In Good Times and In Bad:
Attract and Manage Attention
in Today’s Digital Media Landscape
Paul Sullivan
April 16, 2014
Communication Checklist
Sullivan’s Top 10: Here’s the stuff that works for me
(*75 resources):
1. Have a Vision you bring to the public conversation.
2. Communicate your Vision as a Brand Promise.
3. Use all channels for your content.
4. See every media encounter – including crisis – as an
opportunity.
5. Build a community of supporters: Find your friends.
Communication Checklist
6. Be helpful: Be their expert friend – or friendly
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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.
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.
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.
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-InitiativesMeasurement.
 Perception/positioning vis-a-vis target audiences.
 Competitive advantage.
2. The Brand Promise
The Signal, Not the Noise:
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
4. Opportunity Everywhere
Bridge to your messages:
 Turn negatives into positives – there are two sides to
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
9.Be Creative!
There are many ways to tell your story
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Hard news
Soft news
Good news
Case studies
Matte stories
Blog posts
Tweets
Infographics
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Columns
Features
Investigative
Anniversary stories
Opinion Editorials
Slide Shows
Vlogs and Pods
Weather reports
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)
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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.
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.
10. Knowledge is Power
You Know Nothing, Jon Snow…
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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.
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