In financial services, many firms are focused on providing bottom-line value to their clients. What most of them forget is how to properly communicate that value.
A good PR strategy has a greater impact on the bottom line than most firms realise. This book shows how to put in place an effective PR program in the financial services industry, and how great communications can add significant value to a firm.
Between them, Claudia Pritchitt and Leeanne Bland have over 50 years’ experience in public relations, communications, and marketing. Here, they explain the key tools needed in an effective communications strategy as well as why plain English is imperative in the jargon-heavy world of financial services.
It’s the job of a journalist to bring light to stories and people, but it’s not often they are in the spotlight.
At PritchittBland Communications we run a special blog series where we put the spotlight on Australian financial journalists and dig a little deeper to find out where they’ve come from and what drives a good story. See it from their perspective and read the interview with our next guest, Duncan Hughes, freelance journalist and former personal finance reporter for the AFR for almost 20 years.
Why did you decide to go into journalism?
Every other occupation looked dull by comparison. Journalists impressed me as a maverick, larrikin lot, which appealed to my sense of fun. I studied law/economics (no fees back then), but upon completion escaped to a newsroom.
What about the finance industry interests you the most?
There’s always something happening, new people to meet and lots to learn. It’s a global industry that directly affects household welfare from cradle to grave. I like personal finance reporting because it attempts to explain how markets, products and laws dealing with financial issues affect individuals. That provides plenty of issues for stories, ranging from superannuation and investments, through to mortgages, savings and estate planning.
What are you looking forward to seeing happen in the financial landscape in the next 5 years?
How data-based industries like financial services (and journalism) continue adapting to technological change to remain competitive.
The devices don’t need to take holidays or receive performance bonuses. It’s going to be a bumper period for the tax avoidance industry. The federal government’s targeting of super savings to fund a bloated bureaucracy and grandiose infrastructure agenda will herald a golden era for discretionary trusts, family offices, private companies and offshore schemes. Will a new international order emerge? Who comes out on top as a new Cold War attempts to reshape globalisation?
What makes a good story?
Interest, accuracy, timeliness and impact. Exclusive revelations that affect people, markets, governments and/or companies. A good yarn also sets the scene for follow-ups.
What advice would you give to executives when they are talking to the media?
Reporters and executives are often in regular contact, swapping ideas and socialising. But there are competing priorities, which creates an underlying conflict. Executives and their marketing teams try to control information and how it is delivered to investors. Journalists should be trying to look beyond the gloss to explain what is happening. My recommendation is to be civil and honest.
