AI, Authenticity, and the Future of PR

0:08Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct tape marketing podcast. This is John Jance. My guest today is Christine Perkett. She's a seasoned entrepreneur and marketing communications expert with nearly, can I say 30 years? Is that okay to say 30 years? I know sometimes, I mean, I start saying that about myself. Anyway, she's the CEO and co-founder of the Nova Method, a marketing communications and PR firm that emphasizes audience first strategy. She's founded multiple companies, including maybe your first one, Perkett PR. So, Christine, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

0:45It's good to see you. You bet. I last over. So I mentioned the Nova Method. Let's just start there. Does the world need a merged company? I know you merged with a friend, your two PR firms to create this Nova method. How does that look like? How does that differ from what you've always done? Well, it's very different in that I, as you mentioned, almost 30 years of doing this on my own and leading an agency on my own with really wonderful people, one of whom was Michelle in the very beginning. She was my managing director for some time. But what the reason that we merged is we see power in the pair and more brains, the better.

1:27And we are wonderfully very similar and at the same time bring very different strengths. So my agency started out as strictly PR, as you know, because I think we we talked a lot back then as well. And then in the early 2000s, we sort of merged into more marketing and PR. We did a lot of social media. We led the way in content on Twitter and those sorts of things, video content. And so we started dabbling in more of that. And that's kind of where I've been focused the last 10 to 12, 15 years. And she stayed on the PR side. So we had complementary skill sets and teams to bring together. And you're in the Boston area and she's in Denver, right?

2:09You're just up the road then in the mountains in Denver as well. That's right. So you mentioned already, sorry to mention, you know, the digital, when digital came along, that really dramatically changed the traditional PR landscape. AI is probably changing it in a whole new set of ways. So you want to talk a little bit about kind of what's been the transformation of what we've called PR over the years? Sure. I mean, I think it's merging and melding with so many other parts of marketing now. ever since, you know, social media came on to the scene and we started turning into content creators as well as communicators.

2:47And so our focus is on marketing communications and PR. And that continues to be a lot of media relations. But even with the PR side, even with media relations, there's a lot of AI written journalism. There are a lot of journalists who are saying, I'm going to send you an interview to do video writing. Don't use AI. Don't do that. So, you know, there's a lot of pressure, I think, on the PR world to pivot and stay abreast of these new technologies, but also be leading them to help clients understand how to navigate the new world of communications with AI integrated into that. I've always thought brand is one of the most important elements of a marketing strategy.

3:28And I think that a lot of companies, we used to just go to Twitter and say, click on my link and we'd send people back to our website, right? All the social platforms are, you know, they penalize you for sending people away. By the same token, a lot of people are getting their information exclusively from AI overviews or maybe from watching TikTok videos, right? So I feel like we're entering this era where people are doubling down on what it means to be a trusted brand. And I think PR has probably always been one of the best tools for that. Yes, I would agree. And I think you're right. I don't know, last week or the week before, I had a bit of a back and forth with some folks on LinkedIn about this, that the trust is more important than ever now.

4:12And building it is more difficult than ever because there's deep fakes. there are you know automated content that isn't very thoughtful if folks are not training their staff that if leaders are not training their staff and their teams to be thoughtful about their use of ai or even how to integrate into their daily work everyone's work ends up looking the same right you can't just start something in the chat gpt and then send it to your client It would be very vanilla. It could be wrong. So I think that there are some steps that some brands have skipped when it comes to AI in terms of making sure or even acknowledging that their staff will be using it, especially communications and marketing staff for writing and content and ideation.

4:59acknowledging that is happening, whether they blessed it or not, and then giving guidelines and processes on how to integrate it. That's a big part of what we're seeing from the communication side on the internal piece, internal communications is how do we, how do we navigate this? How do we create a process around it? How do we keep our employees communicating in an honest and authentic way while still taking advantage of all the benefits that AI does deliver, right? In terms of speed and ideation in those sorts of things. Well, and I, you know, we, I just did an interview with Jeff Woods, who's written a book called The AI Driven Leader.

5:37And, you know, he often refers to it as a thought part. I think that's really where a lot of people miss the boat is it can actually help you think more strategically, not just do tasks. Yes. And I love that. I also think it's a great editor. So it's really leveling the playing field with communication specifically, since that's my area of expertise is, you know, everyone can spell now and everyone can turn out thoughtful content, but we still need to build the trust by having it be authentic to you, authentic to your brand, authentic to the brand's voice. So it still takes that human touch. We like to say at the NOVA method that we are at the intersection of humanity and technology.

