At the never ending Leveson enquiry Robert Jay QC has finally had the chance to grill the Prime Minister.
One of the main areas of enquiry centres on what deals or concessions were made to News International to secure the support of its leading publications.
Cameron told the enquiry that ‘we, the conservatives, simply had a communications strategy’. The QC seemed shocked by the response of the Prime Minister.
The QC then asked what the strategy was for winning over the Sun in particular. This goes to the heart of a common argument in communications circles about whether the media is an audience or a conduit to an audience.
The Prime Minister rightly pointed out that they did not have a communications strategy for winning over The Sun. The Conservatives instead had a strategy to explain their values and policies to a wider audience. And The Sun was an important medium to reach the voting public. Should we be surprised that so much time was spent trying to win them over to their side of the political argument, given the readership figures.
Coming from the school of communications Cameron then went on to explain some of the key principles of a good communications strategy.
This includes the top level issues: who the audiences are you are trying to reach and what they currently think; what the communications objectives are; and the messages you are trying to get across. In essence, a strategy that is informed by audience insight.
As the Prime Minister said to the enquiry you tailor your message to audiences, talk about issues that matter most to them and engage with key publications, journalists and editors – that these audiences follow.
With any good communications strategy you are ultimately trying to change or alter opinions or behavior. In this case there was a clear objective and measure to evaluate, winning a general election.
Tony Cox
tony@linstockcommunications.comOne of the main areas of enquiry centres on what deals or concessions were made to News International to secure the support of its leading publications.
Cameron told the enquiry that ‘we, the conservatives, simply had a communications strategy’. The QC seemed shocked by the response of the Prime Minister.
The QC then asked what the strategy was for winning over the Sun in particular. This goes to the heart of a common argument in communications circles about whether the media is an audience or a conduit to an audience.
The Prime Minister rightly pointed out that they did not have a communications strategy for winning over The Sun. The Conservatives instead had a strategy to explain their values and policies to a wider audience. And The Sun was an important medium to reach the voting public. Should we be surprised that so much time was spent trying to win them over to their side of the political argument, given the readership figures.
Coming from the school of communications Cameron then went on to explain some of the key principles of a good communications strategy.
This includes the top level issues: who the audiences are you are trying to reach and what they currently think; what the communications objectives are; and the messages you are trying to get across. In essence, a strategy that is informed by audience insight.
As the Prime Minister said to the enquiry you tailor your message to audiences, talk about issues that matter most to them and engage with key publications, journalists and editors – that these audiences follow.
With any good communications strategy you are ultimately trying to change or alter opinions or behavior. In this case there was a clear objective and measure to evaluate, winning a general election.
Tony Cox
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