It's the second day of our look back over the spokespeople and interviews that stood out for all the right reasons this year.
Yesterday we brought you the personal anecdotes and many metaphors of Johnathon Van-Tam.
And we are following that up today with another spokesperson who has spent plenty of time in the spotlight over the past 12 months.
Making the complex simple
Professor Sarah Gilbert is another spokesperson who has showed a great ability for making the complex simple this year.
Andrew Marr finished his interview with the vaccinologist, at the start of the pandemic, by saying “Professors do give you very clear answers sometimes.”
And that was a verdict we had to agree with, as the professor leading the research in the UK to find an effective vaccine, produced an excellent interview performance.
One of the issues we often find on our media training courses is spokespeople tend to struggle to get complex information across in interviews without confusing or losing the audience.
But here, a complicated subject area was explained with great clarity – not just the vaccine, but also wider questions about the virus, including why older men are more susceptible.
Professor Sarah Gilbert (just interviewed on the Andrew Marr Show) is the sort of person who should be involved with the government. Clear comms, clear strategy, clear delivery. Bravo. Good luck to the research she is leading in finding a vaccine for #coronavirus
— Mark Gilbert 😃 (@MGilbert) April 19, 2020
Interview with Professor Sarah Gilbert on #Marr re vaccine development, was one of the most informative and impressive you’ll see
— Lucy Powell MP (@LucyMPowell) April 19, 2020
This interview on Marr with Professor Sarah Gilbert, a Vaccinologist from the University of Oxford, is easily one of the best, most informative things I've seen on Covid.#marr
— Gavin Curnow (@GavinCurnow) April 19, 2020
Take for example the way she described the likely side-effects of the vaccine - “you may have a slightly sore arm, a slight fever for a day or two,” she said.
What stood out for me was all of Professor Gilbert’s answers were developed. There were no short answers. Instead, she filled her responses with examples to show what action was being taken to progress the vaccine.
But what was also impressive was her handling of the trickier questions. First-up she faced the sort of ‘guarantee’ question that has tripped up many a spokesperson in the past. Could she guarantee the vaccine would be ready by September? “No-one can be sure, but I think the prospects are good,” was a measured response.
The prospects of producing a Covid-19 vaccine are very good says Professor Sarah Gilbert, Vaccinologist at Oxford University
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) April 19, 2020
#Marr #coronavirus https://t.co/PUH4VzgnFN pic.twitter.com/OhyEiAQ6QK
Later on, she faced potentially tricky questions about who would own the vaccine and whether money would be made from it.
Here, the professor acknowledged the questions and then bridged away to safer ground, saying “for the moment, what we are concentrating on is having a vaccine available for public health.”
There was even a great sign-off to the interview. “Right, I’ll get back to work”, she said.
An impressive performance and one other spokespeople should study.
- Find ways to make the complicated easy to understand. Remember the words of Albert Einstein who said: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
- Avoid offering guarantees in media interviews – they have a tendency to come back to haunt you.
Who else will we feature in our selection of the best interviews and spokespeople of 2020? We will reveal the third person tomorrow.
About to face the media? Get your media interview homework off to the best start by downloading your copy of our free media interview preparation eBook.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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