6:16And I don't think that's so different than what I've always done since we're in tech PR and marketing, you know, but it is a stronger, faster moving technology than the past tools that have come along. Well, I always think it's funny because, you know, a lot of times people are like, oh, you don't want to just give this and cut and paste. Well, like, you know, what we used to do is hire interns to do that first draft, right? And we never would just say, yeah, send it to the client. You know, I don't need to see it, right? I mean, it's kind of the same thing. You wouldn't just do that, would you?

6:45You know, why would you do that with this automated tool? I really like that. That's a good analogy. Yes. So tell me a little bit about, I know that you are developing a framework or have developed a framework that you are putting out there as somewhat unique. I think I read three A's, assimilate, align, activate as part of what you're calling the NOVA method. Do you want to kind of go through a little bit of a dive into that? Sure. Thank you for the opportunity. So there are a lot of PR, the competitive landscape is large for PR and marketing. And, you know, we really took a year to build this brand, our own brand and say, what can we do that's different?

7:24What do we really need to be doing in the landscape of AI and fast moving technology and security and cookies changing and all of those things? so as we both actually Michelle my partner and I both have taught at the college level as well so I teach a graduate social media and branding program at Northeastern she teaches PR or taught PR rather and so we both have the advantage of understanding and staying abreast of what's happening and that involves a lot of pay studies and we were taking a look at those as we were forming our brand, what's missing? What happens when there's a crisis? What caused it?

8:02And just one example is, it seems that every marketer tactically knows you should be coming at your marketing and communications from an audience-first mentality. What does the audience need? How do they think? What are their aspirations and motivations? Yes, intellectually, everyone knows that. From a tactical execution standpoint, even the best and biggest brands have faltered. recently with that. And one of the most popular case studies that I like to go through with my students and what helped us build this brand in terms of step one, which is assimilate, really dig in not just demographics, but getting to the psyche of your audience, whether it's internal, whether it's external, being media, BCs, partners, what are their motivations?

8:48What do they really want to hear from you? What are their pain points? And I think that one of the biggest brands that faced some pain around that in the last few years is Bud Light, when they tried to connect with the LGBTQ community without a very audience-centric campaign plan. They sent a transgender spokesperson a can with their face on it, and they went on to TikTok and did a recording. Thank you, Bud Light. This is great. I love it. But it wasn't well-planned, and there wasn't a deep audience immersion before they made that decision, which ended up alienating both their existing customers.

9:28I think it was Kid Rock took Bud Light out and shot them the cans up and said he would never drink it again. And the community they were trying to connect with for the first, well, one of the first times. And they really had an opportunity to connect with that audience, but I don't think they understood the audience well enough before they did this. it wasn't even a full campaign before they did this event or whatever you want to call it. So if even a storied, well-known, well-resourced brand like Bud Light can get it wrong, we thought, well, there's probably a lot of other brands that could use help really digging in and connecting with their audience.

10:05So that's a long-winded way to say that step one. So assimilating with whatever audience it is that this particular campaign is going to focus on. And then, And so it's assimilate, align, then align that information with what the brand wants to say. What does the brand want to accomplish? What are the goals? How do we align that with what the customer or prospect wants and needs? And then activate is pretty self-explanatory. Activating it in an ongoing campaign or process or whatever it may be. So whether it's internal communications, external communications, et cetera. One of the biggest challenges that certainly social media brought, AI is probably accelerating this a little bit, but brands have a lot of exposure now that they didn't have 20 years ago because as long as you didn't show up on page one or two of the business section, it didn't really matter what you did.

10:57It seemed like. Page six. Or page six, right? It almost didn't matter too much. I mean, you could always spin it and control it, but now you can have hundreds of people making videos about how awful your brand is. And so, So what kind of challenges does that really present? And some, I mean, some of them are completely legit. Some of them are taken out of context or fake or done as, I mean, can be done for it by somebody just trying to hurt the brand, not necessarily a true act. So how do you protect brands from really stepping into situations? Because it's so darn easy to do now. I mean, even every employee's got a TikTok.

