As PR professionals we love story telling. And our HMC team thrives on helping our clients articulate their stories and share them with those who matter to their business.
Usually, this storytelling involves interviewing a client’s customers, stakeholders or staff. But often we don’t know these people from a bar of soap! So why would they share their story with a perfect stranger?
The key is investing time in building rapport with each person and reassuring them they can trust us with the information they are sharing. Being responsible for re-telling each person’s story is an absolute privilege, and one we don’t take lightly.
HMC is fortunate to be working alongside the team at Gallagher Animal Management to help them tell their story and that of their farmer customers.
Gallagher is without question one of New Zealand’s most iconic, home grown businesses. Originally famous for its electric fence technology, the company’s Kiwi ingenuity and home-grown innovation have always been part of its ‘orange’ DNA.
This year, the Gallagher Animal Management team has been running a national NZ-Made campaign.
The idea behind the campaign is timely given our motivation to buy local. But the concept itself was actually inspired by a farmer – like everything else Gallagher does!
As part of the campaign, Gallagher has been using the power of storytelling to showcase examples of the company’s commitment to home-grown. After all, most of its products are made right here in NZ.
Its team has been out on farm talking to the farmers who use their products and understanding what motivates them to buy NZ-made and why it matters.
While Gallagher has been filming and taking photos, HMC has been interviewing these farmers and crafting the raw content into stories for use online, on social and in print.
And when it comes to Kiwi farmers, they’re passionate about what they do. Conversations can get a bit emotional sometimes because you know just how much heart and soul these farmers put into their business.
Their stories are about livelihoods. They’re about family. And they’re about community. Our job is to listen, collect all the facts and accurately re-tell each farmer’s story in an honest and truthful way.
Of course, sharing these stories is great for building people’s trust in and respect for Gallagher. But we cannot lose sight of the fact that these stories belong to the people who tell them. The experiences are theirs, not ours. We are grateful for the trust they put in us to re-tell them.
