Trend Reporter Issue June 2009

Do you need to phone a friend?
By Michael Murphy, CEO, Trimedia Group

Are you totally confident that you can represent your organisation in the glare of the media spotlight? Could you completely hold your own in a live TV or radio interview? How can you maintain control over your messages when you are being recorded live?

With 24-hour a day rolling news and the rapid growth of broadcast and online media, in addition to the traditional printed versions, it has never been more important for an organisation’s employees and management to be prepared – especially if the media exposure is linked to a crisis. As you know, one misplaced comment can have damaging consequences and lead to a situation spiralling out of control.

The content of media releases, blogs, viewpoint articles and announcements can be carefully controlled by communications experts, but when senior personnel come face-to-face with journalists in any circumstances, the safety net is taken away. Despite having key messages running through their veins, even CEOs can slip up if difficult, unexpected, or sometimes even the simplest of questions are not anticipated and prepared for in advance.

In the global TV game show Who wants to be a millionaire?, contestants who get stuck in answering a question can ‘phone a friend.’ However, interviewees cannot take this option and those that think on their feet are often those that get caught out. A lot goes on behind the scenes of a successful media interview and it is all about ‘phoning a friend’ in advance and creating a support network around key spokespeople.

This edition of Trimedia’s Trend Reporter aims to offer practical advice and solutions for effective media management.

A range of experts offer their perspectives on media handling, drawing on real life examples and experience to demonstrate how important it is for spokespeople to have the right skills to face any media situation. We also take a look at a high profile, controversial politician – Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi – to see what can be learnt from his notorious style.

If you find yourself needing to ‘phone a friend’ when it comes to being in front of the media, Trimedia’s media training experts can help.

Six Tips For Taking Control In Media Interviews
By Joana L. Krotz, Muse2Muse Productions

Based in the US, Joana L. Krotz writes about small business marketing and management issues and is the co-author of the Microsoft Small Business Kit. She gives her top six tips for taking control in media interviews to Trimedia’s Trend Reporter

My top tips for getting across key messages in media interviews are:

1. Set goals for every appearance	Always have an objective, strategy, tactics and audience in mind and plan to hammer home your key messages.

2. Nothing is 100% off the record	Whatever you say – anywhere – can follow you around endlessly and perhaps disastrously. If you don't know the answer to a question, say so. Then later on, be certain to get back to the reporter with an answer.

3. Watch your body language	Before on-camera interviews, if there is time, do some exercises or walk around to relax your body.

4. Stay on track with your message	If the interview goes off track, stop it (unless it is live!). You can ask for a break, a glass of water, a visit to the restroom.

5. Learn how to "bridge"	This technique allows you to deflect any attempts to derail your message. "Bridging" creates a transition so that you can move from one subject to the message you want to communicate.

6. Prepare take-aways	Always plan the points or facts you want the reporter and, by extension, the audience to walk away thinking about. You might identify these points as the building blocks of your presentation.

Finally, it's not over when it's over. Make sure to track the results and get reviews of your performance. Ask pals and peers how well your message went over. Be smart and brave enough to make the necessary improvements, so you do even better next time.

Read Joana’s article in full here.

Do your homework
By Barbara Grüll-Cação, Marketing Programme Manager, Think London

By Barbara Grüll-Cação, Marketing Programme Manager, Think London As London’s official foreign direct investment agency, ‘Think London’ is responsible for demonstrating the city’s credentials as a business hot spot to the international business community. This means winning over some of the world’s toughest media and, according to Marketing Programme Manager, Barbara Grüll-Cação, a successful media interview is all about understanding individual journalists.

“Our spokespeople, whether in London or at our offices in other counties, regularly deal with journalists from different cultural, personal and media backgrounds, so we carry out ‘culturally sensitive’ media training sessions. There’s a world of difference between dealing with a US journalist or a Chinese reporter. For instance, when we worked with Trimedia to raise our profile in China during the Olympics, we had to take into account the fact that the Chinese business media is inherently conservative and would be unlikely to engage in 1:1 interviews. We therefore held fully translated, media roundtables instead.

