At We Are COM, we are keen on communication and reading! We didn't need more to fall under the spell ofOlivier Cimeliere.
In “Companies: what if you stopped the COM coup? 12 challenges to take on for truer communication » Olivier Cimelière, author and communicator, deciphers the buzz of the most harmful brands and reveals its best practices to us.
Hello Olivier, we would like to know your definition of business communication?
Business communication is all the means and resources aimed at nurturing and preserving the reputation of a brand among its stakeholders.
Note that there are specificities depending on the nature of the organizations. In companies, communication is most often driven by business. Whereas community communications have more of an informative role. Nevertheless, the purpose remains invariably the same: to generate public trust.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, can you tell us more about your career, your experiences and your challenges as a literary communicator? What drives you on a daily basis?
What has driven me, since my youngest age, it’s writing. This passion began with writing football notebooks, which I had my family read as a child. Later, she led me to pursue literary and then journalistic studies at Celsa.
Having obtained my diploma, I covered numerous events for the regional daily press and I introduced myself to radio writing for several stations.
Ultimately, this passion for writing led me to join the communications sector. Internal newspapers, external brochures, content digital, speeches by leaders, press releases, elements of language, etc., the common thread of my career has always been writing.
Today, I am an independent author and consultant. On a daily basis, I share my experiences and my perspective on the communications sector in books, white papers and columns, particularly for my blog, The Communicator Blog.
Recently, your third book was published: “Companies: what if you stopped the COM” coup? ". What do you call a “COM move”?
The COM coup is a communication action designed to obtain immediate and spectacular results with the aim of increasing visibility, notoriety and attractiveness of a brand (or a person). This form of communication can be friendly. Not all COM shots are bad or deleterious. But should be practiced in moderation.
Indeed, certain COM moves are used inappropriately: to divert the public's attention and not address a sensitive subject, to claim excessive merit, to embellish things by somewhat disguising reality... When the obsession with visibility and the desire to exist at all costs become objectives in themselves, all communication becomes superficial and risks being condemned by its audiences.
When the obsession with visibility and the desire to exist at all costs become objectives in themselves, all communication becomes superficial and risks being condemned by its audiences.
Exactly, do you have a bad “COM move” to present to us? How could this have impacted the business, and how could it have been avoided?
COM's bad moves can no longer be counted... One has particularly struck me in recent years, it is the incredible Carambar buzz of 2013. The candy brand announced the official discontinuation of Carambar jokes, in a video which very quickly went viral.
This news hit the Social Media, a petition was launched, the media picked up this information to such an extent that even the 20 p.m. television news picked up on this news. However, it is quite rare for brands to appear on this type of show for this type of subject.
After endless speculations and assumptions, Carambar cleared the doubt: it was a joke, their biggest joke, imagined for April 1st. In the end, it was just a marketing stunt...
Some called it genius, others called it scandalous. Personally, this joke left a bitter taste in my mouth. The brand chose to play with journalists to deploy very cheap disguised advertising. What about media confidence after such an operation? How can press relations catch up with the situation after the broadcast of such fake news ?
Some called it genius, others called it scandalous. Personally, this joke left a bitter taste in my mouth.
You decipher the “12 challenges to overcome for truer communication”, what do you mean by “true” communication? In your opinion, what are consumers' expectations in this area?
True communication, it's the opposite of what I call sublimated communication, this form of speech which consists of presenting a company as being the most wonderful and the most efficient. Since the notion of employer branding existed, this type of embellished abuse has multiplied.
Let's take Amazon, whose problems linked to difficult working conditions in warehouses or to not always benevolent management are known to everyone, and which every year for the past 4 years has been awarded the label of TOP employer in France. This is what illustrates sublimated communication, a communication that erases a somewhat problematic aspect in favor of a fantasized or modified vision of reality.
True communication is also communication that must be coherent, from start to finish, without ever neglecting the impact of an action. This time, I would take Nike as an example, the sporting goods brand very committed to African-American communities. This cause is supported by Nike in many ways and in many circumstances. Remember their partnership with Colin Kaepernick, an athlete committed to the fight against racism in the United States or the diversion of their slogan into “for once don't do it” in support of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matters movement?
These actions were very consistent, until a report from an Australian NGO revealed that Nike was profiting from the work of Uyghurs in China. This big gap is particularly embarrassing.
Finally, true communication, it is communication that does not deceive, that does not mislead its audience, like the growing phenomenon of greenwashing. The experts in this practice remain the oil companies, which have long denied the reality of global warming by carrying out false studies and disseminating false data.
