Author: Tim Brennan

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Should Business and Politics Mix?

It’s official, high-drama-election-fever has begun…

For the next two weeks, the general election is going to carry on being the biggest thing in the news. It’s’ already drowned out other big business stories. Did you hear about the AI Summit in South Korea? Huge Ticketmaster hack? No? Anyone?

The truth is that most mainstream news, unless passed through the election filter, won’t make the front pages. So, it’s easy to think there are fewer opportunities to contribute to relevant news stories when the buzz in newsrooms is all about party politics. 

But we disagree. With a distinctive voice, your business can use this political moment to its advantage in the media – and raise your profile with comments that land.

When should a PR campaign and election campaign crossover?

Business leaders may worry that they don’t have a political licence to comment. But politics and business are close friends, so businesses can and should use this moment to elevate their brand. 

Given there will be a change in government, whatever form that takes, new legislation will come in. And multiple bills could be scrapped or introduced that affect B2B. These are active talking points and hotly debated topics. The country is listening in a way it seldom does – and so are journalists.

Now is the time to start thinking about getting involved. And here’s how…

Step 1: Know your perspective

Chances are your business already has an opinion or perspective on the key issues that affect your industry, and journalists are always on the lookout for bold opinions. It’s not about taking a political stance and picking sides. It’s about setting a business expectation for the next government. 

Of course, everyone is going to have an opinion of some kind. So, how do make your business stand out? It’s vital to be distinctive and find a unique angle. Drive the conversation around what matters, how your organisation has a different perspective and where you want to see an impact.

The key is to be less of a debate-starter and more of a valuable contributor. Many businesses will be ‘war gaming’ all potential outcomes that affect them anyway. And it’s a small step from scenario planning for differently electoral outcomes to sharing your views through earned media channels. 

Step 2: Know your media

The editorial environment fundamentally changes to accommodate election campaigns. Regular slots shift so press resources are free to cover political announcements, leaders’ gaffs, and public reaction. Sometimes, this comes at the cost of sacrificing regular business beats; for example, Ian King’s Business Live has taken a break for the next few weeks, so producers can focus on the election. 

Political announcements that concern businesses are still being made all the time. This widens the pool of potential journalists to tap into. It’s not just tech and business reporters that are interested in this type of news, but political / Whitehall reporters too. 

Business policy has always played a pivotal role in the polls, and journalists from a variety of beats are eager for industry feedback. In short, during an election, tech policy has never been more in the spotlight. This means sticking your standard media list could be short-sighted.

Step 3: Know your moment

It’s important to remember that it’s not just the public who will be inundated with general election news. Journalists will have to be really selective about the comments they accept. That’s why timing goes a long way. You, too, need to be selective about the PR pieces your business uses to cut through the noise. 

Right now, manifestos are being scrutinised – a clear opportunity to add industry insight and context to the narrative. Keynote speeches and the now-standard head-to-head debates all are instances where journalists are looking for an array of perspectives. That doesn’t mean putting out a wishy-washy opinion every week. But it does mean having an ownable comment, ready to deploy at the perfect moment, and making sure your spokespeople are up to speed. 

The general election has already claimed its monopoly on headlines. For B2B folk, this is the exact reason reactive PR is so crucial. Rising above the crowd with a distinctive voice will set your brand apart. Not only does it help raise awareness of your business, but it could also prove clients’ trust in your brand is well placed. It shows you’re on topic with your nose to the ground (as all good PR should be).

Reactive newsjacking is one of our strong suits. We’re also good at helping you keep things clean, concise and on-message with relevant distinctiveness. Just check out our work with cybersecurity giant Sophos.

Want help with developing some PR messaging that packs a punch during the pre-election run up? Get in touch here.

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News

Why I invite AI-braham Lincoln to all my brainstorms

credit: shutterstock (standard licence)

In recent months, we’ve heard a lot about the difficulties of applying AI within the creative industries. For every benefit it promises, there’s a counterbalancing drawback. It can summarise complex ideas, but if the data isn’t clean, you’ll end up with a biased result. It can streamline your processes, but it can’t think creatively. 

