Farr on PR – Standing tall: being a good comms person is all about confidence
“Hey, I ask the questions, you answer,” barked the assertive American journalist, fresh to his London posting for The Wall Street Journal. He was responding to my efforts to understand why he was calling and to whom he would like to speak. I needed information before I could decide on a course of action.
“Then my answer is ‘no’,” I said. I was not fazed. I had come across his pushy type before – sometimes reporters not long out of college; sometimes journalists new to big-brand media organisations; sometimes simply aggressive personality types. And they either adapt or disappear. Most financial journalists, by the way, are perfectly lovely.
Surprisingly, however, some PRs quake at the thought of picking up the phone to assertive journalists at big-title organisations. Worse, some jump to attention when any journalist from a global title calls. They panic, even.
At HSBC, during one crisis, I recall a shaking PR blurt out: “We have to give an answer. It’s Reuters asking.” Well, no. Respond? Yes. Give an answer? Not necessarily; those are two different things. And just because it is Reuters does not mean any kid-glove treatment. All journalists, from wherever they are calling, should be treated the same – courteously, professionally and calmly.
Fear of flying
The simple truth is that, like most things, to be a good and effective PR you need to put in the flying hours. My communications teams and I supported investment banking (in its broadest sense). That meant we were dealing with calls from media at the many outlets (print and digital) covering all the different desks and regions that exist in a global investment banking operation. A lot of calls, nearly every day. And plenty of colourful stories for the media to follow.
Not every PR has had that practice, and it shows. Lack of experience engaging with the media can lead to nervousness, knee-jerk responses and ill-judged communication strategies. We have all seen the damage that can be caused when a sensitive situation is handled by a rookie, even if they have a grand-sounding title. I made mistakes like that when I too was a baby PR.
Of the institutions at which I have worked, investment banking PR teams have always been among the busiest. This helped us stay PR-fit, so to speak, which is essential to be effective.
In quieter periods, we would be proactive, pushing stories, arranging meet and greets, going for lunches or drinks – anything to keep relationships alive and conversations flowing.
Some of the comms teams in other business lines I worked alongside experienced very different news dynamics. Their PRs were not always sufficiently media-savvy. Pretty good at promoting positive news (noteworthy hires, survey results, etc.) but hopeless in a crisis.
Long memories
I had a comms boss at Deutsche Bank who would regularly say of the press: “They need us more than we need them.” I was always a little uncomfortable with that. True, a bank PR team looking to communicate an important message could turn to any number of media outlets if it fell out with a big one. Equally, the “big one” would sweat if it didn’t have access to an important bank. And this kind of thing did happen.
But journalists move around, and they have long memories. If frozen out when working at one title, they won’t forget at their next. I thought my boss’s approach too imperious.
There was an advantage to this mantra, though, which was to instil a sense of confidence into the team and make the greener members perhaps less beholden to big-name journalists and outlets. And it kind of worked.
Sadly, not all banks all of the time see the benefits of regular media interaction, or of supporting and nurturing teams of grown-up, responsible and confident PRs. During a period of cost-cutting, PR budgets shrink, headcount falls and hospitality dries up. A team’s mojo will be lost until the next big crisis, when senior management realises it has no experienced PRs on board, just ineffective juniors with no battle scars, and decides, after all, it does need a proper PR operation to support the bank. It's a circular thing.
As for my American journalist insisting that only he can ask questions, he wasn’t around for long. I tried my best, giving some advice on the rules of the PR/journo dance, UK-style. But I guess he didn’t listen. I heard he had been moved to cover Norwegian financial markets. Make of that what you will.
Jezz Farr has been a senior communications adviser to major international banks for more than 25 years.