no spin pr key message workshop
DESCRIPTION
An outline for developing overarching key messages for any organization or situation.TRANSCRIPT
Key Message Workshop
Turning the obvious into news
Key Messages
The spine of your communications efforts.Use them throughout brochures, media
releases, web site, corporate profile.Create specific key messages for every
media release & for different stakeholders.
aka 'must air' points
Must-air points
The rule of threes: from Aristotle's Poetics, initially (beginning, middle, end).
Three 'must air' points and three facts each that support those points.
Start with overarching organizational key messages.
• First key message is 'boilerplate' (About Us)
Singing from the same song sheet
We remember only 20% of what we hear/ 40% of what we read.
It takes ~ 47 repetitions before we learn a word in another language.
Journalists still need want As to the 5Ws and how?
• Combine As in three key messages.who, what, where, when, why and how?
Claim, Fact, Example format
Make a claim
Add a fact that supports the claim
Give an examplewalk the walk
Claim
We are champions of education
Fact(s)
Last year we gave over $100,000 to local charities to support education of K-12 students in the community.
We also had over 40 rotating volunteers reading to students every day for the entire year during their lunch break.
Example
One 11th-grade student, was able to move up from a regular English class to an AP class and is expected to earn an A.
She says her mentor helped her realize reading was fun.
No one had ever done that for her before.
Slogans
Claims without any kind of explanation
Accompanied by images
Set to jingles
• At Ford, quality is Job One.
• It's mainly because of the meat (because of the meat!)
• Just do it!
• ads
Features vs Benefits
Features are specificBenefits are simple and usually genericTendency with anything scientific or pseudo-
scientific is to focus on features/facts
jargon alert
Want your own key message workshop?
ruth.seeley (Skype)
ca.linkedin.com/in/ruthseeley/