No. 6: We don't give a damn about Corona
Avoid fluff by tying your PR/comms goals to business goals; Africa Covid coverage reveals two media trends; and African Twitter responds to tech bros with African city building dreams
Greetings!
Last month, Ivorian president Alasanne Ouattara gathered his political party in Abidjan for his coronation.
Erm, convention.
The RHDP loyalists assembled to nominate him for a 3rd mandate, setting the scene for a powder keg of an election next month.
As Henriette Diabaté, une grande dame and political insider, introduces him at the podium, Ouattara leans in and embraces her in a bear hug.
We don’t give a damn about Corona, he says through his mask.
Oh, the irony.
As followers of Ivorian politics know, Ouattara is running for a 3rd term because his anointed successor, PM Gon Coulibaly, died due to Covid-19 complications over the summer.
Now the upcoming election which Ouattara and his inner circle appear to be fixing could lead to violence and instability in Cote d’Ivoire.
We don’t give a damn. Smh.
On to the newsletter. This is the longest issue yet -- I have loads of goodies to share with you.
/ STRATEGY
The Roadmap: Part 1
I once chatted with one of the big African trucking startups.
The sector is fiercely competitive. Startups - Lori Systems, Kobo360, Sendy, and Trella - have raised tens of millions of dollars in venture money. An investor once wryly compared it to a nuclear arms race.
This founder wanted everyone to know the company name. He wanted to be the Coke of logistics startups.
Because, when he went out to raise money again, he wanted new investors to be familiar with the company and have positive associations with it.
Based on that business goal, I zeroed in on my communications & PR goals:
Reputation building (they say smart and insightful things so people listen)
Relationship management & gaining visibility (we reach investors with our messaging)
The first step in any communications roadmap is tying your PR & comms goals to the broader business goals.
I can’t stress this crucial step enough.
You must show that your comms goals support company objectives and growth. Otherwise, it doesn’t mean anything. Likes, followers, and even media hits -- they’re just vanity metrics unless they’re connected to business goals.
Mapping this out helps you:
Secure buy-in from your client or boss - You demonstrate your value. You hedge against any doubts or unwarranted criticism that your work isn’t supporting the business.
Determine budget - You know how much money is required to achieve your targets. There’s no risk of falling short of resources and failing.
Agree on ‘what success looks like’ (metrics) - When you and your client agree on the desired results, you’re safe from any shifting goal posts. That helps dial back outsized expectations of eager clients who think they’ll immediately land a CNN spot or NYT feature. Prestigious placements or not, you just need to show that you’re advancing the business goals with your comms work.
First, list your business goals.
Based on that, it is easy to figure out your comms goals.
On a sheet of paper, put your business target in the left hand column. What you need to achieve in PR/comms is on the right.
For example, let’s say your company is in offgrid solar and you want to be the #1 industry player.
The aim of your comms & PR work should be to increase awareness of the business. You want your business to be top of mind when people think of African solar. [Kenya’s M-Kopa did a masterful job at this.]
Also, think of upcoming milestones. Startups typically need help with 3 areas:
Fundraising
Hiring
Product Launch
For the above 3 milestones, your communications goals would be:
Broadly speaking, communications & PR objectives typically fall into these 3 buckets:
Improving your company’s image [thought leadership]
Building or improving relationships
Achieving a specific target like driving public support for a company program
Voila. Once you put your business goals on paper, your communications goals quickly manifest themselves.
/ MEDIA
3 Covid Pieces - 2 Africa Coverage Media Trends
Remember the cringe worthy BBC Africa piece that said poverty could be the cause for Africa’s low Coronavirus death rate? [To be fair, they did change the headline later.]
It was so bad that I half-joked that the Beeb was trolling us.
Last week, the Globe & Mail’s latest Coronavirus in Africa piece was the polar opposite. It was as nuanced as the BBC was ham-fisted.
The story led with the newsworthy information that 80% of Africans are asymptomatic. Public health officials offered conjectures for why that’s the case based on their current knowledge of the virus.
The two pieces showed a stark difference in a media misstep: editorializing.
Sometimes, media outlets want to tell a certain story so they shoehorn the facts and evidence to support that angle. One common way to do that is leaving out crucial context. This is bad journalistic overreach.
In the case of the BBC, it’s as though the editor wanted to umbrella a bunch of hypotheses under a sweeping reason like poverty.
But the Globe & Mail stuck to the facts. Its humble headline was based on the reporting: public health officials are racing to learn about the virus. There’s much we don’t know.
Meanwhile, Karen Attiah of the Washington Post opened up her op-ed piece about how she, in hindsight, wished her Dad had stayed in Ghana after the Covid-19 outbreak.
She writes that international media ignored Africa’s astute policy choices to manage the virus, choosing to go for age-old tropes about incompetence, looming devastation, and hopelessness on the continent.
This “US vs Africa” story angle speaks to an emotive story of representation -- Africans rightfully wanting to control Africa’s portrayal in media. This is a long endeavor to counter stereotypical images of Africa, dating to the infamous Economist cover from the early 2000s.
And, you see it EVERYWHERE. It’s incredibly effective framing for pitching stories to the US media, especially post BLM protests and growing awareness of the importance of diverse stories.
/ MISC
You probably didn’t miss the outlandish thread making the rounds on African Twitter last week. [Sadly, the account was quickly locked and the Thread Reader post has since been deleted.]
Two 20-something American lads wrote about their plans to build a new city in “Africa.” It read like satire, but wasn’t.
There’s a lot to tease out from that thread: the contempt for history among many tech evangelists, Silicon Valley-inspired packaging for social currency on social media, etc.
It definitely can lend itself to an essay. But, I’ll save that for another day.
In the meantime, here’s a round-up of my favorite tweets commenting on the ex-hedge fund tech bros who fancy themselves city builders:
On that note, also check out this thought-provoking Guardian long read. It unpacks tech’s go-to word “disruption” and what it means.
Lastly, I’m intrigued by this new Abeg app. It’s dominated my Twitter TL and taken off like wildfire.
Whoever planned the launch is a master of psychology and knows the company’s audience. Bravo.
And, because I haven’t shared a Gus pic in a while:
He’s living his best life, chowing down on biltong and chicken.
When you get a chance, click “reply” and let me know what you thought about today’s letter!
I’d love to hear from you.
Until next time,
Victoria
Victoria Crandall | African Startups | Communications & PR Strategist | Lagos 🇳🇬