By Mark Macias
Forbes recently ran an article, “16 Branding Fundamentals New Businesses Should Remember.” As part of their research, their editors reached out to me asking what branding advice I have for their readers.
I didn’t want to give the obvious, so I thought about my own clients and mistakes I’ve seen them make over the years. Here’s what I told Forbes.
“The CEO is a crucial component for any successful branding campaign. Think Jobs, Musk, Zuckerberg—you know their companies. I’ve worked with a lot of brands that don’t like to use their CEO in the media and I don’t understand it. Any CEO must be receptive to speaking with the media, discussing business trends and thought leadership with reporters. The best publicists know how to leverage the CEO.”
Leverage Your CEO with Branding
A few years, our agency worked with a digital health brand that didn’t want to give us access to their CEO. I understand the CEO is likely busy, but the corporate gate-keepers actually made our job more difficult. How could we identify trends or position the brand as a leader if we weren’t given access to any of this insight?
I tried to share my concerns with their marketing team but they assured me the CEO didn’t want to speak with the media. Making this even more frustrating, their biggest competitor was leveraging their CEO for an IPO.
Don’t make that mistake. If you’re CEO, leverage that title and experience for media coverage. I understand if the CEO is shy, but the top sales guy needs to be over-exposed with the media.
Here’s more tips from other peers if you’d like to review that Forbes article by clicking here.
ABOUT MACIAS PR
Finance Monthly named MACIAS PR the 2017-2020 Strategic PR Firm of the Year, and PR Firm of the Year. Our founder – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. He’s also a PR contributor with CNBC and Forbes, providing media analysis, insight and crisis advice on timely business topics.