News & Opinions

The Vonnegut Approach to PR

While watching a YouTube clip of a presentation given by the late American writer Kurt Vonnegut in 2005 I was struck by the simplicity of effective story telling.  For his presentation Vonnegut presented his audience with a blank blackboard onto which he drew two lines; a G-I axis: good fortune-ill fortune and a B-E axis: B for beginning, E for end.  He also explained that the average human experience lay somewhere in the middle and that the majority of stories can be represented by drawing a line between the two.  What was most impressive about the presentation was that as he started to draw a line his audience could guess the story he was referring to.  From Cinderella to Hamlet the stories were represented through the simple graph on the blackboard.

What this shows is the simplistic beauty of a compelling story.  As PR professionals, working across many varying industries and sectors, we are challenged with telling our client’s story to an external audience in a manner that garners attention and interest.  This can be an easy task when we are presented with fascinating raw material or a hard news angle but there are occasions when it is more challenging as there may not be an immediate news angle or the subject matter may be complex, turgid or specialised.  The question is, how to make it compelling?

On closer examination Vonnegut’s graph is a simple reflection of the human experience and as such it is easy for the average person to relate to it.  Good and bad fortune with a beginning and end is the daily journey we embark on as we drag our groggy heads out of the bed each morning and launch ourselves ‘once more unto the breach’.    While we may not experience such tumultuous days as Cinderella or Hamlet we do meet our own ups and downs and have to greet good and bad fortune and ‘treat those two imposters just the same’.

To follow Vonnegut’s graph we must develop compelling PR stories that our audience can relate to.   For our purposes we can replace the fortune axis with a C-S axis: challenge-solution.  This way we can present our client’s story in a way that the reader can recognise in their own everyday experience.  Each one of us is faced with challenges and in the face of these challenges we find solutions.

What makes us relevant and important to our clients is our ability to identify the challenges that our clients face, like the launch of a new product, a change of senior management, crisis situation, the discovery of a new innovation, and tell that story to its resolution.   This results in strong media coverage, positive word-of-mouth, or in certain cases the cessation of a difficult communications issue.

What is concurrent throughout is the rules of story-telling remain the same.  You must identify the story arc, the rise and fall of the line between the challenge and solution, and plot it against its beginning and end.   As we sit with our clients and listen to them talk about their organizational goals and day to day operations we must constantly be thinking about the story arc. We can identify the treasure trove of stories that may not be as obvious to an insider.

The questions we must ask ourselves are; how would the line move across the blackboard?  What is our client’s ‘man in hole’ story that people will pay attention to and react to and how did the story change over time?  The simple beauty of our profession is that once the story formed and you can visualise the story arc then pitching the story is the easy part and the result is pleasing to all concerned.

Click here to watch Kurt Vonnegut’s Youtube video

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The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

George Orwell (1903 – 1950), “Politics and the English Language”, 1946

Words are powerful and can be very damaging when used carelessly.  They have the power to evoke potent emotions and they can help inspire, encourage and motivate people. They can transform the world that we live in and in a crisis they can be your strongest allies or your most damaging adversary.

One should always be very careful when using words – but this is especially so in the midst of a crisis. Who can forget when, during the middle of the largest oil spill in US history, the Chief Executive of BP, Tony Hayward, said ‘I’d like my life back”?

When a crisis breaks a company needs to be particularly careful in framing its response. While attempting to assert control it also needs to be aware of the implications of the response and what it may mean in the future.  Framed properly, a trained spokesperson can use their language to calm nerves in a very anxious time and can give the impression that the company is in control and working hard to resolve the crisis.

However, there are always a number of questions that need to be answered when preparing this initial response. Can the company accept responsibility? Should you apologise for what happened? Should the statement contain emotion or should it just outline the facts in a cold and matter-of-fact manner? These questions can be addressed a long time before the specific crisis ever arises and therefore eliminate potential catastrophic roadblocks.

When writing a crisis manual a number of legally approved draft statements should be prepared. Having these to hand will allow you to respond quickly and effectively. Valuable time can be lost if the initial response statement has to be sent for ‘legal approval’.

Unnecessary delays have to be avoided. Having a debate during a crisis on the merits and implications of issuing an apology or sympathising with the family in the event of a death can waste valuable time. These debates should take place before a crisis ever arises and therefore ensure that a response can be issued in a timely and effective manner.

However, the language in all crisis communications materials should be carefully managed and reviewed. For example, has the media spokesperson been selected and trained correctly?  (Body language can be just as important as what the person says.)

Be conscious of your medium. An email to your employees may require different language to any engagement on social media.

Jargon – has all jargon and academic language been removed and adapted? The language should be simple and self-explanatory.

Respect – are the communication materials respectful of all audiences including stakeholders, employees, media and the general public

Text – are words the best method to explain what happened? It may be useful to have a graphic designer / photographer / videographer available to allow you to communicate clearly what happened in a simple and logically way.

Social media – can your press release be converted into 140 characters or less (Twitter)? Unlikely – prepare alternative strategies to allow you to engage via the Social Media channels.

A serious crisis can destroy companies and / or individuals however proper preparation combined with an appropriate response can actually help improve the reputation of both. Language is a powerful weapon and should be treated as such in all communications.

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Interesting perspective from Sports Business Newslines regarding sponsorship and the Rugby World Cup currently taking place in New Zealand. Could this be the last World Cup? Most unlikely you would have to say but something will have to be done to address the issues raised by the New Zealand Rugby Union Chief Executive, Steve Tew.

New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) chief executive Steve Tew has warned that the country’s participation in future editions of the Rugby World Cup could be under threat unless changes are made to the commercial structure of the tournament.

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I’m just back from the 7th World Aging and Generations Congress at Sankt Gallen University, Switzerland. Listening to the various presentations I was particularly struck by the statement that two-thirds of all the people who ever reached the age of 65 are alive today. In fact by the year 2050 the number of people over the age of 60 will grow from 500 million today to 2 billion.

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I recently had the pleasure of getting my hands on a ticket to the sold out Roger Waters’ performance of the iconic Pink Floyd album The Wall in the O2 Dublin. Given the hype and reviews that preceded the gig Waters had a lot to live up to. Coupled with the fact the album had last been toured in 1980 the crowd was expecting a great show. They were not disappointed! The awesome soundscape created was matched, if not surpassed, by a series of 3D mapped projections throughout the show.

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The explosive growth of new consumer-driven online media in recent years has re-shaped the future of public relations. The range of new technology and online channels have given birth to a new public who has moved from being a passive consumer of controlled media (web 1.0) to that of a sharing media environment where anyone can be a news editor (web 2.0).

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