Time to empower the regional teams on Media Communication

Now that the voter registration exercise is over, we are all embarking on the county governance journey where we will have 47 counties spread throughout the country.

But what happens to majority of the Kenyan companies which for a long time have been centralized in terms of operations? What happens to a company whose Corporate Communications Head and Chief Executive have never stepped out of their fully furnished head office in Nairobi?

The many sprouting regional media houses that rely on regional offices or branches for news might just be the reason why we might be seeing the end of having a centralized company spokes person based at the Head quarters in Nairobi.

With traditional and centralized media, the spokesperson is almost always the CEO. But with the advent of regionalised media and the county governance model which breaks down the communiqué in different languages and for different audiences, it is best to choose a spokesperson that resonates with customers and is comfortable addressing issues that they face every day.

For instance the Branch Manager of Equity Bank in Eldoret is likely to pull more customers to the branch if invited to the local media station than the CEO who is based at their headquarters in Nairobi.

We all know that when it comes to choosing the right corporate spokesperson, care must be taken to ensure that the message is delivered consistently and with grace -even when under fire.

Identifying the right corporate spokesperson for your media communication, is an important task. Whether they are speaking to West FM, a radio station in Bungoma or being interviewed during prime time news on KTN, it is essential that they be well versed on the do's and don’ts of effective communication. Whether it’s a formal, televised interview or an informal email thread that leads to a story, the spokesperson should represent the image and persona of the company at all times.

Regional managers will be the best asset to a company's corporate communication strategy team, if  empowered because they will recommend changes to strategy early for to make a difference, especially at county level. These people should not tackle policy or strategy; rather they should be prepared to answer the details that affect the customer's daily life.

In order to make this decentralized model of communication successful, it is important to keep the voice consistent. There should be agreement about the tone and style of responses, as well as who will be responsible for the on-going responses to the local community.

YoungPRSpeak Just as too many cooks spoil the broth, too many voices engaging the audience can spoil the message.

Employee Relations is key for Public Relations

With the dramatic turn of events after the industrial court ordered Kenya Airways management to reinstate some 447 employees it sacked in September through its rationalisation programme, it is indeed an eye opener. I have been fathoming on the role Public Relations should play in employee relations.

The wave of downsizing and layoffs that have been dominating businesses and different industries worldwide after the high tech bubble burst in the early years of the 21st century has taken its toll on employee loyalty. Many employees especially the Y-generation no longer commit to their workplaces because they know that one day some board decision will be made for them to be fired so that the company can cut down on its expenses.

Kenya Airways

While globalisation has been viewed as a noble step in company’s growth because of the mergers of geographically dispersed organisations there is need to focus more on internal communications so as to bridge the gap between the sparsely distributed employees who need to feel that they belong to a larger global family.

From a PR perspective, companies must sustain - or even expand - efforts to engage workers through proactive, two-way communication and progressive employee programs and policies. As companies reduce their workforces, the focus must simply shift from hiring new people to retaining key players and ensuring they're productive.

For Kenya Airways, they should expand their focus on employees and seek to keep their top performers by promoting progressive, worker-friendly programs and policies before embarking on an elaborate and planned strategy on how they will downsize. Globally many organisations have undergone this process to improve efficiency.

YoungPRSpeak Well, HR practitioners must now work closely with their PR teams to better their relations with the employees. When your employees are happy, your customers will be happy too. When going out to shop, many of us look for the stores that have a reputation of treating their employees well. A customer goes into that business and knows that they, too, will be treated better.

Courting The Right Sponsors For Your Event

After looking at the noble role of sponsorship in building brands last week, it’s time to lure the right sponsor on board either for a partnership with your client or solo project.

One of the best ways to avoid knocking on ‘closed doors’ is to look at companies that sponsor other events or activities similar to yours. For instance, if you are looking for sponsorship for athletics, you may want to cast your net near the likes of National Bank of Kenya, Stanchart Bank – which have a record of supporting such activities, for instance, the StanChart Marathon – and probably organizations that run their business in athletics-rich regions of Kenya.

If you are working on a long-term sponsorship, you need to look at the stability of the organisation. A company whose management is always on the move like the Chelsea coach position is most likely to leave you languishing without funds for your activity the following year.

Once you have listed the potential sponsors, look for reasons why it would benefit the potential sponsor to invest in your event. Tusker (a beer brand) might not reap a lot of brand value from an athletics event compared to Dasani (bottled water company), which will be advocating consumption of water during the races.

Having background information on the potential sponsor will go a long way in helping you to provide several levels of sponsorships to choose from. Always make sure you explain what you want at each level and why you need sponsors for each. This helps all the sponsors get value from their sponsorships regardless of the amount of money they invest in that event.