If that’s the case, are creatives doomed to never benefit from the time-saving nature of AI without compromising the quality of their work? After all, in something like a campaign brainstorm, originality is the name of the game – and if AI struggles to offer any new perspectives (and just spits out what it scrapes online), it’s never going to be useful to us. No PR campaign ever landed national coverage with yesterday’s news. 

But what if you could make AI respond in a creative manner? You’d open up a whole new realm of possible use cases. 

That’s where my experimenting began. And what I discovered was this: since AI can only follow instructions, getting it to do something unexpected can be as simple as asking it not to answer as an AI at all, and instead to do so as (for example), Abraham Lincoln.  I even employed Succession’s Kendall Roy, and PR icon Patsy Stone… 

Stick with me. 

A new perspective 

In PR – and indeed any creative role – most projects depend on your ability to build a compelling narrative. Whether that’s to pitch a feature, build a content campaign or design a brand identity – the story is always what people remember. 

And, when you’re building out that narrative, it’s important to source a range of different opinions so you can identify the most powerful approach. 

That’s why we brainstorm. It’s about bringing together a range of perspectives to address a common theme, and in the clash of all the opinions, you can stumble across an interesting or untapped point of tension. 

But when you’re not able to pull a group of minds into a room, AI can fill some of the blanks. With the right prompts, you can sit in a packed auditorium of vastly different characters every time you brainstorm. 

For this to work, the choice of character is important – it’s not random. You first need to figure out what it is you need from the responses; ask the AI to respond as Abraham Lincoln, or someone else like him, and it’s going to give you a very formal, principled reply. 

AI-braham will give you answers in polite prose, and Kendal RoyGPT will respond in a myriad of barely distinguishable metaphors. But both can be incredibly useful as a starting-point for developing campaign names. 

It’s the “tone” in which the AI responds that will be your creative springboard, rather than the actual response you get. Patsy Stone, after all, is fictional. Even if she wasn’t, the Online Safety Bill would definitely not be her area of expertise. 

But when P-AI-tsy explains things, you’ll start to see bylines and campaigns behind every line. 

Raining on Big Tech’s Parade, anyone? How about Cleaning Up the Digital Streets? 

It’s not something you would have thought of alone, necessarily. And that’s the power of AI – if you don’t want to, you never have to do a solo-brainstorm again. 

Walk in their shoes

One of the bigger failings of AI we’ve written about before is its lack of empathy. 

In PR, content, design, and advertising roles, the ability to ‘walk in someone else’s shoes’ is a vital skill. We need to be able to judge possible reactions to work in order to decide how best to approach a campaign, brief, or newsworthy story. 

Though I’m sure someone is trying to change this, somewhere, AI simply can’t develop empathy, no matter what character you ask it to be. What it can do, is give you an approximation of it by helping you to widen your understanding of a project. Insert a new character into your brainstorm, and you’ll be forced to think in a new direction. 

By using this technique, you’re essentially encouraging the AI to suggest alternative points of view, which then challenge your own conventional ways of thinking, and your own in-built biases about a project or idea – and that’s one of the most important things you can take from a brainstorm. 

The human element 

Of course, it’s about feeding the AI the right things. Whatever persona you make an AI tool take on, it will still only have access to the same information. You’ll get the same facts regardless of whether you’re asking an ex-US President, a drama-loving disaster, or a fictional sleazebag – the magic is in identifying the spark within the answer. 

There’s a big human element – you need to use your own judgement to know what will work, what won’t, and what kind of persona is going to work best for your purposes. 

When it comes to creative exercises like “Campaign the Name”, for example, where brainstorm participants are forced to create a campaign to fit a pre-decided title, Kendall RoyGPT is a great option, because you’ll find it can fire off lots of options that sound campaign-ready. 

On the topic of cyber resilience, we could pull out ‘The Bounce Back Game’, and ‘The Cyber Cracks’ from the above. Thanks, Kendall. 

So you see, the character is adding a specific slant to the answers you get. Yes, the choices can be amusing, but they ultimately fulfil a purpose. 

