Greentarget

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The public tends to trust businesses and CEOs more than NGOs, government, and the media. That trust is fragile, though. And in the wake of headlines about everything from social issues to geopolitical conflicts, the way executive leaders navigate the pressure to speak out can either strengthen or undermine their stakeholders’ trust in them.

Entering the fray is not without risk, and it’s all too easy to make a PR misstep. That’s why so many executive leaders struggle to know when to make a statement — and what to say if they do.

In our recent webinar, Greentarget’s Executive Positioning experts — Vice President Abby Aylman Cohen, Director of Content & Editorial Strategy Jennifer Smith, and former Senior Vice President Steve DiMattia — laid out a compelling argument for why leaders can’t afford to be caught unawares by the issues that make headlines. Then, they offered practical advice to help firms protect their reputation and maintain trust with their audience in an age rife with polarization and unrest.

Here are three takeaways from the event.

1. Your Authority Hinges on Proactive Communication Planning

Of the respondents who participated in the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer survey, 62% said they expected CEOs to actively communicate around changes occurring in society as a whole, not just those affecting their businesses. Gen Z employees in particular said they value CEOs who speak out about societal issues.

But considering how fraught and emotional the landscape of public discourse is, it’s easy for executive leaders to fall into one of two camps: Ignore the headlines completely and focus solely on the issues that directly affect the business, or release statements that attempt to please everyone but say nothing meaningful.

Furthermore, it’s common for unprepared leaders to lose control of difficult conversations, especially if they’ve never practiced talking to the media and other stakeholders about challenging topics. When executives are unable to navigate all-eyes-on-them moments, they risk undermining their own authority and harming their organization’s reputation.

For example, the acute need for proactive communications planning was never more apparent than in 2022, when the Supreme Court’s draft Dobbs v. Jackson decision leaked. Between the time the leak made headlines and the final decision was announced, corporate and firm leaders had about five to six weeks to think about how they were going to communicate with their audiences. Yet very few did.

Unlike Dobbs v. Jackson, most events hit the news cycle without warning. But even so, it’s possible for leaders to create a framework that guides if and how they respond. This can underscore their authority and build trust with stakeholders — if they take the time to develop a smart, informed, and flexible communications platform long before there’s a breaking news story.

2. Don’t Scenario Plan for Every Possible Communication Challenge

Over the past several months, Greentarget’s Executive Positioning team has identified some of the top threats we predict will cause communication conundrums for executive leaders. You can do a deep dive into each of these topics by downloading our Executive Positioning Guide or by perusing our blog.

Our guidance has covered topics such as:

  • Polarized rhetoric around DEI and ESG
  • The promise and peril of artificial intelligence
  • Seismic generational shifts in the workforce
  • The 2024 election cycle and social unrest
  • Geopolitical conflicts

This list is by no means exhaustive because the world is always changing. But the good news is there’s no need to create a specific communication plan for every conceivable headline, world event, or threat to your firm’s reputation. 

The crux of our advice around responding to issues like those above is this: Think about how your firm will respond to a crisis. Which stakeholders will you need to consult? How will you develop a response that aligns with your firm’s values?

By doing so, you can turn tense situations into an opportunity to engage your employees and clients and strengthen your firm’s position as a trusted authority. When you do this, you take an important step toward building a flexible framework that will guide when and why you respond to any issue.

3. Now’s the Time to Develop an Executive Communications Platform

The news cycle moves at warp speed, and you can’t afford to be reactive when weighing in on the issues that matter most to your audience. Foresight, forethought, and careful preparation are key.

By taking time now to decide how and when your firm will respond to salient issues, you can ensure your messaging lines up with your firm’s priorities and reinforces your position as an authority worth heeding with the audiences that matter most.

