Challenging the status quo with new communications tactics
Super Bowl Sunday is traditionally one of the most watched nights of television. An evening devoted to crunching shoulder pads and advertising creative directors. And, the president? Some of you may have caught President Obama’s interview with CBS’s Katie Couric as part of the pregame programming. What you may not know is that this is all part of the President’s communication strategy.
If you feel like you’ve seen the president doing a lot of interviews, you’re right. According to an article in the New York Times this week, the president has given 161 interviews in his first year. To compare, President Bush only gave 50 interviews and President Clinton 53 during the same time.
Where past presidents spent time meeting the White House Press Corps, President Obama has spent his time focusing on individual interviews, including non-traditional channels like YouTube. In fact, he hasn’t held a White House news conference since July.
Regardless of whether you think his approach is the right one, it has been a good reminder to challenge the way things have always been done. The status quo can be a dangerous thing in our constantly-changing society. So, the next time you sit down to prepare a communications strategy, evaluate not only how you’ve always done it, but also how you could do things differently. Perhaps you’ll find new tactics to be even more successful than the old ones.
