Who is the messenger?

Who is the messenger? No, we’re not talking about Facebook Messenger or messaging apps.  We’re talking about communications and who is going to be the right person to share your message.

Check out our latest episode 'Who is the messenger?'  And no, this is not some crazy crime thriller 'who dunnit' either.  But it is full of juicy ideas on why knowing who should talk to your audience is soooo important.

And once you’ve watched or listened, be sure to let us know if you have any questions or want more info?

Your feedback will help us make more useful episodes so please, please leave us comments.

And remember, knowing your audience and who should talk to them puts you in front of most of the other communications they’re getting because it will be relevant and relatable.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast. We're here to move humanity forward at Moonshine Agency. We're all about making an impact and we're sharing these podcasts with you so that you can have your big moonshot projects and reach for the stars too. I'm Sue Collins, your host.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

And I'm Mike Hill, your host. So uh Sue and I are filmmakers, we run an impact film and communications company called Moonshine Agency. And we've made this podcast especially for you because we think you're interested in impactful communications. Our moonshot is to see communications being used to move humanity forward. That's what this show is all about. And of course, the moonshot goes back to JFK saying we must land a man on the moon within a decade and did it. So that's what we're going for. We know the world needs to change and change fast, and communications is a key part of that story.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Yeah, today's episode is um what we think is a very important part of any kind of um strategy around creating content storytelling. Uh,

Who is the messenger?

SPEAKER_01 1:04

it's who is the messenger, who is gonna tell my story? And the reason that um this is so critical is because people have to relate to the person that they're listening to or looking at or hearing from. If if they can't relate to them, they're not gonna take on that message. So the person who's standing in front of the camera is so critical to the story.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Yeah, absolutely, and we're gonna tailor this episode, especially for those of you who are working in the corporate world and doing corporate communications, because what we've noticed is often there isn't sufficient uh time and energy that's gone into thinking about the messenger, the person who brings your message to life and delivers it to the audience. And I'm gonna go out there and I'm just gonna say it. I think that often there's a lack of diversity in some messengers that are being used out there in the world of corporate communications. And what I mean by that is because we have a bit of a gender and age skew and uh, you know, and also a type of person that tends to be in senior leadership roles in corporations, they often get assigned the job of being the messenger. But that's not the end of the story because we're talking to audiences, and those audiences really need to be related to with people like them, as well as like these amazing senior leadership figures, and they deserve a voice. So we're not saying don't give those people a voice, but we are saying be very mindful in your communications of the messengers and give you know consideration to things like gender balancing, having diversity in there, diversity of the people uh who are carrying the message to the audience so that it's not always coming from one senior leadership figure. I think that we can do better.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

So I think it's good to think about what's the type of story you're telling and who's actually going to be wanting to hear it. And you know, go taking it back a little bit to maybe more an example that's sort of a bit more everyday real world. For example, um, you know, I'm a mother of young children, I'm busy, I I run a business, we have a lot going on. Um, and say the local gym's trying to market to me, maybe I'm their ideal customer, they want to get, you know, working mums into the gym doing exercise. So if they send me out a video of this really super athletic, really, you know, amazingly attractive girl doing mega push-ups and stuff that's just so far away from me, I'm not going to be able to take that message on because it's just so far removed from my life and the way that I am. But if they had a woman who was talking in the video who was my age and looked like she had kids, I'd probably relate to that really well.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Yeah, or if they put in some beefcake, you know, who's, you know, just pumping iron. You know, yeah, like it's not that relatable, but maybe you could have a variety of different messengers in that case to spread, you know, to spread your message further and more effectively. So I think that's really the key thing is to really think about your audience and do a bit of a stakeholder analysis and think about who's gonna be watching this and do we have a good representation there of the types of people in our audience set.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

So this is something that we do with all our bigger projects as well. We really drill down into who's gonna be the right person um to deliver this message, and you can't always get it right, and you can't always please everybody. I mean, we have made films that have had global um stories, and so they've represented quite a number of different countries and different um demographics, and um you know, trying to find the one key voice who can be the presenter of that story that's going to relate to everybody is really challenging, but the way you can get around it by sometimes having multiple messengers, as you were saying before, you can have a variety of people um who can who can share that um key story um but that will meet certain different different demographics.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

It can be a real trap, I agree

Maybe you need more than one?

