On the day of the “fiscal cliff/sequestration” deadline, President Obama chose to give a lengthy interview on Meet The Press with David Gregory. One of the key features of Modern Publicity is timing. This is a perfect example of the use of timing to send a message, generate buzz and shape public opinion.
For the rest of the day and beyond, Democratic and Republican Party spokespersons repeated the talking points on the amazingly insatiable cable news message machines as part of a premeditated, coordinated legislative battle plan. Truth be told, we’re also part of the game – especially the “most likely” (to vote) independent voters – who politicians seek to charm as if they’re all lonely girls at final call.
A fascinating read is the Meet The Press LiveBlog – essentially an NBC White House Reporters’ RSS feed. Anyone (you don’t have to be a highly-paid network news blogger) can set up the same feed up by using #MTP Twitter search and following these personalities:
- @davidgregory is David’s personal account.
- @meetthepress is the show account. Follow for video, insights, behind the scenes photos, more.
- @betsymtp is executive producer Betsy Fischer’s personal account.
- @AdamVerdugo is senior producer Adam Verdugo”s personal account.
- @MTPGuest is our account to send out the latest Sunday guest info.
Read the Press Pass Blog for an excellent comprehensive recap. I prefer Facebook comments; lots of good give-and-take. The best roundtable comment for publicists was made by presidential historian and author Jon Mechem who reminded us of two key leadership communications venues: wholesale and retail. This Meet The Press appearance is Obama selling ideas wholesale, appealing to the American People as a mass market (3.5 million influential viewers). Mechem – and others – points out that President Obama notoriously forgets the retail communications needs, to make person-to-person contact. Phone, text, skype, visit, etc.
Not surprisingly this is PR advice we give to many clients. Integrated communications is both wholesale and retail. Often, companies and personalities habitually rest on their advertising and marketing budgets rather than leveraging their personal power to not simply pursued, but to inspire. And that’s precisely why integrating social media and video with our publicity and marketing campaigns is so powerful. It gives us the ability to interact, to discuss, to communicate on a retail level – to network, chat, shmooze. Modern Publicity views technology as a tool to establish greater intimacy and client loyalty.
Rather than analyzing the entire interview transcript (Looked up “shambolic“), I simply jotted down the presidential statements that jumped out at me. Please note how simple, yet powerful, each phrase is. These are Obama all quotes:
“The pressure is on Congress to produce”
“up or down vote”
“dysfunction in Washington”
“$2 of spending cuts for every $1 of increased revenue”
“[the American people] made a clear decision”
“overriding unifying theme”
“[the fallacy that] deficit reduction is only about cutting”
“a balanced approach”
“shared sacrifice”
Paul William O'Sullivan 