11:41account and can really be doing something to damage the brand intentionally or unintentionally. So that's a really good point. I do think brands are more exposed than ever, which goes back to our previous point that they need to work harder than ever to build authentic trust. And so brands have a communicators, marketers have a big challenge between using something like AI, which can be very fast and efficient, but can turn out false information if you're not checking it. So we still need that human touch and that human qualification, if you will, to make sure that anything you're putting out there as a brand is authentic.

12:23And if you remain true to that over time and consistently in all of your campaigns, even if there's a crisis, you will be able to recover because you built up that credibility and that reputation. But it has to connect. It has to connect over time and it has to connect over campaigns. So brands need to think about it holistically, even if they're doing all of these individual campaigns. What is the brand promise ultimately to audiences? And it almost goes back to fundamentals of communication, which is to be straightforward, consistent, aware and accountable. A brand's going to get nowhere if they don't take accountability, if they make a mistake, or if they communicate something incorrectly, or they offended someone because, you know, they used a hashtag.

13:13Well, hashtags are kind of dying. But if they use a hashtag that was related to something that they didn't double check before they used it, and it was a negative situation, or I say, so then, you know, brands have to fall on their sword always and forever. And sometimes you do have to deal with internet trolls. And that's the challenge in and of itself, which should have a crisis communications around it that you have built and have practiced internally, regardless of whether or not you've ever needed it. But other things come up with AI. Say, again, you have an employee maybe puts information out there because they use ChatGPT and they didn't have a supervisor check it or they didn't have a teammate check it or they didn't even check it themselves.

13:55They just trusted the AI and it was false information. So, again, that goes back to one of my points in the beginning, which is have a policy. You need to have an AI policy and make sure that you're training people on how to use it and how to use it specifically to your brand and what your brand promises. And so I think it's simple in its finest point, which is going back to being authentic, but it has to go across everything that you do, including the use of AI. And that means admitting your brand probably uses AI, right? I think saying that you won't use it probably gets more of a side eye these days than if you say, yeah, use AI.

14:38Yeah, I'm actually starting to see, you know, like we have privacy and disclaimer policies on our websites. I'm starting to see our use of AI, a statement showing up as pages just so people are very clear about how they're using it and how they're not using it. Right. I think transparency has obviously always been a big part of PR. So one of the reasons I always loved PR early on in the digital age is because it was always really a great SEO play. I mean, getting a backlink from NewYorkTimes.com, BusinessWeek.com, you know, would really help your online presence. I think that's becoming even more so because a lot of it appears that the, you know, the AI tools are actually putting a lot of emphasis on authority and on brand mentions as, you know, because when they're turning up results now, when somebody goes searching and they're sourcing results, I'm seeing a lot of emphasis on brand mentions and authority.

15:32So do you, and maybe you don't play in that, you know, that sandbox, you know, as part of what you're doing, but do you see PR, how do you see PR kind of intersecting with the evolving world of search these days? I think it goes back to that, you know, our step one of assimilate and really understanding what sort of communications your audience is searching for and how they're searching for it and where they're searching for it. Are they using the SEO terms that you think? Have you doubled down on digging into the terms that you're looking at, whether you get it from a piece of software or tool or your amazing intern or whatever it is?

16:17Are you testing and vetting those with the audience to make sure that they're resonating? And I think a lot of focus in the past was on engagement. I think we need to take that a step further to resonance. Is it resonating with the right audience? They might engage with it, but it could have been a negative comment or it could have been a negative share. That's an engagement, right? But is it resonating? So I think really understanding SEO terms that are working, how they fulfill and align with your brand promise, authenticity, and resonance. When you start engaging a client or a client engages you, do you have a process that you go through to try to understand their brand, to try to understand the stories that exist there, to try to understand what they've been doing that works, it doesn't work.

17:06Do you have, have you developed a bit of a, an assessment, I guess, before you ever get started? Yes, we deliver, we do a full analysis and assessment, and then we give them basically what's a digital booklet that breaks it all down from everything from internal stakeholders and how they communicate the brand to what their external authority looks like, how it aligns with the brand promises they're putting out there, as well as the engagement and resonance from the audience. So it's that three-step framework, the Assimilate, Align, Activate. The Assimilate is where we really do that analysis and then give them the assessment.

