“Monitoring social networks helps us to map the situation and target well,” says Václav Koukolíček, Tesco’s spokesman

This year, the PR Club of Czech republic announced the Spokesperson of the Year professional awards, and its winner in the Best Private Sector Spokesperson category was Václav Koukolíček from Tesco Czech Republic. It was a difficult year for many companies and the approach to the current coronavirus crisis was one of the criteria for evaluating the winner. Therefore, we asked Mr Koukolíček how his work changed in 2020, where he goes for inspiration and how he views winning the award.

This year was very unique for everyone and it was necessary to communicate many unprecedented situations. This is doubly true in your field. How do you feel about winning the Press Spokesman of the Year 2020 award?

I really appreciate the award, there are many great professionals in this field, so I was surprised and pleased by the award. Big thanks also goes to all my Tesco colleagues who help me in my work and provide me with all the necessary information.

How has your work changed for you in 2020?

The past year has significantly affected a number of areas of our lives and that includes the ways of communication. Personal contacts were reduced, most communication went online, and overall communication accelerated. You had to react to a number of changes in a very short time. Many things have sped up significantly. By operating in three markets in Central Europe, we have used video calling and other online communication tools. But I’m really looking forward to everything working normally again and we will be able to meet again without restrictions.

You have been working in PR for many years and the field has been developing a lot, especially recently. Where do you go for inspiration and where do you follow trends?

The source of inspiration for me is everyone around me – colleagues, friends, customers and members of my family. I try to follow industry websites and magazines and have an overview of everything important that is happening. I like to read Marketing & Media magazine and visit their website regularly, as well as Zboží a prodej, Mediar.cz, Mediaguru.cz, Czechcrunch.cz and Forbes.cz. I also like to listen to their podcasts. Among recent books, I would mention Reputation Management: The Future of Corporate Communications and Public Relations by Tony Langham.

Because I know you use Mediaboard, I have to ask…how do you work with it?

Mediaboard helps us to map events in the media quickly and very clearly. I appreciate that the system is constantly evolving and expanding new functionalities. Thanks to it, we can easily capture news and current trends, and clear analysis provides us with valuable comparisons with our competitors.

Social monitoring and listening are concepts that we encounter very often today. Do you monitor social networks?

Targeted communication to our key stakeholders is one of the things we work hard to do. We use a number of tools for this and it is a great help for us – thanks to it we can quickly map the situation and target our key groups well.