one thing Kate and William have ‘nailed’ after Harry and Meghan’s failure
A PR expert claims that the Prince and Princess of Wales “nailed” the branding in Kate’s cancer update video – an area where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have seen many failures.
The Princess of Wales shared in the video a hopeful cancer update and revealed that she has finished her chemotherapy treatment.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have often been criticised for their branding and the approach to life away from the Royal Family, but according to PR expert and GoUp’s chief executive Edward Coram-James, this is something that Kate and William have excelled in.
Speaking of the video cancer update shared by Kensington Palace last week, Mr Coram-James told Express.co.uk: “You must correctly match the character to the brand. William and Catherine have nailed this.
They’ve really leant into a new, folksy branding. Floaty dresses. Bare feet. Corn fields. Artsy towels on a beach. Log piles. Walks through the woods with family. Super-8 style film. It builds a sense of two gentle people that enjoy the simple things in life.
It’s gentle on the central nervous system and reminds us of the important things in life, away from the madness and over stimulation of TikTok etc. No easy feat for the future King and Queen, in a family more commonly associated with pomp than with simplicity. But, they’ve succeeded. The setting and the principles blend perfectly with one another.
Although careful to not criticise Meghan and Harry, Mr Coram-James added: “I don’t wish to seem to be bashing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but it’s almost impossible not to critique their communication style when set next to the Prince and Princess of Wales.”
Discussing Meghan and Harry’s communication and branding approach, he added: “I say this because the Sussexes have also tried to lean into a folksy image of themselves, with videos taken in wilderness settings, with floaty dresses etc. But, it just doesn’t work for them. There’s a clash between the settings and the personalities.”
Explaning this further, the expert added: “Like Dukakis in his tank, it comes across as insincere, performative and cringy. Round peg, square hole. If you want to come across as kind, then, like the Princess of Wales, you have to embody kindness. You cannot simply put yourself in a floaty dress with gentle music playing in the background and expect everyone to believe that that’s who you are.
“Wearing folksy clothing and walking through nature in a photo or video, while not appearing to embody kindness with your everyday words and actions, can create the complete opposite effect: it creates a contrast, almost as if (unintentionally) saying to the public: hey, look how out of place we are in this setting.
Expanding on his opinion, Mr Coram-James added: “To be fair to the Sussexes, they seem to have learned the lessons from bad PR, and appear to have turned the page. I attribute much of their fall-from-public-favour purely as a reflection of what can happen with bad PR. It does not mean that they’re bad people.
“For all we know, the Sussexes could be kind, caring and incredible people. It’s just that they had a bad PR plan.
“But, that’s the thing with PR: if it goes wrong, the public can, fairly or unfairly, decide that it makes you a bad person, where, when it goes right, the public can decide that you’re a good person. It’s why communications are so key.