Meeting the media is as important as meeting clients – you wouldn’t approach a potential client without doing your homework into what makes them tick and we don’t let our spokespeople speak to journalists without understanding exactly where they are coming from.

Only media trained and designated spokespeople engage with the media. They’re able to successfully switch their strategy and tactics from winning over a client to winning over a journalist. Our spokespeople are trained to know how to match what the journalist is looking for with their own interview objectives.”

Ravi Sunnak, Senior Consultant at Trimedia who leads the ‘Think London’ account, adds: “Making sure you have all the essential information at hand – detailed background on the journalist, how they work, what their motivations are, what preconceptions they may have etc. – gives the journalist a personality in the eye of the spokesperson instead of seeing them simply as someone who may try and catch them out. This is particularly important when dealing with very culturally different media markets. When we worked with the Chinese media to raise the profile of Think London during the Olympics, we used local Chinese businesspeople as spokespeople to ensure that the journalist and interviewee would be able to relate to each other, making it much more natural.”

A full case study on the project can be found here.

In their own words: what the media really wants from an interview
By Justin McKeown, Director, Trimedia UK

Justin McKeown, Director Trimedia UK Exposure in the media can be highly beneficial for a brand or organisation. We talk about controlling the messages. We practice techniques for communicating what we want to say. But what does a journalist, reporter or presenter really want from a spokesperson when the interview starts?

We have spoken to a number of high profile international media professionals from TV, radio, newspapers and trade publications. We asked them two key questions. The results might make you think a little differently about your next interview…

1. What does a reporter really want from an interviewee?

News Editor of a weekly sector-leading trade magazine		Radio and TV Business Correspondent

“Openness is key. It’s also really important that they can give me the detail that I need. Our readers are experts in the sector so we can’t afford to print anything that isn’t thorough and accurate. I don’t mind if whoever I’m speaking to needs to go away and get more information but they need to be prepared to do so. I’d rather speak to someone more junior that has the relevant knowledge than a token senior spokesperson who can’t give me exactly what I need, when I need it. Rank is important for quoting people but so is specialist knowledge.”		“Whether I’m interviewing someone for TV or radio, it needs to be someone who understands the medium. On radio, an interviewee needs to be able to paint pictures with their words and not sound dry or use actions that won’t translate to readers. When I interview someone for TV, it always works best when they help set the scene with their actions and movements rather than just stand on the back drop I put them on, they need to be able to interact with the surroundings.”

2. What are the biggest mistakes that spokespeople make in interviews?

Editor of a national business magazine		News Reporter for a major radio station

“Interviewees need to remember that I do hundreds of interviews with people who all want me to print positive things about them and their organisation. I’m prepared to listen to what people have to say but will only use it if it suits my piece. I just get frustrated if I have to listen to too much spin. They’ve got to add value to my article, not just get an advertisement for their organisation.”		“We’re looking for interviewees that actually understand how interviews will be used. We work under the constant pressure of deadlines. If we are looking for a soundbite, it can’t be longer than 15 seconds so if they talk on about anything that’s not relevant, it could be cut before they get chance to make their key point. There’s also no excuse for being late. News bulletins will not wait!”

In general - although there are exceptions - the media is not trying to trip up or embarrass the spokespeople that they are interviewing. They just want to write articles and make TV and radio features in which their readers, viewers and listeners have an interest.

However, they work under pressure and they want to work with people who understand their needs. Honest, forthright opinions from experts are welcomed.

Click here for more testimonials.

Berlusconi’s Five Laws of Media Mastery
By Chiara Bassani, CEO Trimedia Italy

The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is the perfect example of both what to do and what not to do when it comes to handling the media. Chiara Bassani, CEO of Trimedia Italy, explains:

Sylvio Berlusconi won a third term as Italian Prime Minister. This demonstrates that he undoubtedly has the art of persuasion – and the majority of the Italian public – on his side. On the other hand, he often makes major ‘faux pas’ which are reported with shock by the world’s media. His recent comments that those affected by the recent earthquakes in Italy should ‘pretend they are going on a camping holiday’, is one of many examples of this kind of behaviour!