Our Executive Positioning Guide provides in-depth advice on how to get started, but it comes down to taking the following steps:

  • Consider your audience, and the best channel(s) to reach them
  • Invite a diverse cross-section of stakeholders into the process
  • Get clear about your firm’s values (and make sure your messages align with what your firm stands for)
  • Make your firm’s approach to deciding how and when to speak out public — and communicate your “why”
  • Embrace a commitment to authenticity (i.e., walk the walk of whatever you speak out about; don’t just talk the talk)

Engaging Greentarget to lead you through a rigorous planning process can bring significant clarity here. Entering into this process now — before an urgent PR situation occurs — gives you time to thoughtfully consider all the angles and arrive at a position that’s authentic, well-reasoned, and nuanced.

Want to Learn More About Greentarget’s Executive Positioning Practice?

Exemplifying our commitment to being a trusted advisor to clients, Greentarget’s Executive Positioning team provides C-suite executives (managing partners, CEOs, executive committees, and boards) with insights to anticipate, understand, and respond to important global and social developments—as well establish proactive internal and external communications campaigns around other pivotal moments, be they related to company purpose, talent initiatives, succession plans, and more.

We’ve helped clients navigate how to communicate about racial justice, the invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, the repeal of Roe v. Wade, artificial intelligence, and so much more. We’d love to help you, too — so let’s talk.

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Challenge

Last year, Lathrop GPM significantly expanded its Business Transactions Practice Group in a short time, adding six attorneys over two months. The growing practice had quickly broadened its sector-specific capabilities for clients around fund formation, financing, growth, and tax planning; employee benefits and executive compensation; business succession planning; mergers and acquisitions; compliance; and real estate transactions, with additional support outside the practice group focused on estate planning, business ownership disputes, labor and employment, and intellectual property.

At the same time, Lathrop GPM also launched the Closely Held Business Institute, which built upon the firm’s long history with clients in this space. It enabled Lathrop GPM attorneys to better support the varied needs of these organizations by offering closely and family held business owners and executives content and networking opportunities focused on maximizing the growth, health and sustainability of their businesses.
Following these investments in its client services and resources, Lathrop GPM wanted prospective clients to know about its expanded practice group and the new Institute—and asked Greentarget for help spreading the word.

Solution

The Greentarget team worked quickly and strategically to secure media coverage highlighting the firm’s strengthened capabilities and expanded offerings. The team held interviews with the new partners to better understand their practices and the stories they could comment on with reporters to help build their authority.

The team also looked for trending news items or hooks that could entice reporters to feature Lathrop GPM in a story. This creative approach included pitches involving the finale of the hit show Succession, with the firm’s lawyers offering analysis of the legal issues around family businesses raised in the show.

Results

Greentarget secured over 50 media opportunities for the Business Transactions and Closely Held and Family Business groups in 2023.

Stories covering the growing Business Transactions Practice Group were featured in the Kansas City Business Journal, Law360 and The American Lawyer, among other publications. Both nationally and regionally, Greentarget secured valuable media opportunities that featured quotes from the lawyers and elevated the firm’s brand and capabilities before key audiences.

Greentarget also successfully positioned members of the Closely Held and Family Business practice as thought leaders on transaction and succession planning trends, including those impacting private equity investors. The team secured bylines and published coverage in Family Capital, Upsize, The Small Business Radio Show, Workspan Daily, ABA Banking Journal, Inside Philanthropy, Ad Age, Minnesota Lawyer, Medical Economics, and others.

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Challenge

With over four decades of global M&A experience under its belt, Blitzer, Clancy & Company (BCC) had a formidable track record in investment banking, growth consulting and investment advisory services. But beyond the firm’s close-knit network of strategic partnerships, few were aware of BCC’s unique story, core values and hands-on approach to client service.

BCC over its history, had strategically remained under the radar with limited marketing or public relations; the firm had largely acquired new business via word-of-mouth through an interconnected group of global multinationals and emerging companies. As the firm continued to grow, it decided it was the right time to take a more public presence through an intentional marketing development strategy.

The firm engaged Greentarget on the heels of negotiating a series of landmark global acquisitions and the firm sought a partner that could effectively communicate the firm’s story and presence in the verticals they serve.

