Jim Vibert
Strategic Counsel
Jim is Alidade Marketing's strategic counsel. He will provide media training and even do some writing, once in a while. His no nonsense approach and ability to cut through the detail to identify the audience need is invaluable to the end product we deliver.
Jim has spent his 30+ year career in and around the news media. Before moving into communications and public relations, he started out as a reporter, and later an editor. He covered provincial and national politics and public affairs. That beat took him coast-to-coast-to-coast more than a dozen times, and brought him face-to-face with some of the best communicators of our age, including Pierre Trudeau, Rene Levesque and Brian Mulroney. Since moving into marketing and PR work more than 20-years ago, Jim has developed a reputation as one of the top issues managers and media relations experts in this market. He has prepared premiers, business leaders and others for some of the most sensitive and high risk communications efforts of their careers. Jim's success in message development and message management made him the Nova Scotia government's top communications strategist, a position he held under three premiers, Savage, MacLellan and Hamm. He is currently assistant Vice President for marketing and communications at Dalhousie University.
As our media trainer, Jim provides both general media training, and issue-specific media preparation. He rejects as thoughtless and lazy the "stay-on-message-at-all-costs" school of media training, which is, as Jim says "responsible for destroying the credibility of legions of politicians, and casting otherwise thoughtful people in the role of programmed dullard." He teaches how to engage with the media, answer questions, and deliver a clear message.
As a writer, Jim is known as a master of phrasing. He can create compelling copy in minutes, when he has to, but will also wrestle for hours to find exactly the right sentence to open or close an important speech. Complex, detailed client drafts, in his hands, become strong, clear, audience-attuned communications.
Jim also leads our crisis communications advice and planning for clients, offering clients solid solutions based on experience and results.