Key messages – and when appropriate, speaking points – are the cornerstone of every successful proactive positioning and storytelling program I develop.
I’m generally a fan of key messages that are conversational and easy for media-trained spokespersons to communicate and repeat during interviews and briefings with industry analysts, journalists and social media influencers.
A conversational – and generally very simple – message designed to meet positioning objectives is typically the type of message I like to see as a headline whenever I issue news – or when I am working on proactive campaigns and editorial programs.
This CIO story is a great example of how simple key messages and speaking points developed to help shape traditional and social media coverage and headlines can deliver significant positioning results. I developed the messaging for this story to help quickly position enterprise cloud clients as leaders in the big data and data analytics sectors.
The messages – delivered flawlessly by BMW’s Mario Mueller, one of the top-ten best spokespersons I have had the opportunity to work with during my career to date – were published hundreds of times as a headline in outlets and languages around the world. The messages also served as key positioning content in communities and on social news feeds worldwide.
Last week Intel generated some very interesting headlines based on what I consider to be another excellent use of a very simple, very strategic and highly effective key message. During an interview with Silicon Angle, Raejeanne Skillern, a VP in Intel’s cloud group, said that Intel had completely restructured to become a cloud and IoT company.
That’s a very powerful business transformation message that further positions Intel in the fast-moving global IoT market. It’s also a message that other technology companies will likely start incorporating into their own message platforms as more and more organizations move to build and deploy IoT solutions.
Does your organization have a strategic IoT message? Should you have one? – Russ DeVeau
Related:
–Successful executive positioning is rooted in multiple proactive strategies