In 2004, Elizabeth Holmes established Theranos, marketing a revolutionary medical diagnostic technology that, by 2014, was set to peak at a valuation of $9 billion. The trouble was, the technology never worked. The whole set up was a massive fraud. And Elizabeth Holmes ended up incarcerated.
In March 2021 Meghan Markle and Prince Harry sat down and spoke at length with Oprah Winfrey. The resulting interview was proven to have contained at least 17 demonstrable untruths.
Last week Jason Arday, a Cambridge professor, took his own life having been outed as a Walter Mitty plagiarist and fantasist.
One thing that all these examples (and more) have is the ability to push out a narrative again and again, building layer upon layer of story that takes on the sheen of truth. Yet, beyond that sheen, is a cracked and fragile foundation that, once exposed, can never be fixed.
I’m going to use a word now that makes everyone cringe, but is important nonetheless – authenticity. With every company I work with, nothing goes out of the door unless it truly represents that business, the people that work in that business, and the products that it makes. There’s a very simple reason for this… it makes everything so much easier.
When you’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, it is never going to fit. A small window company fitting 100 windows a week is never going to effectively mimic a larger national fitting 1000 a week. And nor should they. Homeowners go to a big brand name for the noise and reassurance around that brand. They’ll go to a smaller local company because they prefer the more personal approach of that smaller local service.
There’s room for both. And pretending to be something you are not, merely leaves you with a hollow taste in your mouth.
PR is often accused of being a bit of ‘puff’, or an ego massage for business leaders who love the sound of their own voices. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When done well, and with conviction (rather than just for the sake of it), good PR can supercharge all your other marketing activities. It differentiates you from your competitors, positions you as an expert and authority, and builds that know, like and trust element that makes the decision-making process smoother for your potential customers.
When the PR messaging is at odds with who you are, what you believe, and what you can actually achieve, it creates a dissonance, a discord, that is the equivalence of nails scraping across a blackboard. It is uncomfortable, off-putting. You start to scratch around to fill the awkward silences. You fall into traps of your own making – traps that are the result of unsubstantiated claims.
But a comms campaign that is built on the true values of your business, that generates its own momentum, takes on a life of its own that can end up creating opportunities for growth that might never have previously been open to you.
When I heard the news of Jason Arday’s demise, I could only imagine the absolute terror that I would have felt if I had constructed a similar house of cards around my profession and career. Just keeping a hold of all the different webs of lies and deceit must have been exhausting. And with such tragic consequences.
So know this – there is never any puff around VAST PR. We only work within the realms of what is authentic, verifiable and genuine.
