There aren’t enough PR agencies and consultancies offering to write their clients’ speeches. How do I know? I know because if there were more, you and I would not have to suffer the mediocre presentations served up at most conferences, product launches or company celebrations. These speeches and presentations that undermine carefully-crafted images can, at worst, damage reputations. I’m sure a few come to mind as you morn the loss of hours to such platform disasters.
If you study the speeches of great orators, and even the most inspiring of ordinary folk, you will recognise how they manage to win the hearts and minds of those listening. Just look at how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has shaped his recent speeches to suit the interests, history and politics of parliaments across the globe. To the Germans, he referenced the Cold War, for Poland it was about brotherhood, and to the Americans he spoke of Pearl Harbour and 9/11. How many corporate speakers think about their audience to such an extent? In the planning of their words, they need to analyse just what the listeners will relate and respond to, and always have in mind the reason they are on their feet in the first place.
If our clients reply on us, their communications experts, to portray them well, then surely we should pay as much attention to their spoken words as to those written about them.
This is why the PRCA has teamed-up with me to teach you some basic principles in our workshop Speechwriting Made Simple. What an opportunity, not only to add another offering to your PR activity but also to ensure your client or colleague stays on-message. On-message, interesting and persuasive. Just like President Zelensky.
Join me for this online workshop when we will look at what makes a great speech, analyse a few of my favourites, and send you away to have a go.
Louise Third MBE MPRCA is a Communications Consultant specialising in public relations, public affairs, speaker coaching and speechwriting.