Media Training tip of the month: “How to prepare your spokespeople for media interviews”

The majority of the spokespeople we train at TNR come to us directly from their organisation but we also work closely with PR and Comms agencies who sub-contract TNR to provide media training services for their clients.  For these agencies, it’s important to explain to their clients when they should commission media training and we suggest there are three perfect opportunities for any brand to shore up their media competence:

Before a major campaign

In the planning stages of major campaigns, agencies are expecting, or hoping for, lots of media interest.  Our advice here would be to talk to your client really early on about this, especially if you’re going to be creating video or other content that requires sound-bites from the faces of the brand.  What can happen, and we’ve seen this many times at TNR, is that the spokesperson hasn’t had an opportunity to rehearse and it means the asset you’ve created isn’t as powerful as it might have been with a compelling performer.

After a key appointment

If your client has made a key appointment, it’s a golden opportunity to advise them to put media training in place.  Because that new member of the leadership team is likely to be more open to training when they’re having to absorb the new messages of the company.  And of course, a key appointment is a possible hook for getting media interested in the company, product or service of your client.

Any time!

Our advice, though, would be to have a belt and braces approach.  We all know that a media storm can engulf an organisation almost out of nowhere, especially in this age of social media.  So it’s a wise PR agency that advises new clients and old, to be ready to talk to journalists well before any potential crisis.

We’re delivering a Master the Media workshop on the 9th May for £295 (plus vat & booking fee). Find out more by clicking here.