31/07/2017

The strategic eye that breaks walls

How to bring visibility to the customer when the whole press is reporting on the same subject?

How to bring visibility to the client in the media when all the press, print or digital, is occupied practically all the time, with the same theme? I have no doubt that every communication professional has asked himself this question in recent weeks.

It turns out that, lately, as politics has ruled the news, that our client’s hot news end up going to the drawer, becoming cold, because, in the view of the journalists, it does not have the strength to compete with the issues that come from Brazilian Government.

It is not difficult to understand why. We know journalists regard a subject as news when the answers to some basic questions are “yes”: “is it relevant?”, “Is it different (or unusual)?” And “does it interest my audience? (Reader, viewer, listener).” With the roller coaster that has become the political-economic environment, there is no way out for our colleagues in newsrooms: they must focus on these themes.

But how to change this status? It is said that where there is crisis, there is also opportunity.

If we, communication professionals, are strategic, it is possible to overcome this wall. First: we must redouble our perception, our look: focusing on the differentiated aspects of our customers’ affairs, to make them our guideline. Secondly, we must go further, knowing how to propose the best approach. Third: you should know the best timing to pitch it. A mixture, then, of sensitivity with technique.

If we only talk about crisis, as it has been the music of a single note that we have heard in recent weeks, and the client’s agenda has a different angle, it begins to opens up a chance in a story. For example: the business sector felt the setbacks of the economic crisis, but a company found a way to stay competitive, alive, giving its fair share so the world does not end.

If the PR professional has that sensitivity, that barrier may be transposed – also because journalists probably cannot stand to hear the same song every day.