Greentarget recognized several attributes that differentiated BCC from its competitors: the firm’s focus on collaboration, as well as its championship of ingenuity and cross-domain expertise. Underscoring these attributes through a targeted communications strategy would elevate its profile among sellers, major buyers and growth-focused companies across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, and in turn, help unlock new expanded opportunities.

Solution

To help the firm execute on this strategy, Greentarget sought to transform the firm’s market positioning, brand narrative and value proposition—and reflect those changes through BCC’s online and media presence.

Greentarget’s Research & Market Intelligence team began by curating focus groups consisting of both external and internal stakeholders. Drawing from insights shared during these focus groups, the research team assessed the firm’s capabilities, identifying key value drivers and unique selling points that could be used to craft external-facing materials such as web copy, marketing collateral, press releases and business initiatives. Additionally, the research team conducted a thorough competitive analysis to pinpoint brand messages that would help BCC cut through the noise and reach audiences in several target industries.

Leveraging these findings, Greentarget’s Content & Editorial team created a messaging matrix that would serve as the basis for all of BCC’s internal and external messaging going forward. This document included a positioning statement, brand pillars and key messages—all of which worked in tandem to support a brand narrative that captured the essence of BCC—and what distinguished the firm from its peers.

From there, Greentarget’s Digital team redesigned BCC’s website and worked with the content team to draft the accompanying, SEO-optimized web copy. The new design included select images and iconography, a new page directory, customer resource management (CRM) software integration, email capture tools and more.

Using these deliverables as a foundation, the content team developed a whitepaper that showcased BCC’s novel approach to client relationships. The whitepaper detailed the successful partnership between BCC and Scotland’s University of Strathclyde that created an “innovation bridge” to guide American tech and engineering investors through the globalization process, spotlighting BCC’s role as an international collaborator and facilitator of multimillion-dollar investments overseas.

Results

The multifaceted campaign raised BCC’s profile and amplified its reach and authority with key audiences. BCC featured the whitepaper on the firm’s redesigned site and shared it with prospects, clients, industry contacts and peers, attracting the attention of major global investors and multi-national corporates.  

Moreover, in 2023 alone BCC generated over $1 billion in enterprise value creation for its clients, bolstering its track record of successful dealmaking and strategic advisory across numerous sectors, including commercial real estate, technology, industrial automation, life sciences and aerospace and defense.


“The Greentarget team has been an incredible partner to our firm. Their ability to understand who we are and successfully articulate that messaging on a global scale was seamless and efficient. The entire team is dynamic, entrepreneurial, and overall, a pleasure to partner with,” said Michael Cocce, Vice President of BCC.

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Challenge

In early 2023, national law firm Frost Brown Todd expanded into California via a merger with AlvaradoSmith—growing its reach to include one of the country’s biggest legal markets.

Yet as a new player in the Golden State, Frost Brown Todd lacked widespread brand awareness with key decisionmakers in the region. The firm had full-service capabilities and a deep bench of talented attorneys from coast to coast—now it just needed to get the word out.

After Greentarget led a successful PR campaign announcing the merger, it was time to help elevate the firm’s brand in California.

Solution

To increase awareness of Frost Brown Todd among current and prospective clients in California, the Greentarget team developed a comprehensive PR plan that leveraged the power of both traditional and social media, as well as Greentarget’s deep relationships with reporters in the state.

The PR plan had four key elements designed to attract and influence decisionmakers:

  • Earn opportunities for California partners to publish and be quoted in mainstream business and trade publications. 
  • Secure stories about the firm’s growth and outlook, recruiting progress, and culture in California business and legal media outlets.
  • Help California office partners optimize their LinkedIn profiles to share media results and other unique points of view with their networks.
  • Publish informative and timely California-specific content on the firm’s website that could be distributed widely via paid ad campaigns on LinkedIn. 

This strategy was informed by findings from Greentarget’s proprietary research on information consumption trends among business leaders and in-house counsel: namely, that these executives trust information from traditional media sources, desire content in the form of articles, and prefer LinkedIn over other digital platforms.

