or were extremely ill consumers as expected lost trust in the brand.

 

But to the credit of the President of the company and his team the crisis communications plan was flawless. As a result within weeks the company had its products back on the shelf and sales remained strong.

 

According to the Concerto Marketing study on Trust, Maple Leaf Foods is a company consumers believe in and continue to support.

 

How you handle all media interviews will affect the way the public views your company. Get it wrong on seemingly unimportant issue and the consequences can be far more severe than you expect. Get it wrong in a crisis and you may go out of business.

 

Concerto points out that while consumers will reward those companies they trust, they will also punish those they don’t trust. The authors of the study point out consumer confidence in companies is low and sinking. Anything that casts doubt on the reliability of a company has bottom line implications.

 

Be On Message, stay On Message.

Earned Media – Time well Spent

According to The Economist “PR has done well in part because it is often cheaper than mass advertising campaigns. Its impact, in the form of favourable coverage in the media or online, can also be more easily measured.

PR has also benefited from the changing media landscape. The withering of many traditional media outlets has left fewer journalists from fewer firms covering business. That makes PR doubly important, both for attracting journalists’ attention, and for helping firms bypass old routes altogether and disseminate news by posting press releases on their websites, for example.”

But it’s important to note that the effectiveness of media coverage is directly related to the quality of the story you tell, the clips you develop, practice and deliver along with your understanding of how the media works.

 

Get it right and you can earn millions of dollars of favourable coverage, bet it wrong and you could earn many more millions of dollars of bad coverage.