• 5 Things PR Firms Can Learn from the New England Patriots

    5 Things PR Firms Can Learn from the New England Patriots

    It’s NFL playoff time, and the New England Patriots are again looking like league leaders. With a weekend win over Indianapolis, our boys are packing their bags and preparing for what will surely be a tough test when they play the Broncos this coming weekend.

    The recent performance of the Patriots reminds me a lot of the results generated by the top-notch public relations and social media professionals on staff here at Matter, and the Pats’ season overall reminds me about our business in general. Here are five things that PR firms can learn from my much beloved New England Patriots:

    First, you need players who can adapt and can apply a variety of their skills to immediate needs. Julian Edelman is catching Tom Brady passes like a lifelong wide receiver, but he converted to that position when he entered the league a few years ago. He adapted to his situation and excels.

    And, so many members of the Pats’ defensive line have played varying positions over the season since Vince Wilfork went down with his injury. Ditto for Jerod Mayo and Rob Gronkowski and a range of others. Similarly, a solid PR team is still able to thrive when one professional can apply his or her skills to key situations as needed, seamlessly.

    Second, you need to be able to fail quickly and rebound strong. In football, that’s after a loss – please see the Pats’ Monday night game against Carolina as an example and their subsequent string of victories. In PR, we’re battling for business on a daily basis and a devastating loss needs to be followed by an aggressive and creative approach toward other opportunities still on the table. You need to move forward, because successful teams don’t understand any other direction.

    Third, like Tom Brady’s reaction to a poorly thrown football that is intercepted by the defensive secondary, you need to “get over it” and move on quickly. Things happen, on the football field and as part of a communications team, and you learn from your mistakes and apply them to the above-mentioned process of moving forward. It doesn’t benefit anyone involved to dwell. Having a short-term perspective is valuable and critical for making improvements, but getting hung-up on the details is counter-productive. Go out there, make a play and change the direction of the game. It’s so similar to moving past any PR hiccups and securing the media homerun that changes the vibe for the better on an account team. Leaders don’t dwell on mistakes – they lead.

    Fourth, you need to find a way to win. The challenge matters little when it comes to this point, but rather it’s about the mindset. Your people and their corresponding skillsets are in place, and you need to be resourceful and find a way to get the “W”. That’s a quality you want in a team sport, because you know your crew will go with gusto each and every time they take the field. That’s the same quality you want in your PR team: no matter the obstacles, you will overcome them. Find a way to get it done – we use that language here at Matter, and clearly Bill Belichick says something similar when he’s with his team.

    Finally, it’s a team game and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Every Pats’ win this season has been the result of contributions from everyone on the team. LeGarrette Blount may have had a tremendous playoff game on Saturday, but he’s shared the backfield responsibilities all season long. Similarly, Tom Brady has been spreading his passes around to a collection of no less than eight receivers since the start of the season. These players have contributed to the Patriots winning football games, and that’s what matters most. The win is what counts, and not the individual highlights. Similarly, winning a high-profile piece of new business or extending a long-term client is worth celebrating, and the individual contributions that make that happen are a second priority. As I’ve been saying for years now, it’s the results that matter.

    Scott Signore

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  • Krafting A Crisis Communications Response

    Krafting A Crisis Communications Response

    How would you like to be Stacey James these days?

    For the uninitiated, James is the Vice President of Media Relations for the New England Patriots, a position he’s held for twenty years.  He’s been here through the really bad times, through three Super Bowls wins and two heartbreaking losses, through the very public and very messy Bill Parcells-Robert Kraft divorce, through Spygate and more.  He’d arguably seen it all, until June 26.  Up until that day, James’ biggest challenge was serving as the middle man between one of the most voracious press corps in the world and the smartest, most uncommunicative coach who ever walked God’s Green Earth in Bill Belichick.

    James likely has not had many a good night’s sleep recently and Sunday was probably no different. That’s because on Monday, Patriot owner Robert Kraft broke the team’s two-week long silence to address the Boston media following the unfortunate death of Odin Lloyd, allegedly at the hands of Mr. Kraft’s former employee, Aaron Hernandez.

    In dissecting his eagerly anticipated – and many would say– long overdue media statement, I initially wanted to find fault with Mr. Kraft’s and the organization’s approach. Crisis Communications 101 tells us to move swiftly and decisively when revealing bad news or talking to the press.  James and the team’s legal counsel surely spent hours debating the pros and cons of addressing the media and then preparing for yesterday’s pow-wow with reporters from the Boston Globe, Boston Herald and ESPN Boston.

    I am not naïve enough to buy into “The Patriot Way” – it has become a shattered myth – thank you Alfonzo Dennard, Aquib Talib and now Hernandez. But I have to give a fair amount credit to Kraft and the Patriots for:

    A) Facing the music when they had no real obligation to comment publicly at this time. Even the lawyers told Kraft not to do it.

    B) Doing so face to face, not hiding behind another scripted statement or teleconference from his European vacation. And at least with the Herald’s Ron Borges, having the stones to meet with one of their harshest critics.

    C) Admitting that his organization had failed. Failed when it drafted Hernandez in the fourth round out of Florida when many teams took him off their daft boards. Failed when they signed him to a multi-million contract extension last year. And, failed when they did insufficient due diligence on the player before making him a Patriot.

    Did Kraft come completely clean? Doubtful. Did he hold back at the advice of legal counsel? Likely. Will we ever know the full story?  Unknown.

    But the point of this post is that Robert Kraft took his medicine yesterday. He could have taken the easy way out and issued a statement scripted by James and the lawyers during a time when there were several other stories grabbing headlines in Boston – the Bruins epic and heartbreaking Stanley Cup Finals loss and post-season trades; the Celtics house-cleaning and Doc Rivers’ LA Confidential story, the Red Sox terrific start, not to mention the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev court appearance build-up, the Markey-Gomez special election, the Whitey Bulger trial and the Hub’s spectacular Fourth of July holiday festivities.

    Kraft knows public relations and crisis communications. He proved it again yesterday. He knows PR much better than he knows Xs and Os and much better than he apparently knows his own employees.

     

    Matter

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