Results

In just six months, the Greentarget team secured more than 30 media results, including 11 featured quotes and 13 published articles from Frost Brown Todd attorneys. Coverage included top tier state, legal, and national media, including The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Bloomberg Law, Law360, the California Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle. These efforts also led to Frost Brown Todd attorneys being featured in key trade outlets such as Industry Week, Human Resources Director and Security Magazine.

LinkedIn tactics also paid dividends, with traffic to the firm’s website up 10% by the end of the year. Targeted content distributed through LinkedIn more than doubled the average click-through rate for the platform, reaching hundreds of new business leads. Best of all, the LinkedIn program directly led to new clients and referrals for California attorneys.

In a testament to the strategy’s success, the PR program has since grown to encompass attorneys across multiple practice areas and around the country.

Contact Greentarget

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Contemporary political rhetoric is rife with false binaries that make it difficult for executive leaders to know when to speak out and what to say. And in 2024, as most of the world’s population participates in elections, this challenge will only continue to grow. 

According to the Financial Times, the outcomes of more than 70 global elections, including those in eight of the top 10 most populous countries and many of the world’s oldest democracies, will play a pivotal role in framing the future of democracy as we know it. The U.S. election is particularly critical due to the position we hold in the world. Given the nature of politics in America — and the heightened tension that accompanies our collective fear around democracy’s decline — we all know just how divisive the coming months are likely to become.

The inflated rhetoric of the U.S. election will surely create moments when leaders are called upon to affirm or reject controversial positions. We know these are difficult situations, as we’ve all seen leaders caught off guard in the recent past. With the repeal of Roe v. Wade and the start of the war in Gaza, many leaders discovered that they risked alienating some segment of their core audience regardless of what they said — or whether they said anything at all.

Mindful of these recent experiences, there is no excuse for being caught off guard again. Stakeholders will demand a clear response and point-of-view from your organization. The time to decide how you will respond to the next social or political controversy is not when it lands on your doorstep. We know that it is coming, whether it’s tomorrow or in six months. The time to prepare is now.

Why Do You Need to Think About the Election Now?

We’ve all seen unprepared leaders lose control of difficult conversations. But if you can’t skillfully and adeptly navigate these pivotal moments as a leader, you risk undermining your own authority and harming your organization’s reputation. To participate skillfully in the conversations that matter most, you can’t afford to be reactive. Foresight, forethought, and careful preparation are key. 

Think back to the summer of 2022 and the conversation around Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health. Despite knowing a landmark decision was coming for over six weeks, many leaders scrambled to figure out how to respond once the news broke. 

One notable exception was Ropes & Gray Chairwoman Julie Jones, who released a powerful, heartfelt and thoughtful statement just moments after the Supreme Court announced its decision. Her readiness to communicate her position set her apart.

Immigration, reproductive rights and the growing conflict in the Mideast are just a few of the issues that will take center stage in 2024. These topics are far too important to ignore — and their complexity deserves your advance consideration. 

Three Steps to Establish Your Firm’s Communication Platform

Navigating difficult communication challenges is not for the faint of heart — and you shouldn’t go it alone. Engaging PR counsel to develop authoritative points of view before it’s time to release a statement is wise and prudent. When you get ahead of the news cycle, you’ll be able to communicate with confidence, knowing your messaging lines up with your firm’s priorities and reinforces your position as an authority worth heeding. 

A good PR partner will know how to guide you in positioning your firm for the executive communications challenges that lie ahead. At a minimum, the positioning process should involve these three steps.

1. Assemble a Representative Selection of Stakeholders 

You need a representative cross-section of stakeholders at the table to ensure your decisions reflect the values and spectrum of diversity of your firm.

The process you follow to frame a response to controversy is just as important as the response itself. After all, it will be impossible for you to please your entire audience no matter what you say. But by demonstrating that you followed a reasoned, logical process — and by communicating about it openly and transparently — you can minimize blowback and prevent the informational leaks that cause reputational harm. 

The Kalven Committee at the University of Chicago

The University of Chicago provides an instructive example of what a collaborative decision-making process can look like — and shines light on the value of thoughtful, open communication.