SPEAKER_00 5:14

with you. Just trying to find one voice who can do everything and relate to everyone. It's very hard to find those types of relatable characters that cut through across all your audience demographics. So consider using, you know, a chorus, a variety of people telling the story. We do a lot of health communications at Moonshine Agency, and one thing that I've noticed when we go out there and tell these very important stories, particularly around global health, is that we'll be working with partners who, you know, have got the very best intentions. But when you ask them who should be the messengers, often you get a very long list of expert voices, you know, professors and doctors, and you know, people who are amazingly brilliant in their own right. But there's something missing there, you know, the the beneficiaries, the people who are receiving the care, we can call them the patients, or the family members of those people, the community. How does it influence, you know, and make that impact that enriches society more broadly? And it's very hard to limit that to an expert voice, but it so often happens in corporate communications.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yeah, I I as you're saying this, I'm thinking about one of the projects we're producing at the moment, um, which is called Conquering Cancer, and it's about the cervical cancer elimination goal. And through that, we've interviewed some extraordinary leaders in in health, um, everyone from uh the WHO kind of levels down through to um Cancer Councils, um Cancer Council Australia. So there's there's been a variety of key expert voices in that, but it's been so critical to tell that story as well from women, women who either have gone through screening or they've actually gone through cervical cancer or they've experienced um the vaccine programs rolling out for their own children, etc. So you need to hear from all these different levels within the story to really be able to get the message across to a variety of people.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah, it's deliberately diverse, the messengers, isn't it, in terms of uh the belief systems of the women we're working with, where they live geographically, socioeconomically, where they sit. Uh, and it's so important. So I, you know, often when we're really breaking down messages and then linking messages, key messages to messengers, the people who carry those messages, one of the really important things I think is to think about your story in terms of head and heart. So often your export your expert voices bring that intellect, that insight, and um you know they're giving us that wisdom. That's the head part, that's absolutely essential. But you also need to balance it out with the heart part, and that's the more relatable, feely, touchy, feely, empathetic materials that you often most won't get with an expert.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

So trying to think about really practical ways for people to really apply this idea of messaging and messages in their own uh I

Other names for the messenger?

SPEAKER_01 8:23

was just actually just on a sidebar, I was um I was googling the other day how do you pick a messenger or how do you do messaging or and it all came back to Facebook Messenger, the app. So messenger is not actually a term that people think of in regards to communications, that's much more of a uh a term to reference a functional app that's part of Facebook. So perhaps we need to um rename it. Re well rename the messenger so it could be the presenter, who's the host, who's the um the narrator, you know, who's who's the who's that person who or people in your story that's gonna relate to your audience. So then it's about knowing your audience. We always tend to come back to knowing your audience. You've got to know who you're talking to, and then you can figure out their world view, what's important to them, and then who's gonna actually um be the right person for them to hear the message or the story.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Yeah, and that's the thing about corporate communications, health communications, and so many of the communications that we work in, it's absolutely essential that you have the expert voice, the head, uh, and with someone who's really relatable, who you can empathize with the heart. These two things go together really well, and I think that too many communications, particularly corporate communications, miss the mark because they rely too heavily on their experts and not enough on other relatable characters who are really going to, you know, strike a chord and resonate with their audiences.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

So, if folks are wanting to drill down on this a bit more and think about a bit more in terms of messages, what what advice would you have? Where would they go?

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Well, I think they can visit our website and also this podcast, Moonshine Moonshot, has a number of different um podcasts that are talking about similar types of topics. And the Moonshine Agency site has more information. Of course, people can check in with us for a free consultation as well if they want you know some input about a specific project. But I think the really essential thing is to give thought to who are going to be the best people to carry this message and really challenge yourself to think outside of the box.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Well, I think that just about covers it on messengers. So um we'd love to know if you've got questions, if any of this brought up ideas, questions, or um things you just want to know a little bit more about, or it could be a totally different topic you think we might know about and you'd like to know uh more about, uh just drop a comment in um in the comments section, um, either on YouTube or um on the website, and um you can follow us on all the usual social platforms. And if you'd like to leave a review, we'd be very, very grateful.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Alright, thanks for tuning in, and we'll look forward to seeing you next time.