Broadcast PR expert Pernille Taylor on the lessons we can learn from Bill Somebody...
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls described it as "an age thing" after failing to remember the full name of one of Labour's main business supporters on BBC’s Newsnight programme.
Slipping up, not remembering names or numbers can happen to us all. But what do you do when you are live on TV?
Once it has happened, the cat is out of the bag and there is nothing you can do but try to bridge on to something else swiftly, hoping this will help move the conversation on. However, if you are a politician and faced with an interviewer such as Emily Maitlis, this is unlikely to be quite as simple, and she later, rather embarrassingly, referred to Ed Balls’ slip up as “so we have Bill Somebody….”, leading to much hilarity in PMQs the following day and the first big soundbite / gaffe of the election campaign.
The key for interviewees is to make sure this doesn’t happen in the first place, and to prepare, prepare and prepare again. If you know you are going to talk about business supporters, make sure you have all the names to hand. But if you know you usually struggle with names, don’t even go there in the first place!
Don’t attempt to refer to specific names; similarly, you need to be careful listing important things in interviews. For example, saying: “I have three things I want to talk to you about it: Firstly… secondly…”, leaves you open to the risk that, by the time you get to your third point, you might just have forgotten it and your answer ends up making you sound less credible.
Politicians are usually well practised in the bridging technique, using simple words like “but” or “however” to move the conversation away from uncomfortable areas onto issues they prefer to talk about. If you are a less practised interviewee, we recommend rehearsing your answers ahead of interviews with your PR and communications team. With a few techniques and tools, you will be well equipped to navigate difficult questions - and it is a lot better and less damaging to say the wrong thing in front of colleagues than on live TV.
Make sure to prepare your core message ahead of interviews and back it up with well-chosen evidence and examples to illustrate. Add colour to your answers, but make sure you have prepared for your potential areas of weakness…or you may be caught red-faced like Ed Balls.
If you want to ensure you've rehearsed why not get in touch about our media coaching offering or using our studio: take a look at our website or contact the team directly.