And in terms of internal communication, how to communicate “true”?
The intern has a long time suffered from an image of an acquired public and therefore not very turbulent. However, this vision of the internal tends to change. Increasingly, employees of a company can draw and relay information about it via the media, social networks, free expression forums, etc.
Today, even if internal communication is more widely used, in particular to provide information relating to business transformations, it is still very top-down and very supervised. I find it a shame not to allow more debate, encourage interactions to involve employees and generate collective intelligence.
Also, true communication, internally, would for me be liberated communication, which would allow real exchanges to be established between all stakeholders and management, to unite around a common adventure.
I would add that I also find it a shame to have lost the practice of the internal paper journal in favor of intranets and newsletters. The internal newspaper provided an interesting perspective for employees, allowing them to look back on a significant event or decipher a specific market from a certain perspective. Corporate culture does not emanate from the amount of information transmitted but rather from the quality of the link created.
true communication, internally, would for me be liberated communication, which would allow real exchanges to be established between all stakeholders and management
Badbuzz, fake news, infobesity, disinformation… what would be your recommendations to protect yourself from these viral phenomena?
Those who know me know it well: the day before! Information monitoring is essential to understand the ecosystem in which the company operates in real time, and therefore essential to highlight points of tension. However, too many companies still ignore this practice, despite the many effective tools that are available to communicators today.
Mapping of stakeholders, active communities and influence relay is done in calm weather. By the time the storm is over, it is already too late.
It may be my journalistic distortion, but in the face of torrents of fake news and disinformation intensifying on social networks, I keep repeating it: anticipate! Do not neglect monitoring which allows you to process weak signals before they get worse.
In your opinion, what will be the major developments in tomorrow's communication?
It is not easy to decide on the future of a sector. I still remember this promise of the metaverse which quickly faded away!
Real development must have repercussions. Also, the immediate issue that impacts our professions is the emergence of artificial intelligence. I don't see them as worrying, but more as technologies at the service of communicators.
An AI can generate real savings in time and money. I am thinking, for example, of the wishes of the presidents of large international groups. How can you send greetings to all employees, instantly, in each person's language? Thanks to AI, capable of transposing the president's voice infinitely. It's stunning!
However, these generative technologies have their limits. We must remain vigilant, particularly in terms of the veracity of information. We are already observing that fake news and scams are becoming more sophisticated with AI. Certification via blockchain remains and will remain essential.
Finally, with regard to developments in internal communication, I wonder about the company culture. How to maintain a sense of belonging with remote work? How can you recreate team dynamics without a coffee machine? We are witnessing a disintegration of social bonds within companies: disengagement of employees, silent resignation, etc. To preserve the social body, “true” internal communication is one of the keys.
We are already observing that fake news and scams are becoming more sophisticated with AI.
Before leaving, would you have any final advice for We Are COM readers?
Cultivate continuously your curiosity of the world, of society and more generally of everything that happens around you. Only curiosity makes it possible to forge communications that reason correctly.
Also cultivate your critical and strategic thinking. Don’t just be doers, you’re not toolboxes. The communicator is often more expected in the deliverable than in the criticism, yet the latter is necessary, it allows things to move forward and above all to avoid missteps.
3 things to know about Olivier Cimelière
His daily inspirations? His mantra is signed Oscar Wilde: “ A man's true value lies not in what he has, but in what he is. » His favorite media are L'Equipe – for football of course but also for the marketing and economic aspects of sport – and Le Monde, a very comprehensive newspaper which has managed to reinvent itself.
His favorite advert from yesterday or today? Without hesitation, the advertising of chocosuisse, in which a famous fish named Maurice “pushes things a little too far”.
More recently, Olivier found funny, without being mean, Sixt’s poster campaign, which bounced around political events and anecdotes.
Finally, he appreciates Free's campaigns. Do you remember Rodolphe, this quirky character from the brand? Have you seen the Reef campaigns that don't take themselves seriously?
His passions and commitments? Reading obviously! Above all, Olivier devours biographies. He is also passionate about football, a sport he could talk about for hours. On the commitment side, Olivier joined Seniors@work, an initiative created by Nicolas Bordas which breaks down prejudices about the employment of people over 50.
His trademark anecdote? Olivier was sequestered for more than 5 hours by around fifty CGT workers, along with the HR director and his deputy from the Perrier industrial site. He has also already spent 22 hours straight in the Google France premises, following a raid by the financial brigade.
