Christopher Luxon's personal equivocation on the Iran war helps explain his earlier struggles in the news media. It also illustrates an important lesson for organisations. The white heat of a media interview is where doubt reveals itself. We’ve seen it countless times with failed product launches or marketing campaigns that never quite land. These public embarrassments happen because internal doubts were never properly aired or resolved in the communications planning. A PR pr

Such an avoidable mistake, yet also such an easy trap to fall into in the cut-and-thrust of a media interview. Never repeat, in your own words, an accusation you’re trying to deny. In the era of soundbites and ever-shortening attention spans, nuance goes out the window. People instead rely on heuristics, identifying keywords, applying the connotations associated with them, and solidifying judgments in a matter of seconds. Even if the rest of the interview is fine, “corrupt co

The risk for organisations communicating on fuel supply chain shocks is treating a potential crisis as if it’s already arrived. Coverage in the news media has quickly shifted into “crisis” territory, and journalists are looking for stories to reinforce that. But the impact for most businesses is still some way off. Financial markets are still signalling this is likely to be short-lived. History shows oil price spikes are often followed by sharp corrections, with prices fallin

Blackland PR and digital communications specialist Seamus Boyer analysed the LinkedIn presence of 91 MPs with findable profiles. The research revealed the differences in how political parties use LinkedIn. While LinkedIn is an obvious place for MPs to network and speak with businesses, surprisingly few seem to be bothering with it. ACT really shines. National has some bright stars but is not fully utilising it. Labour is surprisingly weak, especially if it wants to promote it

Airlines often get flak for cancellations, but a customer's recent criticism over social media gave Air New Zealand a chance to reframe...

Cars are symbols of many things, individuality, age, income, and lifestyle. In this age of rage, symbolism now extends to reputation....

Just three years ago, chief communications officers were reporting they were growing their influence in the C-suite. But now, new...

There’s been much mirth at the Hosking vs Luxon death-spiral interview on whether Luxon would have sacked Andrew Bayly if he hadn't...

Councils aren’t known for being fast-moving, but some of their comms teams buck that stereotype. Last week Gisborne declared itself the...

Health NZ’s limit on Milo drink available to its staff triggered a discontent that had been brewing in the stress of cost-cutting. It...

The speed at which moments of outrage fade with time is a saving grace and curse in politics. So although Christopher Luxon’s clumsy...

The corporate response to the CEO shot dead last week in the US is likely to be more of the distance that is already generating customer...

Last week, Spanish offshore wind company BlueFloat Energy announced it was pulling out of its $6 billion projects off Waikato and South...

Hierarchy and tradition should not get in the way of the best choice for a tricky moment. Fletcher Building’s AGM last week was run by...

Look at the swing counties The counties that carry the most weight in swing states. For example, Maricopa County holds over half of...

Avoiding media interviews is a fair option if you’re not equipped to do them. Inquisitorial, “gotcha” interviews are popular media fare,...

Tory Whanau’s media problem is obvious; she treats media interviews as conversations. She excused her claim that she sold her car to pay...

Generation Xers will recall the famous X-Files assertion “Trust no one”. It came to mind with news that official Government statistics...

Watching the debate via media this month about energy supply, it was very clear that the contribution of PR to society is elevated...

Everyone is into video, but photos are still an essential PR tool in this multimedia environment. We are always looking for ways to add a...