Feature the CEO in the Company Advertising

Maybe it’s Time to Make the Boss the Corporate Face and Messenger

Jan 28, 2009

Consultant David Henderson says the new media and the public respond best to companies with a human face, especially if that face is an authentic chief executive officer.

In his ebook, Media Savvy In the Internet Era, Henderson says CEOs should "personally take the initiative and responsibility to get savvy about the Internet, and the new ways of communicating in today’s online world." He urges the bosses to blog, Twitter, get to know journalists and essentially become the face and voice of their organizations.

Henderson says "today’s media savvy leaders know that roughly 82 percent of shareholder value is intangible. It’s merely a perception, impression, or… feeling that people have about brands." That value is too vulnerable and "too important to be delegated," he added.

That assumes the CEO has the desire, talents and personal authenticity to become the company spokesperson. For some organizations, it would also mean changing the corporate message.

All State’s Dennis Dexter Haysbert

It also raises the question of whether the CEOs can do better jobs than the public relations spokesperson, a hired actor such as All State’s Dennis Dexter Haysbert or the rash of creatures that companies have adopted as their icons, including cavemen, ducks, drum playing rabbits and geckos.

Henderson cites billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Zappo CEO Tony Hsieh, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Cisco CEO John Chambers, Oprah Winfrey and Apple’s Steve Jobs as executives who have embraced new media to project themselves as the icons of their business empires.

According to Henderson, Cuban says: "In the Internet age executives have to learn how to shape information about themselves and their companies, or the Internet will do it for them, and it won’t be pretty."

Twitter and Facebook

Henderson emphasizes the importance of CEOs getting involved in new communications media such as emails, blogs and social websites, including Twitter and Facebook. He says they must project themselves as authentic industry leaders, not just company spokespersons. And they must learn to communicate by telling stories because that is what the media seeks.

"We are living today in a new era when conventional methods of getting an organization’s messages communicated through the media are either broken or less," he wrote.

But if CEOs want to project themselves as the voices and faces of their organizations, they have much wider options than the new media. Traditional media are likely to be less dominant in the future, but they have demonstrated basic strengths and capabilities in the past and will probably be around for a few more decades.

Most people are still more comfortable with television, newspapers, radio and billboards than they are with the new media. Traditional media have a rich history of projecting individual leaders.

KFC Built on Colonel Sanders Image

Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC) was built on the image of Colonel Sanders. Alabama football was built around the image of Bear Bryant. Professional teams, and even some college teams, now market themselves around the image of one star player.

George Zimmer grew the Men’s Warehouse chain with commercials featuring him saying 12 words: "You’re going to like the way you look. I guarantee it." Tommy Hilfiger built his clothing empire around his name.

CEO Dan Hesse starred in Sprint’s 2008 "Simply Everything" commercial just three months after he became head of the company. He said his appearance transferred him "from the comfort of anonymity and obscurity to being almost famous."

New and Traditional Media

Henderson was an Emmy Award winning CBS Network News correspondent before becoming a communications strategist, author and adjunct professor.

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