The headline should actually be ‘what your spokesperson can learn from a French comedian trying to make it in America’.
But that would be ridiculously long.
However, the story of Gad Elmaleh and his attempt to conquer the US has pertinent lessons for media spokespeople.
Gad is a very famous in his homeland. So much so that he has been described as the ‘Jerry Seinfeld of France’.
But recently he decided to move across the Atlantic to essentially start again and attempt to create the same success in another country.
His quest has been picked up by the podcast This American Life, which boasts around 2.2 million listeners.
It recently took a recording of one of Gad’s shows and asked some American headliners if they thought he could be a success in the states and what he would need to change.
And it was while listening to this advice that I realised it also related to media training and spokespeople.
Take this great quote from one of these comedy headliners, Colin Quinn, which really struck a chord.
He said: “In the specific is the universal.”
He is saying that for Gad to succeed he needs to give details, personal experiences and emotions in his act.
And it’s the same in media interviews. Good spokespeople engage the audience, whether they are on television or radio, by telling stories which include personal experiences and human relatable examples. Messages and stories without examples are just rhetoric.
One of the most powerful words you can use in a media interview is ‘I’. It makes the story personable and helps to inject passion and enthusiasm into what you are saying.
Once you start to talk about ‘we’ it becomes less specific and generalities do not capture an audience in the same way.
So tell us what you care about. Tell us what you hope to achieve. And if you are in a crisis media management situation, tell us what you are doing to resolve the issues and what action you are taking to ensure it will not happen again.
Another quote in the podcast which captured my imagination came from Jeff Garlin of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame. He said: “There’s a craft to stand-up comedy as well as an art.”
The same is true of media interviews. It is one thing to learn the techniques for controlling media interviews and ensuring you get your messages across effectively.
But the next part of the development of a spokesperson is to perfect those skills until they have crafted them to such an extent that they can apply things like bridging and signposting without anyone noticing.
There are several ways to do this:
*Regular refresher and advanced level media training.
*Practicing interviews with colleagues, recording them and listening back to them.
*Ensuring the comms team review all spokespeople interviews, highlighting what went well as well as areas for improvement.
*Having confident and capable spokespeople who can adapt corporate messages, while staying on brand, put them into their own words and support them with their own anecdotes, stories and evidence.
Of course, feedback can be hard to give to some spokespeople. As a business which has worked with some of the world's largest brands, including 40 of the FTSE 100 we have huge experience in this area and would be happy to help. Why not get in touch to get the conversation going?
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 30 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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