Step 1 · Listen
What you actually do, in detail.
What we do, in detail
Positioning, media relations, issues and crisis work, and internal communication.
Program 01 · Say one true thing
Positioning
Most communication problems are positioning problems wearing a disguise. The work is deciding what you can say that is both true and specific, finding the evidence that stands behind it, and cutting the claims that cannot be supported. A claim without proof is not a bold message, it is a liability waiting for someone to check it. The discipline of saying one true thing well beats five vague things.
Step 2 · Test
Which claims survive checking.
Step 3 · Choose
One message, not a menu.
Step 4 · Equip
Proof points that hold up.
Step 1 · The story
Whether there is one at all.
Step 2 · The route
Earned or paid, named plainly.
Step 3 · The material
Accurate, checkable, quotable.
Step 4 · The follow-up
Honest reporting of what ran.
Program 02 · Disclosed if paid
Media relations
Earned coverage and paid placement are different products and get labelled as such. If a placement is paid for, the paid character appears in the content itself, because undisclosed paid editorial is prohibited outright. We do not promise coverage either, since the decision to publish belongs to an editor, and anyone guaranteeing you a placement is selling advertising while calling it something else. Embargoes are treated as binding, not as a negotiating position.
Program 03 · Lawyer in the room
Issues and crisis
Preparation beats improvisation: who speaks, what is known, what is not yet known, and in what order people are told. The firm rule is that we are not a law practice and we give no legal advice, and a statement responding to an allegation can carry legal consequences. So where it does, your lawyer sees it and we work alongside them. A denial that is clever and wrong is worse than silence that buys an hour.
Step 1 · Facts
What is established, and when.
Step 2 · Legal check
With your own lawyer.
Step 3 · Sequence
Who hears it, in what order.
Step 4 · Review
What actually happened, honestly.
Step 1 · Map
Who needs to know what.
Step 2 · Order
Inside before outside.
Step 3 · Say it
Including the bad part.
Step 4 · Listen
What came back, reported up.
Program 04 · Inside first
Internal and advisory
Staff reading about their own organisation in the press is a failure of sequence, not of media relations. Internal and stakeholder communication is about telling people in a defensible order and telling them something true, including when the news is bad. The consultancy side covers positioning and communication strategy generally. It is not legal, accounting or tax advice, and we say when a question belongs with the professional who is qualified for it.
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