PROA's managing partner Lucía Casanueva reflects on her work in a article published in El Debate on the importance of communication for organisations within the framework of the events held for the funeral of Isabel II.
We have seen it in 3D since the death of Elizabeth II: the success of a public image has a lot to do with communication. An admired woman, a Crown strengthened by tradition and the affection of the people, an undoubted legacy, the institutional strength of an empire, the tabloid queen, a myth, global interest, an icon, eternal fame, a new era, a before and an after.
The Spanish Royal Family will be taking notes, because communication is essential in the present of any Monarchy. It is worth investing in taking care of the jewel of the Crown, making communication the protagonist of the palace, because in the society of image nobody understands that our Royal Family does not have a profile on Instagram or that a high percentage of the official photos issued by Zarzuela are crooked, dark, or stale. There are few more attractive and modern Kings in the world with such aesthetic ease in consolidating that image between empathy and idealism that monarchies must systematically polish in order to find a place, not only in official organisational charts, but also in the hearts of public opinion.
For days we have been certifying the importance of communicating with precision a biography, a story, the soul of a State, a tradition, an unrepeatable historical passage. We have seen the proven effectiveness of discursive coherence, the awareness of values, the pride of a history, the excellence of form, the audacity of the projects, the finesse of the stage design.
During this long reign we have seen many times the relevance of communication in the pampering of reputation: those BBC coverage, those professional photographs impregnated with film and art, those events charged with the past, but with the essence of the future; that respect when looking in the rear-view mirror, but with the capacity to take millimetric risks, as when we saw Her Majesty alongside James Bond and parachuting at the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Surely, the Spanish Royal Household is treasuring notes and preparing a resetbecause in the field of communication, he still has to make his mark in the 21st century. At least, with the prestige demanded by the history of our country and the challenges that are on the table, at the epicentre of the front pages and on the shoulders of Felipe VI, which are not few.
The triumphant coffin of Elizabeth II in the prime time universal is the compilation of a master's degree in communication. Surely many long-established institutions crave that good reputation and that worldwide consensus that most citizens applaud and that is not bought on the advertising market. But in the perception of public prestige nothing comes about by chance. Probably, many powerful people who still think that investment in communication is a secondary priority will have understood at the start of this academic year how it is necessary to be and how it is necessary to appear so that anonymous people leave bouquets of flowers on the railings of Buckingham Palace when the whistle blows at the end of the match.
Many people in command perceive the loneliness and coldness of public opinion around them. Some have long been aware that citizens/customers look askance at those with power, weight, relevance, fame or money. They know that for ordinary mortals they are people who only think of their own benefit, even if they call corporate social responsibility what is the prehistory of posturing. In the watchtower of those who communicate in only one interested direction are the Royal Houses, the national governments, the presidencies of the autonomous communities, the city councils, the provincial councils, the big companies and those who play on the current affairs stage thinking that they are invulnerable, because they hold a certain oligopoly of authority, generally temporary.
In Elizabeth II we have seen how undisputed authority is exercised and communicated. Her power, her universal relevance and her regal leadership have not reflected symptoms of arrogance and tyranny, because the motto of her reign - to serve until death - has struck a chord in the hearts and minds of spectators on five continents long before she passed away.
The success of a great contemporary institutional communication campaign prepared with panache, despite the human rifts between the members of the royal family How many people will have thought, proposed, executed lines, approaches and ways of telling the world the story of a 20th century queen in the times of Netflix and The CrownHow many people in the service of the British crown must have been involved in the search for the best advisors to communicate every step, every piece of good news, every crisis, every occasion? How much does it cost and how much is it worth communicating to hit the mark? How much is it worth speaking in the language of this world, which transcends the bartering of favours, exclusives and pages of publicity, so that the footage is true to the memory?
Elizabeth II has been a sonorous example of female leadership and the British Royal Household, a precise watch that has given importance to each piece to sound this almost celestial hit tune that we have heard since an epic story went out in the chambers of Balmoral. The mix between female leadership and accurate communication brings a new way of being and appearing in the century we live in. For the formula to work, communication requires one-piece subjects, logically imperfect; sufficiently coherent for the storyline to be a straight line and for the narrative to have a common thread that is credible, because it is based on the maximum truth to which we human beings can aspire.
Hugo Vickers, historian and expert on the British Royal Family, says that the Queen had a code to communicate with her security staff by changing her handbag or twirling her engagement ring. In reality, everything about her was big-screen communication, right up to the end of her days.
A few hours before his death, he was visited by the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Liz Truss. It was her last appearance alive on the stage of this planet. On that day the Queen posed for photographer Jane Barlow of Associated Press, the world's top agency. The lit chimney of the last snapshot of The Queen It symbolises well the serene crackling of professional communication that needs good fame, because power rules, but it does not buy prestige or the echo of history.
More than 500,000 people queued for more than ten hours to watch over his mortal remains. More than two million citizens physically participated in the funeral procession. The likes last as long as they last. True good fame lasts.
While the present day easily burns away the most untouchable legacies, those who live by the high lights study, prepare and steer the way to a healthy reputation. Just as to govern with frivolity is to play the harakiriTo overemphasise the power of communication is a recklessness that pays off. Increasingly so. Isabel II had it clear. As a woman born in 1926, thirty years before the first television broadcasts in Spain, she knew that you either tell the story with enthusiasm, or the children of darkness turn it into a black legend.