In 1967, then-University president George W. Beadle convened a multidisciplinary faculty committee to examine the role the University should play in social and political action. The resulting Kalven Committee report includes the following statements:

  • “The university is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic. It is…a community of scholars. To perform its mission in the society, a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry and maintain an independence from political fashions, passions, and pressures.”
  • “The neutrality of the university as an institution arises then not from a lack of courage nor out of indifference and insensitivity. It arises out of respect for free inquiry and the obligation to cherish a diversity of viewpoints.”
  • “From time-to-time instances will arise in which the society, or segments of it, threaten the very mission of the university and its values of free inquiry. In such a crisis, it becomes the obligation of the university as an institution to oppose such measures and actively to defend its interests and its values.”  

In the span of a few pages, the Kalven Committee articulated the values the University holds dear, argued why maintaining neutrality is the best reflection of those values, and laid out the exceptions that would lead the University to set neutrality aside and take a stand.

Did some University stakeholders disagree with the outcome of the Kalven Committee’s work? Undoubtedly. But the report remains in place today and continues to prove useful in guiding the University’s actions.

2. Align Your Positions With Your Firm’s Values 

What are your firm’s values? What do you stand for? And how do your values connect you to your audience?

It’s unlikely that your firm needs to participate in every conversation or respond to every news headline. Part of communicating with authority is knowing which issues matter most to your audience and focusing your energies there.

As illustrated in the Kalven Committee example, your values and your audience’s needs should guide your communications strategy. Therefore, to decide how and when to speak out on social issues, bring the stakeholders you recruited in Step 1 together to explore questions like: 

  • Who is our audience, and what do they value? Are there factions and opposing viewpoints we need to consider?
  • What issues impact our audience most acutely? Will they expect us to respond when those issues enter the headlines? 
  • Which issues intersect with our mission as an organization? 
  • Given the multiple constituencies we serve, what do we think is the proper role of the firm in the social and political sphere?
  • What are our core values, and how have we expressed those values in the past?
  • What is our history of social and political engagement?

Sometimes the more you think about an issue, the more challenging it will be to articulate a position. That’s normal. Again, outside counsel can help you wrestle with these complexities and arrive at the best course of action for your firm.

3. Make Your Firm’s Positions Public (and Communicate Your “Why”)

Reasonable decisions made with strong rationales will still be met with pushback. That’s especially true if they’re made behind closed doors and without transparency.

That’s why it’s so important to craft a statement about how your firm will respond when public discourse is fraught. Then publish that for your internal and external audiences to see and refer to as needed throughout the election cycle and beyond. This is your foundation – it should be set in stone.

Your goal should be to communicate openly and remove the element of surprise. No matter what position you take, some portions of your audience may not like what you have to say. But removing the uncertainty goes a long way in reducing disappointment and outrage.

Your audience will want to know: 

  • Who you invited into the decision-making process 
  • The questions you asked and the nuances you considered
  • How you arrived at your conclusions 
  • Why you believe your position aligns with your firm’s mission and values
  • What your position means to stakeholders

Don’t forget to ask for feedback. Welcoming the opinions and ideas of your internal and external stakeholders — and responding to their questions and concerns — is an effective way to build trust. Furthermore, inviting your audience to critique and iterate on your ideas is a defining characteristic of true authority.

Meet the 2024 Election Cycle Head-On

Savvy executives scan the horizon for looming threats and proactively put strategies in place to mitigate them. There’s no question that the 2024 election will bring plenty of communication challenges for your firm to overcome.

You might not know exactly what will precipitate the need for your firm to engage in a high-stakes conversation. But with the election news cycle ramping up, you can’t afford to wait for that moment to come. Let’s work together to figure it out now.

About the Executive Positioning Practice

Exemplifying Greentarget’s commitment to being a trusted advisor to clients, our Executive Positioning team provides C-suite executives (managing partners, CEOs, executive committees, and boards) with insights to anticipate, understand and respond to important global and social developments, analyzing key issues that can impact reputation and compel leaders to communicate.

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