Campaigns, Curiosity & the power of Compelling Narrative: in conversation with John Zerafa.
This month, the CIPR Sport Group talk to Jon Zerafa, an expert in campaign communications, reputation management and public affairs in sport. Starting his career in politics then co-founder of Vero Communications with the late Mike lee, John has worked on some of the biggest global campaigns in sport including Olympic bids, World Cup bids, Sport presidential campaigns and football club takeovers. He’s advised a range of national, international and global governing bodies and is now also a strategic adviser to Signify, who use smart tech and data to police and change behaviours in online abuse, notably around sports stars. In our 60-minute conversation we discuss joined-up communication strategies, how to drive a core message across different audiences, fuelling your career with constant curiosity and the ever-changing global sports landscape.
Among the highlights were:
Coordinating communications at the start of the Premier League: “It was totally new and a very brave decision to bring public affairs and media together. There’s a very strong relationship and correlation between what you're saying to the media, and what you're saying to the politicians, to the regulator, to decision makers. It’s so important to be joined up but there are many organisations that don't get it and they're still operating in silos. There's obviously a slight flex; if you're talking to the public, that's slightly different than if you're talking to a politician or a regulator. But the core themes about what you're saying and what you're trying to communicate, there's got to be a consistency.”
Driving a successful campaign with London Olympics: “London 2012, where I was brought in to head up the political communications of the bid, was fascinating, because I think it's the first time in major event bidding where there was this idea that you need to create a really powerful narrative and story. That brought all of those decision makers together with a story that made sense to them. The part of the bookend that I love is the campaign, because you know what you're trying to achieve, you've got a very clear timeline and a very clear end goal. Once you win, in the case of an Olympic Games or a World Cup, you'll have 7 or 8 years until the actual event and it goes from a very sexy global campaign, to an infrastructure project.”
Core elements for a winning campaign: “It's the power of the story - why us - and you've got to answer that question in the eyes of the decision makers. You need to understand the audience - quite often they'll have many different views and issues kicking around. The other thing is being utterly focused and only do the things you feel are going to deliver votes. You’ve got to have belief in what you're doing and you don't leave anything to chance. Quite often, the messaging that the comms strategists would come up with would be used by senior leadership speaking to decision makers, so there's got to be a consistency with what's being given to media, all the way through to the ultimate decision makers. There are very few projects I've worked on where comms isn't absolutely front and centre in a bid situation, because unless you get your messaging, your story, and the ways that you're going to communicate right, you don't have a chance.”
Key lessons from his successful career: “I'll give three. Have fun, take risks, and identify some really smart people that can help in your career. I quit my first job, with Ribena, without having a job to go and I was lucky in that I then got my MP research job within 3 or 4 months, so don't be afraid to take risks. Identify in your early career and all the way through, who are the senior leaders in your organization that you want to impress, from board member down, because you want to work with the best people, the smartest, the ones who will decide whether you're going to get promoted, that might want to be poaching you in years to come as they move into different directions. And have fun; I know it's such a cliche term, but don't sweat the small stuff, really appreciate every moment that you're working, particularly on the bigger stuff and when you're in the moment, it's difficult sometimes to take that in - so take it in.”