Some of the best ideas come from subverting expectations. Getting to a surprising place on your own is definitely possible – but AI provides a shortcut. And with some modifications, that’s a shortcut creatives can really use. 

Categories
News

How brands can jump on big political moments

Spring Budget
Spring

PR professionals have had a busy couple of weeks – though perhaps not quite as busy as the Chancellor. Hot on the tails of the dramatic collapse of SVB and rescue of its UK arm (a story that hit tech like an earthquake) came Jeremy Hunt’s long-awaited Spring Budget announcement on Wednesday 15th.

So much change is dizzying. You’d be forgiven for holding your breath and waiting for it all to play out. But for the ambitious and brave businesses out there, the angles and opportunities are almost limitless. We’ve seen proactive comment shared on everything from the Budget’s ‘levelling up fund’ to the new ‘plan for quantum’, or otherwise offering opinions on the leadership failings of SVB.

Why is it important? An announcement as significant as this has enormous implications for the next few years at the very least, and an effect on a huge number of people and industries. It’s an opportunity to connect to wider and new audiences, and contribute to the debate. As both the press and public seek out expert commentary, our clients have a great opportunity to step forwards. 

To do this well and respond – in near real time – to big political moments, you have to be mindful of the life cycle of the story. And remember this timeline – it might save your left one day:

1. BEFORE: do your research 

The good news is that announcements as big as the Spring Budget require the government to undertake a lot of forward planning. That means you can be certain of a fast-moving rumour mill to help inform your research. 

Contention creates news – and journalists are always willing to hear a different perspective. So, in the run up, ask yourself what aspects of the announcement could be controversial? What claims may need verifying? What are the main sources of debate? 

Until the news breaks, there’s no certainty that what you’re hearing is entirely correct – but that doesn’t mean you can’t prepare. In the days (and sometimes weeks) before a big announcement, keep an ear to the ground and an eye on the news.

Ideally, you’ll have a pre-approved comment on standby prior to any announcement going ahead. Stay on message, but remember that from a journalists’ point of view, the bolder the better. To cut through the noise on such a competitive hijacking opportunity, insights need to be fresh, consequential and even divergent from the main narratives. 

Planning ahead allows you to respond quickly to the news when it does land – and that responsiveness pays dividends when it comes time to pitch. 

2. DURING: have someone ‘on the ground’ 

If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that none of us can truly predict with any certainty what’s around the corner. No matter how prepared you are, or how comprehensive you believe your research to be, it’s vital to have someone watching the announcement in real time. 

If you’ve drafted a comment beforehand, you’ll be in a better position when most are scrambling to respond – but you still need to be ready to react to any surprises, additions, or last minute changes. 

Additionally, with less pressure on the need to draft and communicate with clients, this time can be used to study the wider context – to stay mindful of the response the news is receiving, and use this understanding to guide your comms. 

Remember to consider what isn’t being said. Sometimes silence on a particular topic speaks volumes – another potential source of debate.

It’s undoubtedly a delicate balance. Being aware of the wider context around an announcement – and the optics involved – are just as important as the message you craft, especially considering the often divisive nature of such political announcements and news stories. 

3. AFTER: don’t lose momentum 

As the ripples from the initial announcement begin to spread, opportunities to comment often pick up, rather than slow down. 

In the days and weeks after any announcement there’s a huge opportunity to take advantage of additional news hooks. This is also the time to tap into editorial opportunities, and land bigger features. 

As the political opposition, industry leaders, and individual organisations measure the impact of news, you’ll often find a wider debate beginning to form. Think feature pieces, letters to editors, and comments on the wider industry are often sought after, provided you have something unique to add. 

As momentum builds, and stories spread, it becomes more vital than ever to keep focused in order to capitalise on opportunities as and when they arise. 

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So there you have it. Don’t shy away from political moment. Navigate them well and your impact can be stratospheric. 

Have a comment that needs to be heard? 

If you’ve got something to say – let’s talk. We’ll help you define your voice, sharpen your story, and get your messages out there.

Reach out to our Business Development Manager: Sarah.Alexander@unlimitedgroup.com

Or contact info@nelsonbostock.com