Why Media Training is Important for Risk Management and Brand Reputation

How you prepare and show up for media interviews matters. Executive spokespeople represent the brand in the public eye, and first impressions in media interviews are brand impressions. Here are some of the ways media training can help equip spokespeople with the tools they need to be successful:

• • Facilitating an appropriate balance of polish and authenticity: In a media interview with a journalist, whether it’s a podcast, broadcast opportunity, or an interview for print, vocal tone, body language, and confidence directly influence how a brand is perceived. Print and online media interviews are being conducted more and more via video conference. To inspire trust, it’s key to strike a balance between authenticity and to project a rehearsed, polished demeanor.
  • Staying on message: A well-prepared executive will find it easier to stay on message and deliver talking points naturally to avoid sounding scripted. Rehearsing anticipated media interview questions aids in improving message control and delivering a consistent narrative. What’s more, rehearsing questions and answers trains spokespeople to avoid reactive, defensive, or off-brand comments that can derail a conversation. In the age of social media amplification, any clip or quote can go viral either positively or negatively. So, mistakes are costly and preparation for media interviews reduces the risk of meme-ification or misinterpretation.
  • Confidence as a driver of credibility: Most PR and marketing professionals know that the poised delivery of communications reflects leadership competence. Confidence and executive presence in turn help to enrich public perception of authority and strategic clarity. Preparation helps media interviewees avoid rambling tangents, filler language, misstatements, and other hazards.
  • Staying cool in a crisis: While not an aspect of every media interview, another benefit of media training may be crisis preparedness. If a media interview happens during a crisis, it can be a high-stakes situation as high visibility mistakes can escalate damage. Media training preparation helps to ensure calm, strategic responses under pressure and prevents unexpected questions. This also helps to mitigate reputational risk.

Overall, media training helps executives better reinforce core brand values. Are you still not convinced? Here are a few more reasons why media training matters more than ever:

• • TikTok-ification: Flattering media clips can be repurposed across digital platforms to extend brand storytelling. Increasingly, we’re seeing media interviews clipped for TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. However, fragmented, short attention spans highlight the need for executives to deliver clear, impactful soundbites that can stand alone with little-to-no context.
  • Missteps identified by AI: Real-time sentiment analysis and fact-checking with artificial intelligence is flagging media missteps immediately. Media training helps executives speak precisely, avoiding distortions that AI tools may misinterpret or amplify.
  • Being human: The public’s intensified demand for transparency and authenticity means that audiences expect relatability and vulnerability, but not corporate jargon. Media training more than ever before includes coaching on how to be simultaneously human and strategic.
  • Tech transitions: As more media outlets and reporters shift to hybrid and remote set-ups, interview dynamics are prompting executives to be faced with virtual interviews, which require camera skills, virtual presence, remote engagement, and savviness when it comes to tech, lighting and other visual elements. Media training can help make this more comfortable.
  • Everyone is watching: Lastly, greater stakeholder scrutiny along with growing polarization and cultural sensitivity makes media training crucial to executives to uphold brand reputation. Words carry more weight in politically charged environments, and media training incorporates cultural literacy and sensitivity to diverse audiences. Investors, regulators, employees, and consumers all watch media interviews closely, while media interviews are increasingly affecting recruitment, investor confidence, and public trust.

Media training helps to ensure authenticity by enhancing executive presence and building an interviewee’s confidence – all of which have long-lasting implications for brand value and trust. With the evolving media landscape progressively integrating with AI, turning virtual, and facing heightened scrutiny, there are more reasons than ever to engage brands in professional media training. The price of mistakes is high, and the rewards of effective media interviews are valuable.

By Marisha Chinsky

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