Communication Vitality
Make more of what your organisation already knows and does.
Your organisation has knowledge, research and experience that could become valuable communication. Some opportunities never reach the communications team, while others lose their most interesting details during development or approval.
Communication Vitality examines how your organisation discovers, develops and uses that material, and how effectively the resulting communication reaches its intended audiences.
The aim is to find opportunities for stronger PR, thought leadership and corporate communications while making better use of what you already have.
When is Communication Vitality useful?
Your organisation may produce regular content, yet struggle to develop stories that stand out.
Perhaps your PR programme relies heavily on product announcements, even though your experts have interesting perspectives on wider industry issues. You may have invested in research that received little attention beyond its original purpose, or noticed that strong ideas become increasingly generic as they move through approvals.
Communication Vitality helps establish why this happens, what is already working well and where changes could make your communications more useful and distinctive.
What do we examine?
What your organisation has to work with
I examine the expertise, research, customer insights and experiences available across your organisation.
The assessment looks at how Communications discovers this material and how decisions are made about which opportunities deserve attention.
How ideas are developed
Good source material needs interpretation to become useful communication.
I review how ideas are selected, developed and approved, including whether important evidence, expert perspectives or distinctive details are preserved.
I also examine where the communications team adds value by turning raw information into stories that matter to the intended audience.
How communication reaches people
I look at how the organisation uses its content and expertise across relevant channels, including media relations, executive communications and owned platforms.
Where appropriate, I compare the original messages with independent media coverage to understand how the story was interpreted and which insights reached the audience.
The assessment also considers what the organisation's communication consistently says about its expertise, priorities and identity over time.
How does the assessment work?
I begin with your objectives and a review of the communications you're already producing.
For a full assessment, I examine a representative sample of published materials and, where relevant, work with people across the organisation to understand how ideas are discovered, developed and delivered.
This helps establish whether an apparent weakness comes from the available material, the way opportunities are selected or how communication is produced and distributed.
I also consider the constraints your organisation operates under. More personality, stronger language or greater visibility isn't always appropriate, particularly when accuracy, confidentiality or regulatory requirements limit what can be communicated.
We agree on the scope before starting. Where internal access is unavailable, an external review can still provide useful findings, with clear limits on conclusions about internal processes.
What will you receive?
The assessment provides three practical outcomes.
01 · A clear picture of your current communications
An evidence-based review of what your organisation produces, where its strengths lie and what may be limiting its communications potential.
02 · Opportunities worth developing
Specific findings about underused expertise, research or stories, alongside opportunities to improve existing content, media relations and thought leadership.
The review also identifies strengths worth protecting.
03 · A practical improvement plan
Prioritised recommendations explaining what should change, why it matters and how to approach the work.
For a full assessment, this can include a 90-day plan to test improvements, review the evidence and decide what to develop further.
I can also help implement the recommendations as part of a separately agreed assignment.
An example from practice
One research project. Several PR opportunities.
At Quest Software, I discovered that another department had commissioned research into identity security among European manufacturing organisations.
The research was intended primarily for marketing activities, but its findings also offered opportunities for media coverage and expert commentary.
I developed a press release and several thought-leadership materials from the research, extending its communications value beyond the original marketing use.
This work predates the current Communication Vitality methodology, but illustrates the kind of opportunity it is designed to identify.
How is this different from PR Readiness?
PR Readiness examines whether your organisation has the foundations to communicate effectively against its objectives.
Communication Vitality examines how well your organisation turns its existing knowledge, expertise and activity into communication that is relevant, credible and worth paying attention to.
The methods can complement each other, but either can be used independently.
Put more of your organisation's expertise to work.
If you want to uncover new communication opportunities or improve the way your organisation develops and uses its existing material, let's discuss what you're working with.