All said and done, you can now go out and look out for sponsorships. Always remember to thank them for sitting through your presentation and give them room to give feedback on their sponsorships.

Young PR Speak: Ideally in Kenya it takes three to four months to get potential sponsors on board. The more time you have to seek sponsorships, the better.

Why it makes business sense to sponsor activities that fit your goals

leveraging on sponsorship opportunities

While we always struggle to push our press releases to the many newsrooms so as to get editorial coverage, in public relations (PR) we never fall short of sponsorship proposals from various organisations. Every day I receive sponsorship proposals and calls from people with different ideas on sponsorship opportunities that they think we can engage in.

Despite the fact that sponsorship is a multimillion-dollar business in the corporate world, it has remained a gray area within the public relations discipline, fraught with curious and standardized measurement techniques, and the need for significant return on investment that advances a given objective.

Big or small, opportunities for sponsorship abound and tactically superior public relations professionals are able to take advantage of these opportunities and properly recommend them as part of their arsenal.

While sieving through many proposals and listening to different ideas one should look carefully at the objectives and mission statement of the organisation, understand the target audience implicitly and go in with a clear understanding of what you hope to accomplish. And then seek those opportunities that fit and see how a properly aligned sponsorship can assist to achieve your goals. For instance if you are telco it may be in line with your objectives to support digital villages as a sponsorship because in the near future those digital villages will be your key customers in terms of bandwidth.

Many of us do the same sponsorship over and over again because that’s how it has always been done, as opposed to seeking fresh and exciting opportunities that may be a better fit and provide a more powerful return on investment.

Just because you are known for sports doesn’t mean that you cannot try arts? For ongoing sponsorships that are up for renewal, understand how this sponsorship can be leveraged. Let me draw on some personal experience. While for a long time my client had sponsored a continental soccer tourney, I discovered that it was more powerful to sponsor the television stations airing the live matches than the actual tournament because unlike in the west where people flock to stadiums for the matches, Kenyans prefer to follow the action on television. We were able to leverage on the sponsorship than what we had done the previous year by inserting our advertisements during the matches.

The sponsorship matrix

Many people tend to be quick to ask for sponsorship funds and offer promises, but rarely do they take time to understand how your cause may be a solid ‘marketing partner’ with their cause—but that is the key. We should not be ‘corporate hypocrites’, but rather being straight forward… What is in it for my organisation or client? If you clearly state your objectives to the sponsorship solicitors, they will easily work with you to tailor some ideas to your objectives, as well as presenting a variety of options.

Lastly, when you have made your decision(s) on what program(s) to become involved in, iron out everything in advance. Agree on a reporting method and whose responsibility it is to provide it, ask who prints and positions logos and signage and what leveraging and merchandising opportunities you have, there is a host of clout, so ask for everything.

Young PR Speak: Building a brand through sponsorship alone and expecting quick results is flawed thinking. But with time and the right merchandising, sponsorships can be a powerful tool.

This is why Kenya could not have hosted the highly publicized record-breaking jump

Felix cruising down back to earth from space

When dare devil Felix Baumgartner ascended to the edge of space donning a RedBull branded pressurized capsule suspended beneath a giant helium balloon many did not know that this was a PR opportunity that the manufacturers of Red Bull had spotted and decided to pursue.

Just like in fashion where the daring always end up as the fashion trend setters, A PR professional should be daring and ready to take some risks in order to make the brand to stand out from the rest.

Red Bull would have totally lost it had Felix’s Capsule exploded into flames while in space. Someone would have been question on the cost of funding that historic jump and many would have been fired because of that campaign.

Below are some of the reasons why that historic jump could not have been successful here in Kenya because of our PR approaches of always playing safe and keeping off unexplored waters.

“We do not have budgets for that campaign” would have been the first excuse to be given by the ever defensive brand managers.

“Our CEO is not a fan of extreme sports and thus he is likely not to support that event.” Would have come from the ‘very loyal’ employees in the marketing department.

“We cannot partner with “So & So’ because they are likely to hog all the publicity from us. If we have to do it then we want to do it alone.”

“We are not willing to sponsor the project because of security reasons; we don’t want our brand to look like we are interfering with the government security agencies especially with the terrorists threatening to strike our country.

“Many of our customers do not live in the open arid areas (assuming that the jump would have been held in a sparsely populated area) thus they will not be able to experience or rather see the jump.” While we all saw the jump being beamed by all leading media houses across the world.

“How long will the jump last? Are we likely to achieve any media coverage bearing in mind the short duration that the jump will last?

Finally, the Sales Director would have thrown in their ‘usual line’ how much sales are we likely to accrue from this activity.

All said and done, those are the PR excuses that would have denied Kenyans the chance to witness  the world record breaking 128,089 free falling jump that had a top speed of 834mph (1,342km/h) thus breaking the sound barrier.