Unintended consequences are often the result when leaders communicate without a clear understanding of the media, the crowd and their own people. Leadership once associated and celebrated for being able to create order from chaos, will now be applauded for thriving in it, with policies, that back in February would have seemed unworkable, now the norm. Now more than ever, leaders must form a ring around a culture of trust and a very clear strategy around ‘story’.The media diet is fuelled by processed anecdotes and messaging that lacks context, simplicity and truth. Social media confirms and reinforces bias and risks…

Reputation is hard won and easily lost if you’re not careful. Today, as the judge dismissed multiple claims in Meghan Markle’s case against Associated Newspapers, her reputation is under the spotlight again and will be the subject of many headlines and debates, most of which will examine her motives and image and fuel the type of press coverage she would prefer to eliminate. Who wins in the end is not the point. The moment this case proceeded, the Duchess lost further grip of the image she seeks to control, and fuelled the already poisonous relationship with the tabloids. Weeks of…

In crisis situations we tend to move faster. We react and defend and there’s nothing wrong with that until any lack of thinking and preparation alongside, comes back at us with force. We have all seen daily examples of hope and positivity from business and people as well as what happens when any combination of national crisis, celebrity business, altruism and social media collide. Then marketing and PR ideas that seem like a genuine desire to help, can start to look like cynical marketing ploys. Anyway, there’s a point. Things are definitely changing but it’s too soon to say how…

This post is a very different musing on the news agenda. The Last thing anyone needs at the moment is another perspective or opinion. Instead, it’s a collection of this and that, hopefully, so we can glimpse views together and not just dissect the picture on the wall.  It’s certainly not a how-to-do-it nor does it have a beginning, middle or end. These are different times so inevitably there are different points of view. Perhaps it would be best to teach ourselves ignorance, to look sideways, stand still and listen. Rushed judgements are seldom counter-intuitive, yet it’s the hidden trends…

Money, hard times and political wrangling are good news for the media (traditional and social) For several years vast teams have been writing algorithms and toxic headlines to ensure that everyone is as outraged as possible and as often as possible whilst mindsets, whatever they might be at any time, are reinforced. The rumour virus is as pervasive as it escalates with distorted realities and discarded facts. If ever there was a time for a new style of leadership to show up it is now, as brands descend into paralysis, travel is curtailed, healthcare is at breaking point and businesses,…

  We are all to blame for the death of Caroline Flack. Even those of us who choose not to enter into the toxic fuelling of clickbait narratives with their ravaged commentary and opinion, still often view from afar and with an opinion. Our cultural addiction begins with popular soaps like Coronation Street, and the undeniable fact that ratings always soar when a character is going through the mill. The truth is we feed on drama and the frailties of character, fact or fiction. As humans, we relish a window in on fame and the human checks and balances alongside,…

  News cycles have shrunk from days to minutes.   Where once the attention of the nation would convalesce around iconic events from the Blind Date, Coronation St, House Party, Dallas, the Lottery Draw to mega football clashes  and the News at Ten, today it splinters into a thousand fragments. The water cooler has been decommissioned.   A spotlight has become a dazzling kaleidoscope.   And as we are each constantly bombarded with snapshots of a billion stories, we, just like journalists, quickly lose the capacity for nuance. Instead, we see a headline and rush to understand the narrative in…

The #SussexRoyal PR disaster which has gathered almost terminal momentum recently could have been avoided if they had heeded advice and precedent and had a plan from the beginning which took into account the rules and boundaries of Royal media relations. There is no doubt that being a top tier member of the Royals is an impossible job with a damned if you do, damned if you don’t attitude chasing every move. But there is a lot of experience and precedent within Palace walls and with this to guide and help acclimatise newcomers, Her Majesty may not have had to…

One thing is certain, if you don’t deal with hubris and ego it’s going to keep on biting you. So you’d think that Harry and Meghan would have learned that if they want to win the press war, they have to lead it, not fight every word with petulance, stand offs and impulsive statements. But apparently not.The latest news, informing us that they are quitting as ‘senior Royals’ comes as no real surprise. “What Meghan wants, Meghan gets” was Harry’s chant pre wedding and it’s now clear that Meghan, understandably perhaps, finds the royal spotlight stifling. Alongside her, Harry continues…

