The Sweeney Agency

About Michael Maslansky - Speaker on Communication and Differentiating Brands and Products:

Michael Maslansky advises Fortune 500 corporations, industry associations, major litigation practices and non-profit organizations on communication. As a keynote speaker Michael shares his in-depth understanding of hot-button issues in banking and financial services, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, corporate social responsibility and non-profits, technology and consumer products, and litigation and politics. Over the years, he has helped Fortune 500 companies position and differentiate their brands and products during good times, and protect their reputations during crisis.

Clients that have sought Michael’s counsel include FedEx, Morgan Stanley, Procter & Gamble, UBS and The Walt Disney Company. He has also worked with a wide range of industry associations including the Financial Services Roundtable, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturer’s Association, the Personal Care Products Council, the Direct Marketing Association, and the New Orleans tourism industry.

How CEOs, companies, and entire industries communicate – whether during crises, in advertising and public relations campaigns, or with investors, Congress or the American people – often means the difference between success and failure. Clients from PepsiCo to eBay to Microsoft to Starbucks turn to Michael to understand the public mood, challenge conventional wisdom and transform not just what they say to key audiences – but how they say it.

Michael’s new book, The Language of Trust: Selling Ideas in a World of Skeptics was published in May of 2010. The book reviews the communication challenges that companies and industries face today and offers proven tools for building trust and credibility with consumers, regulators and the general public.

Michael’s strategic analysis builds on insights from his unique combination of expertise: battle-tested communications experience combined with a deep understanding of public opinion. He has conducted hundreds of research projects in over 20 countries using his firm’s trademarked polling and focus group methodology, lauded by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, ‘60 Minutes,’ ‘Nightline’ and PBS’s ‘Frontline,’ among others. Michael is one of corporate America’s leading communications and research strategists.

Prior to becoming CEO of Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research Michael founded MarketResearch.com, a leading market intelligence company where he served as president and remains on the Board. Previously, he led a distinguished career as a corporate attorney with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

What Michael Maslansky Talks About:

The Language of Trust
In today’s hyper-politicized sound-bite environment, clinging to arguments that fail to address an audience in their own language – regardless of how true those arguments might be – simply doesn’t work. Gaining support means communicating in language that resonates. Perception – not reality – determines how the world judges you: it’s not what YOU SAY that matters, but what THEY HEAR. So building trust begins with understanding how key audiences perceive you, your products or your issues.

With more than a decade’s worth of research into how consumers and the public perceive language, Michael Maslansky can deliver a presentation explaining what it means to communicate in our post-trust environment. He’ll share insights into new words and new techniques for your organization, whether in times of crisis, in advertising and public relations campaigns, or with investors. Unlike the prognosticators, the pundits, and the talking heads, Maslansky doesn’t just preach, he practices. He’s advised dozens of Fortune 500 CEO’S, association and foundation executives and scores of others on the new rules of communications. In an entertaining, highly relevant and engaging interactive presentation, Maslansky explains with real-world examples how:

• The truth is not enough: why you can no longer rely on the facts to tell your story.
• To walk a mile in their shoes: why the only view of the truth that matters is your audience’s.
• It’s the emotions, stupid: why communicators need to focus on emotions over reason or logic.
• There is more to fear than fear itself: why fear mongering hurts you more than it helps.
• To turn it down a notch: why the best approach to persuasion is not to persuade at all.

Live Instant Response Dial Session
Michael Maslansky won’t just explain he’ll show you how it’s done. He’ll customize a live, on stage, instant response dial session. Twenty participants who, carefully selected to reflect the specific needs and interests of your audience, use hand-held dials to react in real time to the language of your industry, issue or organization. Their reactions are projected in real time on large screens for conference attendees to view. This unique presentation provides a measureable look into the minds and emotions of customers, clients or any other important stakeholder group. Because your attendees are gaining insight directly from their target audience, this demonstration can bridge perception gaps, open minds and change behaviors in a way few other presentations can. Among the topics well suited to this style of interactive presentation:

• Branding
• Corporate reputation
• Public policy and political communication
• Employee relations and change management communication
• Sales
• Crisis management