Bite Size Comms
Bite Size Comms is a weekly podcast that will give you a perspective on an aspect of public relations and communications practice. Bite size as they are short opinion pieces on topical issues. The episodes are sometimes contentious, sometimes funny, and they all aim to provoke thought.
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Bite Size Comms
Authentic Public Diplomacy
I recently produced a Bite Size pod about public diplomacy. One way this could be done effectively was to embrace digital communications. I want to present a masterclass on how to do this, courtesy of the Japanese ambassador to the UK. It is an example that all leaders could embrace, in politics and government, business or charities.
Authentic public diplomacy
I recently produced a Bite Size pod about public diplomacy. One way this could be done effectively was to embrace digital communications. I want to present a masterclass on how to do this, courtesy of the Japanese ambassador to the UK. It is an example that all leaders could embrace, in politics and government, business or charities.
His Excellency Hiroshi Suzuki has been the ambassador to the UK since November 2024. Foreign ambassadors rarely attract public attention, apart from the pugnacious Russian ambassador scoffing about how the UK will soon be nuked. On the other hand, the Japanese ambassador has won the hearts of British residents in four months. How? Video first and authentic communication. On St. David’s Day, he posted a 10-second video on X entitled ‘Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!’ (Happy St. David’s Day). Eating a Welsh cake surrounded by daffodils and drinking tea from a Welsh dragon cup. He gets the balance right by declaring that he made origami daffodils, the Japanese paper folding art, and shows the one he made on his lapel. On another video, he sings the Welsh national anthem, in Welsh, of course, without fault. I bet the Prince of Wales can’t do that! Oh, Ambassador Suzuki said he “practised, practised and practised” to get that video right. Note the dedication to getting the video format perfect.
On video, the ambassador celebrates the New Year by drinking a pint in a pub and giving the bemused bar staff a present of an alcoholic drink from Japan. My favourite, though, is another pub video. In it, the ambassador is seen downing a pint at the Turf Tavern pub in Oxford, claiming that this is where his emperor spent much of his time studying in the UK.
He also celebrated Burns Night by holding a book of Burns poetry and informing that “Auld Lang Syne is very popular in Japan, always sung at graduation ceremonies”. His videos often invoke both British and Japanese culture, history or sport.
His videos have a high engagement rate and go viral. Brits love him. “Hi, Japan. We love him. Can we keep him?” asked one commenter. “You are a breath of fresh air,” said another. Or overwhelmingly, “Probably the best diplomat in the world.”
In my previous pod, I cited multi-million-pound campaigns and initiatives. Mr Suzuki’s is low-cost. However, it lands with viewers as genuine, authentic, and a public diplomacy version of Employee-Generated Content. Asda staff may be dancing in the supermarket aisles, but Ambassador Suzuki is doing something similar yet appropriate to his job. He is the same age as me, and I offer my utmost respect for effectively embracing short video. He is on X at @AmbJapanUK.
A call to action to my former colleagues at FCDO. Wake up! Telling British ambassadors to post on X with a photo and a sentence regularly is no longer fit for purpose. Video first. Train your comms people around the world in the skills of storytelling, and shooting and editing video. It isn’t just the technical ability to shoot and edit video. That doesn’t go viral. Good, authentic storytelling does.
[Image of Japanese flag by engin akyurt on Unsplash]
