Accomplished professional in all-things communication, our consultant Stephanie Herrmann stresses that bringing comms in early helps shape strategy, avoid missteps, and maximize campaign impact.
Too often, comms is brought in at the end — “Here’s the strategy, now make it sound good, make it pretty (and while you’re at it, make it go viral).”
But I’ve been in rooms where, the moment a campaign lands on the comms desk, red flags pop up. The questions don’t add up. The strategy lacks clarity or coherence.
And that’s when you have the difficult task to announce that communicating this would do more harm than good:
- The message isn’t clear.
- The audience isn’t defined.
- The timing is off.
And suddenly, you realise: we can’t communicate this because the strategy itself isn’t ready.
As communicators, we’re not just messengers. We’re filters, challengers, and problem-spotters. We ask the questions others sometimes skip:
- Why are we doing this?
- Who’s it for?
- How does it deliver value?
If you can’t explain the “why” in one sentence, pause the campaign. If you’re targeting “everyone,” you’re targeting no one. If you don’t know how it delivers value, you’re wasting time and money.
Bring comms in early. Let us help shape the thinking, not just polish the output. That’s where real value happens — and where costly mistakes get avoided.
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