I spent two solid, unbroken hours last week looking for an example of a good press release from an investment bank. I then retired hurt. I couldn’t find one that I felt comfortable showcasing as a fine illustration of the craft. Not even from my former employers where I was rather hoping my legacy might be a focus on proper writing.
We should not be surprised. Press releases usually have a tortured lifecycle, starting from painful birth through uncertain adolescence and finally to when they are let free into the world to survive on their own.
Even the question of whether a press release is the appropriate tool needs attention. There is a knee-jerk reaction among senior bankers to make “announcements” when they believe they have achieved something special. They call for a press release to be sent to editors or the announcement to be posted on LinkedIn. They hope for a story in the FT.
I often said no, usually because only one or two corners of already niche publications would be interested in the subject of the release. I suggest picking up the phone instead and chatting to those two journos who care. A press release serves little purpose in this case.
But if a press release it must be, please let your PRs write the first draft. Brief them properly and give them the pen. All too often, bankers attempt it themselves and litter their copy with “paradigm shifts”, “next level propositions”, and “journeys”, all of which mean nothing and all of which need to be edited out. Bankers are always “delighted to announce …” and claim so-and-so brings a “wealth of experience”. Journalists don’t really care about that stuff and most self-respecting PRs spike these drafts immediately and rewrite the whole announcement.
The media is interested in three things. First, proper “news” delivered with useful context (ie, why it is news). Second, facts – the details that support the news and inform the audience. The what, when, where, why and how. And, third, “colour” — additional background details that can lend an extra vibrancy and appeal to a story that might otherwise be pretty moribund. A good press release will address all these elements in a pithy manner.
It will also usually contain a quote. And this is where I struggled most in my search for the perfect press release. Very often announcements that were otherwise OK were let down by empty, hollow quotes. Like this one earlier this year from Barclays about new hires:
“Leveraging Xxxx and Yyyy’s deep relationships and extensive knowledge will be hugely complementary to our team in helping Barclays to provide our clients with differentiated and forward-thinking advice.”
This could be about any department at any bank or indeed any company. It is so non-specific.
My advice is not to bother with a quote unless there is something important to say that sounds better wrapped in a quote than it does written in the main copy of the release. It needs to provide insight, colour or energy – and, crucially, it needs to read as if someone has actually said it. If journalists are interested in the story, they will call for more info and probably look for their own unique quote, not one shared with the rest of the world.
I am racing ahead, though. Back to the first draft, with or without a quote. We finally have a product with which the PR and banker are happy. But it faces growing pains. There are myriad internal departments through which an announcement must pass for approval before it sees the light of day, each with its own checks and balances and preferred ways of expression.
First is often the compliance department – are we saying anything that might upset the regulators? (For large firms, that’s quite a number of regulatory jurisdictions to consider.) And then legal – are we saying anything that might land us in court? Senior management – can’t we say how brilliant we are at everything? And then the subject of an appointment announcement – can you say “I was responsible for the bank's approach to work-life balance” rather than “managed the redundancy execution unit”?
So many constituencies to keep happy, so many opportunities for people to draft additional, meaningless or redundant sentences that need to be cleaned up. It's no wonder it can sometimes take days to get a press release approved, and the final result is often weighed down by slugs of "corporatese" and generic guff.
Then there is the CEO, who with a pure heart and a love of communication, tweaks the copy, forcing it to go through the whole approval circus once more. There will be objections, phrases that don’t/can’t work and alternatives suggested. The CEO will umm and ahh until a final draft is agreed. Which probably looks identical, funnily enough, to the original sent for approval to the CEO a few days previously. (I won’t say anything if you don’t.)
Finally we can press “send”. The release is away, with the banker behind it dreaming of an FT interview, the legal department slightly uncomfortable with certain phrases, and the PR team wondering if it was all worth the effort.
Jezz Farr has been a senior communications adviser to major international banks for more than 25 years