The Liminal Letter: March/April
Vasiliki Vokou chats with Dr. Matthias Wühle, Senior Consultant at TE Communications GmbH, about how transparency trends are reshaping financial PR across the DACH region.
Transparency in financial PR: A view from the DACH region
Transparency is becoming a central theme in financial PR. How do you see this shaping media relations, particularly in the German-speaking financial sector?
As with politicians, media outlets also appreciate full transparency from financial companies – and, as in politics, they are sometimes deceived. For reasons of corporate governance alone, financial companies are well advised to be as transparent as possible to the public, as this is the only way to tell a story stringently over time. Such a strategy also allows credibility capital to be built up, which benefits the relationship established with journalists in the long term.
What’s one key challenge financial firms in the DACH region face in balancing strategic storytelling with increasing demands for transparency?
The biggest challenge is the constantly changing environment and the associated zeitgeist. Example: Just a year ago, Tesla shares were considered a progressive ESG component in the portfolio. Now, pictures of Tesla cars smeared with swastikas are circulating. The narrative has therefore turned 180 degrees. The communicative achievement must therefore be to explain in a comprehensible way why people had a different opinion yesterday than they do today. Media outlets can and should be able to recognise that an opinion is situation-specific and not an immutable dogma. That also makes companies and their players human.
ESG reporting has grown in importance, with European regulations pushing for more disclosure. How can PR professionals help financial institutions in Germany and beyond communicate their ESG efforts authentically?
ESG reporting is a minefield. The biggest threat is greenwashing. This can permanently ruin good media relations. I know journalists who have drastically reduced their ESG reporting for fear of greenwashing and are now very reluctant to write about ESG. Secondly, there are still conflicts within the EU taxonomy, keyword nuclear power and natural gas, just to mention the largest points. Thirdly, ESG investing is currently experiencing massive headwinds from the USA, which is currently making a U-turn. But especially the latter could help Europe to sharpen its profile. The message that ESG investing is primarily linked to economic benefits should therefore always take centre stage. This has not been communicated clearly enough in the past.
From your experience, do media expectations around transparency differ between Germany and other markets? What’s one key lesson PR professionals can take from the DACH region’s approach?
The media market in the DACH countries is very heterogeneous. In addition to the use of the German language, the similarities include the fact that investigative journalists are always on the lookout for weaknesses in all three countries. Against this background, transparency is vital for companies. In the property sector, however, competition can be fierce and too much transparency can bring competitors onto the scene too soon. In this case, a well-managed journalistic contact also means that sometimes you just have to explain your lack of transparency well.
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