17:43And then we say, now that you understand the bigger picture and the deeper ways that your campaigns or marketing or PR have been working, let's align it with what your goals are. Because a lot of times, you know, oh, we have all the right keywords, but you still don't have any credibility or authority. And I think a lot too now, even LinkedIn, they issued a report earlier this year that talks about the algorithm favoring individual contributors on LinkedIn versus brand content. So we're working a lot with executives who are kind of hemming and hawing sometimes like, I don't want to do all that stuff on LinkedIn or this channel or that channel.

18:26And we're talking about how, again, it comes back to in the world of AI, which is amazing and great and wonderful, but just as important and at the same time rising is that trust and trust comes from the top. Who's running the company? What is their ethos? What did they say? What kind of brand promises are they talking about? So really trying to align all of those things and help them to understand that each how each piece works into what they want in set two and step three, which is line and act to be. You know what I always tell people is go. We work with a lot of smaller organizations and, you know, we studied their reviews all the time.

19:04And to your point, I challenge you to do this. If you go read 10 reviews on service companies like home service businesses or something, seven of the reviews that are positive will mention the person that did the work. You know, Rusty fixed our boiler. He was amazing. Nothing about the company. I mean, because Rusty is the company, you know, to that individual. And I think if you, I think you can help make that point when, you know, people start realizing that's, you know, that's the brand. um you know for the end of the day people buy from people right i mean that is right and that social media has been has played such a big role in that because at least from a consumer side if you're doing b2b it might be a little bit different if you're doing b2c the consumers they want to know that you care about them or at least they'll want to feel that even if they don't really know but it matters to them now it matters that if they leave a comment on your brand's campaign or whatever, someone's going to respond to them that their engagement matters.

20:05And I still see that more and more. And I think, again, with AI, it's more important than ever that the brand's messaging and interactions are, again, authentic and consistent, even though we use a lot of automation, right? There is a lot of automation. It makes business more, you know, more successful and moves things along faster. But at the same time, we have to connect with those audience members in an authentic way and in a humane way. Yeah. Well, one of the things I think, a lot of people are like, oh, this can allow us to do things faster, maybe even cut headcount. I mean, you see a lot of that kind of talk.

20:44And I actually think a healthier way to look at it is this will actually allow us to do more with the same people, but actually give them the ability to be more human, to interact with customers more, you know, because we've taken a little, we've taken a lot of the, so to speak, grunt work off of a lot of people's plates. Right. I agree. And it will allow us to, yeah, it will allow us to do more and to do things better, which is not a bad thing. Right. And I think you want to audit the journey of your audience and really understand, you know, at which touch points does AI work and at which touch points does, do they want to hear from a human or feel like they're connected with someone?

21:22I mean, I just tried to call a business the other day and I couldn't get a human to save my life. And I had a very specific question that the bots were not able to answer. They just kept giving me automated responses and it was maddening. And I think, you know, we see the industry go up and down through this in terms of how much automation is great, how much automation is too much. It's no different with AI, but we just have to make sure that we're understanding when, again, when AI is good or when automation is good and when a person needs to step in to save that brand relationship and really build that resonance with all of them.

21:59Well, you know, what's hard is because everybody has their own idea of how they want to interact. And so I think the real challenge for businesses is we just have to give people choices. I was on a website the other day and, you know, I got kind of through the process of finding out more information and they were like, would you like a video? Would you like somebody to call you? Would you like to send an email? And I think that's kind of where we are is people, we need to let people make a decision. They want what they want immediately. And we need to give them the choice of how they get that, which I think is sometimes challenging.

22:31But that's why those chatbots work great for some people. Some people just think they're the worst thing ever created. So I think we have to give people choices. I agree. And that goes back to understanding what they want, right? Yeah. Taking the time to work that into your marketing communications campaigns, you know, and not doing it, set it and forget it. It needs to be an ongoing communication that's checked in on, you know, every few months. How are you feeling about this? How are you feeling about that? Do you appreciate this? Do you appreciate that? What would you like to see? What are we not doing?

23:01You know, and again, that makes your brand human that you are reaching out to them and that they get to chime in. People love that. That makes them feel important to your company and your brand. Yeah, 100%. Well, Christina, I appreciate you taking a moment to come by and tell us about your new ventures. Is there someplace you'd invite people to connect with you and find out more about your work? They can find everything at thenovamethod.com, including a link to my LinkedIn, which is where I'm most active these days. Awesome. Well, again, appreciate you stopping by. It's good to see you. And hopefully we'll run into you one of these days out there on the road.

23:32Yes. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Nice to be back.