When I led marketing and communications for an oncology diagnostic company, the CEO used to ask me regularly, “Can you gin up a campaign about X? You can present it tomorrow.” Or he’d call me into his office and tell me that, “we need to be on CNN, so make that happen by Friday.” He assumed this would be easy because I had the PR magic wand in my desk drawer.
More recently, I’ve been in conversations with leaders of a mid-sized and a multinational company that went something like this, “So, with (PR’s latest ‘magic wand’) AI, that narrative/website copy/reputation plan/crisis preparation manual you’re working on will take less time, less effort, and we can reduce our budget, right?”
In checking with my colleagues and peers on both sides of communications – consultancy and corporate – it’s clear this is not an unusual conversation. There is a sense that the work of public relations and the outcomes we achieve can be whipped up with the snap of our fingers aided by new technologies and tools.
Intuitively, we know there is a phenomenal amount of preparation, planning and practice behind making anything appear to be ‘easy.’ Consider:
- The display of athleticism we witnessed at the 2024 Olympics. Participants practiced countless hours and made incredible sacrifices to make their amazing feats of running, gymnastics, swimming, and much more, look effortless.
- Your own day-to-day experience ordering a product online, say, from Amazon. One day you’ve made a few clicks on the keyboard and the next day, you’re opening your package at home. How complicated could it be behind the scenes? Of course, the truth is, it’s incredibly complicated, but the experience is 1-2-3!
- The most successful comedians often report how much creativity, writing, and preparation goes into being funny. Witty banter and engaging stories don’t come as naturally or spontaneously as they appear.
In the words of Steve Jobs of Apple, “It takes a lot of hard work to make something look simple.” And this, without question, is how it is for communications practitioners. The truth, of course, is we research, create, strategise, look for insights, spend hours planning, build and nurture contacts, and hone our technical and human expertise to build deep experience. Success takes serious effort even if the execution looks easy.
What should communicators aim for?
Thinking about this has led me to wonder if we should invest in helping stakeholders (whether internal, if you’re working in a company) or clients (if you’re a consultancy), to have more awareness of, if not appreciation for, he hard work of our output and results. Or if the better move, and maybe more satisfying in the long-term, is for communicators to not fight the misunderstandings about PR and focus instead on giving stakeholders and clients what, at the end of the day, they really want: an easy experience with PR so that they’ll rely and value it even more?
Research shows with ‘easy experiences’ there is less friction, more reliance, less frustration if things don’t always go as planned. Easy experiences maximize efficiency and create satisfaction. The seamlessness that comes from expecting an easy experience builds stronger bonds, relationships and connections. Above all, stakeholders will pay for an easy experience knowing they are in safe hands.
Application to Reputation
Similarly, company and brand reputations benefit when the work of building them appears effortless; when a company and its leaders seem to ‘naturally’ make decisions and take actions that improve their communities, customers’ lives, benefit society and the planet. It seems ‘easy’ when CEOs and other leaders show and share something of themselves – their backgrounds, humanity and empathy. In so doing, they create goodwill, credibility, provide warmth and substance.
Data also show when customers have easy experience with companies, they feel heard and appreciated, are loyal, will share positive experiences, and more quickly forgive missteps.
Of course, comms professionals know how much work is behind creating these perceptions and experiences. There’s nothing easy about it.
In the end…
To be sure, the rewards of having hard work acknowledged has wide-ranging benefits, from job satisfaction to morale and motivation. These are important and matter. In fact, in the internal communications work we do for our clients, we help companies create a culture of recognition because we know that recognised employees feel great about the company and are more productive.
Communications practitioners are no different from those in any other space or industry – it feels good to have what we do and how we do it better understood.
But as an endgame –for comms in general, and reputation work specifically – I look to the Italian courtier Baldassare Castiglione who coined the term, ‘sprezzatura’ for something (or someone) that looks extremely natural and polished, that displays such a level of mastery that what they’re doing (and achieving) looks easy. If it seems a bit magical, that’s OK, as long as we’ve created trusted, positive relationships and reputations that keeps stakeholders feeling positive, taken care of and coming back for more.
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
Sandra Stahl has created and led communications solutions for many of the world’s leading pharma, biotech, diagnostic, device and consumer healthcare brands over a 30+ year career. Her skills as a strategist and developer of compelling narratives have enabled organizational-and market- readiness, powered investment, enhanced profiles, amplified landmark data, built reputations and influenced opinion. She is a recognized thought leader regularly published in industry, national and international media, and author of the award-winning book, The Art & Craft of PR (LID 2018). Additionally, Sandra is founding faculty in the PR track in the Branding + Integrated Communications master’s degree program at The City College of New York, now in its 10th year, has delivered lectures at university communications programs around the world including Columbia University in New York and Xavier Institute of Communications in Mumbai, India.
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