It’s January 3rd and I have already been emailed several ‘lists’ of PR and other predictions and Top Tens. Mostly they say the same thing in slightly different ways. Anyway, I thought I would join in with a slightly alternative list and here goes. I shall be rudely awakened at 5.50am on at least five occasions to talk about a PR clusterfuck on the Today Programme. A clusterfuck. Lies are truth, promises mean nothing and people think it’s a good idea to put Prince Andrew on TV. 2020 will see your major print and TV campaign derailed by the death of ******…

For a long time, I’ve known that moderates across the country were in trouble, but I didn’t realise that it would get this bad, this fast.We have handed our country into the hands of people who are willing to stoop to unprecedented lows in the pursuit of success. In this campaign they made promises and then edited them out of the recordings, they posed as fact checkers, they mashed up footage of opponents to completely misrepresent them. These tactics aren’t new. But this time around, the British public gave a resounding thumbs up to a campaign built on misinformation and…

As the pressures of a looming global downturn, reckless deregulation and business culture of chasing short term growth at the cost of long-term stability converge, it’s no wonder that we see so many corporate crises in the news. VW, Whirlpool, Boeing, Grenfell a few names from a long list of companies using endless denials and obstruction to buy time trying to recover from disasters. The real story is the price of failure paid by the poorest members of our society. But their CEOs still reading from the same playbook as their ancestors from the last century. They get barracked by…

  Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing, appeared before the US Congress yesterday in a performance that had the stench of overzealous media training. In an attempt to appear sad-eyed and apologetic, he ended up looking like he was stuck on death row without the reward of a last meal. Conservatively suited and booted, Muilenburg was contrite yet embarrassingly underprepared on the actual, important detail surrounding the fatal 737 Max crashes – and bereft of authentic integrity. Pointed questions were answered indirectly and without detail, presumably with one eye on future consequences. The corporate lexicography was littered with the expected earworms;…

I write this as we emerge blinking from the events of the past week, a week marked by two articles that have reached depths of cruelty that are reminiscent of the dark days of the Evil Empire of the Red Tops. Yes, we’ve seen the demise of kiss and tells, but these were a brief echo of those snarling pack of hounds, unleashed with the intent of savaging their quarry in the blind pursuit of clickbait. Titillating chicanery? Perhaps. Sensationalist trickery moulded to energise a conversation. Firstly, they forced a beloved athlete into an impossible corner by exposing a chronic…

  Imagine the fairy tale, the one with the young bored shepherd races into town day after day crying wolf. Day after day, until finally there is a wolf – and he, along with his herd, fall afoul.   It’s a story with a famous message for all children, but it has another overlooked message. One for wolves.   Dominic Cummings is a man who has made his craft through ruthless, winner takes all, victory-justifies-whatever-means, campaigning and he is a man whose career has rewarded him whenever he has looked beyond the Westminster bubble. He is the latest in the pantheon…

Jessica Mulroney, perhaps the closest and most loyal of Meghan Markle’s inner circle has posted to Instagram citing racist bullies as behind the criticism of her friend. Sorry, but this is an example of the inner circle clutching at straws. It’s the Sussexes insistence on a version of privacy in an age of absolute scrutiny, that is their real Achilles heel. The current and ongoing bad press that surrounds them is a crisis entirely of their own making and an example of a highly flawed communications strategy, one that they have failed to think through from beginning to end. As…

The Edinburgh Fringe is noisy. No, not the plaintiff wheezy whine of the devil’s bellows. I’m overwhelmed by the nauseous pollution; the brash posters littering the streets. Gaudy graphics constructed to hypnotise one’s peripheral vision. Loud marketing. Dumb ubiquity. Hopeless strategy to attract an audience. On the last count, walking a 400 yard stretch (imperial measurement as decreed by Mr Rees-Mogg), there were over 280 posters without a single standout. Festival marketing requires a big idea. To perform isn’t enough. A gig has to stand out. Folk need to be talking about your show. Think topicality. Using social media is…