Queen Elizabeth II not amused by Berlusconi

Unsurprisingly, Berlusconi splits public opinion, some believing that his multi-billion dollar business empire makes him central to Italian life, while others see him as nothing more than a corrupt tycoon.

His critics’ comments make it obvious what we should not learn from Berlusconi. But what can we learn and apply to effective media handling from his approach?

Firstly, a key principle of media handling is to define a key message and stick to it. Berlusconi recently said that the Italian Parliament could be run by 100 deputes (instead of the actual 630). The following day he claimed to have been misinterpreted and that he wasn’t claiming that the Parliament was ineffectual. This tactic allows him to say what he really thinks at first, and then to take the edge off it by claiming his words were distorted.

Something else we could learn from Berlusconi’s media handling technique is his response to crises with words that people want to hear. Earlier this year, during the Naples garbage crisis – which was down to the mismanagement of dumps and waste disposal and an intolerable mafia profiteering scheme – it was enough for him to simply appear on TV and promise to solve the problem in 100 days. Despite being of little immediate help to the people of Naples, it made him appear in perfect control of the situation and gave him the opportunity to accuse the opposition of unconstructive pessimism and defeatism. By the way: the garbage is still in the outskirts of Naples – but the media don’t seem to notice it any more.

Another technique Berlusconi uses is to leverage patriotic and familiarity instincts by using informal remarks. Not long ago he attempted to charm male investors in New York with the line: "Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries”.


	Berlusconi's phone call leaves German PM Merkel waiting

He also manages to dominate the news agenda in his favour by overtly talking about taboo issues or rumours. In the private sphere, his wife recently wrote an angry letter to Italy’s most important national newspaper agency, complaining that her husband was making their family victims of his obsession with young, attractive women. While this is a crisis that he created himself by admitting a host of former beauty queens and topless models to his party and attending an attractive 18 year old girl’s birthday party, he immediately and publicly rubbished her claims as media hype, showing that he was comfortable talking about such a private issue on his terms.

However, he doesn’t just quash rumours about himself; he also starts gossip to put himself in the spotlight When Berlusconi feels that the newspapers are writing too much about somebody else, he steps on the scene. It is in this light that his description of US President Barack Obama as ‘young, beautiful and very suntanned’ should be read.

Many think that his never-ending blunders – like telling a German member of the European Parliament that he could play the role of a Nazi in a movie; raising his voice in front of Queen Elizabeth; and so on – are deliberate. He pleads naivety and spontaneity rather than tactlessness or bad manners, making him someone that people feel they can relate to.

While we would never advise a client to let such a ‘free spirit’ as Berlusconi speak to the world’s media, there are things that can be learnt from his outrageous style of media handling.

Find out more about media training with Trimedia.

Blog Highlights

Trimedia’s Trend Reporters blog on online communications, handling the media, twittering, and much more.

It's official - only a year from now we’ll be spending more time on the internet than
watching TV!
Helen Standing, Trimedia UK, talks about a recent report by Microsoft that claims we will see people spending more time on the internet than watching broadcast television.
Read more...

What are you doing? Big effect with only 140 characters
Dirk Moser, Trimedia Austria, talks of companies and brands that are experimenting with numerous ways of using Twitter and how only time will tell which of these are successful. Read more...

Prince Harry is a hit stateside
PR Week asked Loretta Tobin, CEO, Trimedia UK, to comment on how successful UK's Prince Harry's first official overseas engagement has been in PR terms.
Read more...

In the Eye of the Puma or how picture PR works
Alexandra Schmidhuber talks of the challenges PR professionals face trying to find ways of making client’s stories stand out.
Read more...

Joint the discussion at: www.trimediablog.com

Trimedia (International) AG. Registered office: Zollikerstrasse 141, CH 8008 Zurich.
Registered in Switzerland number: CH-020.3.926.916-7