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Loading ...The other day Chris Abraham asked, via a comment on a previous post:
Are “transparency” and “full disclosure” the same, similar, or different? Are they peas-in-a-pod or can they be mutually-exclusive? Can you have transparency without disclosure? Can you have full-disclosure without transparency? Is full-disclosure a child of transparency?
These are good questions. It got me to thinking about what they are meant to be about. As an industry, we seem to have come to the conclusion that these are all important, that they are vital for the future success of marketing and PR. But sometimes key concepts such as transparency and full-disclosure become overused and get turned into buzzwords.
From where I sit, transparency and full disclosure are different.
Full disclosure is the stronger of the two. It means that the information is offered right off the bat. One doesn’t have to look at something to see if they can see through it (transparency) because the info that they may need about a marketing effort has been delivered to them at their doorstep.
Transparency means that if someone wants to check out the info behind an effort, all they have to do it take a look at the source of the info. It’s not volunteeered beforehand, but its readily available for all to see.
A couple of month ago, Eric Webber, writing in AdAge “Transparency Schamansparency: It’s Not the Business of PR”, brings up several good points and introduces the concept of “translucency”. A good read. His bottom line is that out clients are paying us to be storytellers. Yes, we have to be honest and but we aren’t doing this to bare all. He writes:
“In place of ‘transparent’, I’m championing a new buzzword. PR firms and their clients should strive to be translucent. When I think of something translucent, I think of a warm, flattering light that lets you see almost, but not quite everything. And if someone has a real need to take a peek around the screen, then, when you’re prepared, let them look.”
This often makes sense to me. Because we, as marketers, with too much transparency at the wrong time can end up becoming the story.
What do you think?
Filed under: Authenticity, Honesty, Open Kimono, Transparency
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I agree with you 1000% — that’s exactly what I thought. I just didn’t know how to explain it so well.