So the Olympics have come to an end and life returns to normal. As we all readjust to our days without world records being broken, the English summer is well and truly upon us. It’s raining again and now that sport so dear to the English psyche - cricket comes to the fore.
I don’t claim to relish the idea of spending an afternoon watching the game, but this week it all got rather interesting. For those of you who are still in a daze from the London 2012 – Kevin Pieterson has been accused of sending derogatory texts to the South African team about his fellow team mates. If the allegations do prove to be true it's all jolly unsporting stuff.
So in true PR style, the English Cricket Board decided to wheel out a few of the English team, to answer questions from the press. ‘Good plan!’ I hear you cry. But no…
Amazingly the press officer in charge of the press conference announced to the assembled journalists that they would only take questions about the forthcoming test match with South Africa and would not take any questions regarding the Pieterson affair. Furthermore if anyone did ask these questions they would stop the press conference! There was a slight guffaw from those journalists present. Clearly this particular press officer hadn’t been around when the media training was on offer.
Rule number one - never tell the journalists they can’t ask the questions they want- it’s like a red rag to a bull. They almost relish the battle, so question after question was not about the match but about the allegations. The cricketers themselves were not prepared for this deviation off the chosen topic and so all looked rather sheepish when trying to answer questions. The general feeling was one of headless chickens rather than an organisation in control of the situation.
But it really doesn’t need to be like this – if your spokespeople are fully briefed and trained to bridge away from the negative and onto the positive you can limit the damage. Reputation management is so important that to lose it through lack of preparation is madness.
So, remember don’t tell the media what they can and can’t do, but manage them by controlling the message, use them as a facilitator to communicate to your clients, shareholders and stakeholders. Understanding the rules on handling the press is really very simple – unlike cricket!
If you would like to know more about how we can help you prepare for your next press conference please feel free to contact us
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