Faithful communications: What The Traitors can teach us about controlling the narrative

As Celebrity Traitors returns to our screens, there’s already been plenty of speculation about who will be the best liar (spoiler: not Richard E Grant), who will spot the Traitors first and who will crack under pressure.

Beneath the constant deception, paranoia and dramatic round tables, The Traitors is really a game about something much more familiar to us PR folk: effective communication.

It’s about understanding people, building relationships, influencing opinions, knowing when to speak and when to keep quiet and, above all, controlling the narrative.

If you want a masterclass in all the above, look no further than Rachel Duffy – joint winner of The Traitors season 4. Rachel is a Head of Communications by profession and before entering the castle, she had already identified that her communications skills would give her an advantage.

In fact, she deliberately tried to hide them. Rachel told the other contestants she worked in marketing (which wasn’t a total lie) but left out the fact that she worked in a strategic communications role. As she put it recently in a talk delivered at the Midlands PR Conference, she didn't want them to know that “speaking to people and getting my point across” was something she did day-in day-out.

She knew her superpower, she knew how to use it, and it won her almost £48,000.

It's not just what you say, it's how you say it

Rachel's game demonstrated that effective communication isn't about being the loudest person in the room. At the round tables, she wasn’t always the most vocal and while others were throwing around names, she sat, observed and carefully considered what she wanted to say, and delivered her arguments calmly.

When suspicion landed on her – the big breakfast showdown with Harriet (truly threw a cat amongst the pigeons!) - she didn't panic or over-explain, she stayed composed and focused on the message she wanted to get across.

When an organisation faces scrutiny, the instinct can be to respond immediately and say everything. Effective communication is about doing the opposite: understanding the situation, considering the audience and deciding what actually needs to be said at the right time.

Controlling the narrative

Rachel also understood that controlling a narrative doesn't mean controlling what everyone thinks. It means influencing what people are thinking about.

One of her self-professed strengths throughout the series was her ability to redirect attention. When suspicion was heading towards her, she was able to introduce another interpretation and pose another question or person for the group to consider.

The best PR strategies work in much the same way. They don't simply push a message into the world and hope people notice it. They consider the wider conversation: what is being said already, who is saying it, what does the audience currently think about that topic, what could change their mind and where can we credibly own our portion of the discussion?

Rachel knew communications was her superpower

What's perhaps most interesting about Rachel's story, though, is that her communications expertise didn't start in the castle.

When I recently heard Rachel speak, she talked about her career at Clanrye Group, where she started in a more junior marketing role. Rather than waiting for communications to become a function within the business, she worked to prove its value. She encouraged senior colleagues to invest in communications and demonstrated what it could achieve for the organisation.

In doing so, this effectively benefited the business, but also created opportunities for herself to progress, ultimately becoming a senior communications professional. It's a brilliant example of why PR and marketing, while closely connected, aren't interchangeable and why if you’re doing one it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be doing the other too.

Marketing tells people about your product, service or organisation, but PR and communications shapes what people think, feel and say about it.

The real lesson for brands

There is an obvious irony in taking communications advice from someone whose sole objective was to deceive an entire room of people. But Rachel's success wasn't down to being a good liar.

She was strategic, she understood her audience and she remained consistent under pressure, knowing when to speak and when to hold back.

Those are the same skills that make communications valuable to brands. Because effective PR isn't just about securing coverage or getting a message out, it’s about understanding people and influencing conversations.

So, as Celebrity Traitors begins, perhaps we should watch the round tables through a slightly different lens.

• Who is communicating effectively?

• Who understands their audience?

• Who is controlling the narrative?

• And, ultimately, who has the communications strategy?

Because whether you're in a Scottish castle or a big-city boardroom, there's one thing we can all be a little more faithful to: the power of good communications.