Distinctive Dispatch #7: Better comms for people, places and work
Thoughts on finding your voice and telling your story; supporting clean growth in Somerset; boring buildings are bad for us; watch your phone etiquette.
Thanks for signing up for the Distinctive Dispatch, which we publish on the first Friday each month. We hope you find it useful. If there are any comms-related matters you’d like us to explore in future newsletters, drop us an email or let us know on the chat.
Finding your voice amidst the noise
Our latest newsletter lands during party conference season. Headline announcements will set out positions in a battle for ideas over how parties see themselves, and the country they seek to govern.
Organisations need time to separate the signals from the noise coming from these events and understand what it could mean for them.
Meanwhile, many are seeking ways to find their own voices amidst the sound and fury. We’re fortunate to support several clients in this effort. This comes as we’re also looking closely at what we say and how we say it as a recently established business.
Through this work, we've found that thinking about headlines or trending online isn't the best place to start, however readily some gravitate towards those points. Getting to the heart of your organisation’s story, clarifying what it stands for and finding ways to tell it are much more important. Being genuine matters most.
We’ve explored this in workshops, which stem from an eight-step comms strategy process developed during lockdown when everyone was grappling with massive change. Finding your voice matters because it helps organisations tell their story clearly and build connections.
How to find your voice
Whether you are doing this for yourself, a project you support or the organisation you lead, clearly describing your work and what you stand for goes way beyond a strapline.
It needs to be:
Meaningful: does it relate to your audience?
Authentic, representing something you can stand behind.
Genuine, reflecting the best version of you, not someone else.
Purposeful: Why does your organisation or project exist? What value do you provide that others miss? Why should people notice?
Here are some steps to consider in helping your organisation find its voice.
#1 See it from stakeholders’ and customers’ standpoint
What do your stakeholders think or say about you online or after you’ve worked with them? Are you helping them with today’s challenges? Understanding this helps you to speak to them, not at them. Remember, your narrative shouldn’t really be about you. It needs to focus on your key audiences’ needs, and how you can help.
#2 Show what you stand for
What do you believe in? Do your colleagues know this? How does this speak to the point outlined above? This should run through all your communications, consistently over time. You need to demonstrate this through your actions, and not just say it.
#3 Tell stories that bring points 1 and 2 to life
We always look for the human way to tell our clients’ stories. This isn’t just about talking about investment size or job numbers. Instead, we look to tell stories of the people who found work and improved their lives. Jasmine writes about an approach we’ve developed to achieve this in our latest blog.
How can you stand out?
In a noisy, increasingly fractious world, thinking about these points will help you stand out and connect with groups that matter.
It may mean that you can’t be all things to everyone, which may feel like a cost to bear. But unless you have limitless resources to promote your services to everyone, that’s no bad thing. Finding that clarity will help you to stand out in areas that matter. Now is a good time to work out what those areas are.
What do you want to be known for? We’re here to help if you would like to chat with us.
Supporting clean growth in the South West
We were delighted to hear recent announcements that Jaguar Land Rover will invest in creating thousands of high-quality jobs at Gravity in Somerset.
Our team supported Gravity with extensive community and media engagement during an important planning phase before this decision. It’s a great example of a genuine proposition, supported with strong storytelling, which was overwhelmingly supported locally.
As a local team, it’s brilliant to play a role in such a game-changing project for the region and the UK.
Things we’ve seen
How to build beautiful social housing: Fantastic to see this programme on award-winning architect Peter Baker’s work to provide high-quality genuinely affordable homes.
Things we’ve read
The new phone call etiquette: Text first and never leave a voice mail: This piece in The Washington Post on navigating phone-use without aggravating others generated loads of responses. Suggestions include: don’t leave a voice mail, text before calling and don’t use a speakerphone in public. How many of these rules do you follow? It might be worth talking about it with your colleagues. Just text them first!
Things we’ve heard
Why boring buildings are bad for us - Building Soul – with Thomas Heatherwick: The first episode in a new podcast series from BBC Sounds explores the real effects the built environment has upon our health, society and planet. Buildings shouldn’t just be functional; they need to inspire - promoting humanity and interest.
Things we’ve said
How to create great stories for successful campaigns: How can you make your campaign relevant, impactful and inspire action? To make sure your campaign is seen, your story needs to be told.
Read about our CHATS approach, which takes you through story telling step-by-step to form an engaging narrative that inspires action and generates support.
Written by Jasmine Gordon
Sunak’s net zero PR problem: This personal post reflects on the gap between what Rishi Sunak said in his recent net zero speech and what happened around it.
Written by Ben Lowndes
See you again on the first Friday in November. If you’d like to share or discuss anything before the next edition, please leave a comment or drop us a line.