How can the EU communicate better in a year of change?

by
Brett Kobie

How can the EU communicate better? That age-old question that we’ll never stop asking (and shouldn’t).

My take in a few points:

  1. The EU needs to meet people “where they are” and drop the “Brussels knows best” mentality – EVEN if this feels weird to do. Anything that smacks of elitism just plays as condescension.
  2. The EU needs to admit that it doesn’t have everything right and needs to improve (see Macron agenda!). Anything less just plays as propaganda.
  3. The EU needs to relinquish control of the “EU message” – the EU means many things to many people and we need to create the space for them to discover what it means to them. Anything less just plays as overengineered and contrived.
  4. The EU needs to be honest about how much time people want to spend hearing about the EU. Simplicity + brevity + repetition + time will win the race. Anything more complex will get lost in the noise.
  5. The EU needs to pursue comms tactics that can yield clear measurement of perception change. Any approach that mixes shiny tactics and the fantasy of front page earned media is likely to be a measurement non-starter, leaving us with the same old “reach and engagement” metrics that mean very little.

Thanks again to European Association of Communication Directors (EACD), Inge Wallage and Katie Owens for having me on the panel a few weeks back Tina Zournatzi Shada Islam and Javier Arias!

Want to hear more? You can check out the full video interview here: