Quantum PR's Blog

Landing the dots

The government’s announcement of spending cuts was a model of effective media management and of how to manage expectations.  As Alistair Campbell said at a conference to public sector communicators the day after the Comprehensive Spending Review, effective PR is all about ‘landing dots’. The more dots you land the clearer the picture you paint.

How often have we, as media consumers, recently heard the sound bites of: “the country is facing the biggest financial deficit in decades”, “doing nothing is not an option”, “we are dealing with Labour’s debt”? These sound bites are the government’s dots and they have been consistently delivered to paint the picture.  

This isn’t just a coalition tactic. Gordon Brown’s government employed the same tactic with the mantra of “this is a global economic crisis” throughout his last twelve months in office, but his team didn’t manage to get enough dots landed to build the picture. 

This approach isn’t about brainwashing or deceit – it’s about spin. Alistair Campbell gave spin a bad name, but in reality it is simply the process of presenting facts in the best light. All businesses should follow the politicians’ example – define your messages, spin them to present a positive picture and then deliver them consistently to land those dots. Only then will your target audience build up a clear picture of your business and its products and services.