How can you get people to talk about you when you can’t talk about yourself?

For many companies, talking about themselves is easy! They present their activities, praise their products, list their impressive clientele and publicly showcase their skills. But here’s the thing: your business is thriving but discreet, and you want to reach your potential customers while maintaining a certain reserve. In short, you want to talk about yourself without talking about yourself. But what if talking about yourself indirectly allowed you to talk about yourself better?

In a fascinating book titled Le détour et l’accès, sinologist and philosopher François Jullien explains how Chinese thought always prefers to take a detour whendiscussing a subject or situation rather than taking the most direct route. Paradoxically, this “detour” provides access to a broader, more diverse and more powerful meaning, and ultimately becomes more effective than a straight line in achieving a goal.

This “strategy of meaning,” as the philosopher calls it, can be applied to communication. Therefore, if one cannot or does not want to rely directly on their activities to generate buzz,
This “strategy of meaning”, as the philosopher calls it, can be applied to communication. So, if you cannot or do not want to rely directly on your activities to get people talking about you, you need to turn to something bigger and more universal to communicate: your image and your values. What are the values that govern the company? What is the spirit that motivates the teams? What are the key themes that all employees can agree on? Tradition, quiet strength, commitment, solidarity, the pursuit of innovation? But it isn’t enough to simply express your values to make them understood. You have to embody them.

Diverting attention to attract attention

There are several ways to achieve this. For example, the company can identify an existing medium and become a major operator in it, using it as a vehicle for visibility: a sporting event that promotes values such as effort and team spirit, an electronic music festival that embodies celebration and modernity, a contemporary art exhibition that reflects boldness, etc.

The other possibility is to create an event entirely from scratch that reflects your image: a competition, an award recognising innovation and excellence in sports, technology or the arts, or a more festive event, whether musical, cinematic or choreographic.

The aim is to create a clear and indisputable link between the values promoted by the event and the company itself: you support a fencing tournament? Yes, but that’s not all: your company values elegance, precision and excellence. Are you setting up an award for young filmmakers? You aren’t afraid to be bold, you know how to spot today’s talent and you’re betting on the future.

Public relations – the key to your visibility

In terms of communication, the advantages are immediate and numerous. Announcing the creation of the event – or the decision to partner an event – allows us to speak differently from the outset and to foster significant, multi-channel communication, as it immediately touches on other areas, thereby reaching new targets.

The event itself then provides an opportunity to implement a decisive public relations strategy: it allows you to invite customers and prospects and share special moments with them, away from their everyday lives and outside of a professional setting. And as everyone knows, it is often in informal settings that decisions are made.

Once again, a detour rather than direct access!