Prince William and Princess Kate have implemented a new communication strategy marking a significant shift in their public relations approach.
The new strategy was implemented in the new photograph of Prince Louis to celebrate his 6th birthday.
William and Kate’s communication strategy
This change in Kensington Palace’s communication comes after the incident of the controversial manipulated Mother’s Day photo.
The image generated criticism towards Kate at a time when conspiracy theories were at their highest level due to the prolonged absence of the princess.
At the time, Kate had more than two months without appearing in public. She was last seen on Christmas Day at Sandringham.
The evidently edited photo led to a loss of confidence and Kensington Palace was labeled as an unreliable source of information.
This was made known by Phil Chetwynd, global news director of Agence France-Presse (AFP), who told BBC Radio 4’s The Media Show.
The photo agencies considered that the editing in the Mother’s Day photo of Kate with her three children had not met their editorial standards.
That bitter episode at a delicate time in her health prompted the Princess of Wales to apologize for her amateur editing.
Faced with the distrust of the photo agencies and to avoid future misunderstandings, William and Kate decided to publish the photo of Prince Louis directly on social networks.
The Wales preferred to break the rule book for the distribution of family portraits and avoided handing them over to photo agencies.
The images were always sent before publication to the photo agencies for distribution to media outlets around the world.
However, on this occasion to celebrate their youngest son’s birthday, they opted to keep control over their public image.
Prince Louis’ birthday photo
The birthday photo of little Louis was taken by the Princess of Wales.
Despite being convalescent, Kate has wanted to maintain the tradition of being the family photographer for special days.
For Ingrid Seward, the new strategy of the Prince and Princess of Wales is right after the trauma experienced with the photograph of Mother’s Day.
“They’ve obviously decided that they want to be in control, which I completely understand,” Seward told Newsweek, “I would do the same. I think its just another nail in the coffin of agency photography.”
Twelve days after the Mother’s Day photo saga, Kate announced on video that she was diagnosed with cancer after undergoing planned abdominal surgery.
The most important thing about this new communication strategy of the Prince and Princess of Wales is that there have been no accusations of editing in the photo of Prince Louis’ birthday.
This change of course is evidence of the couple’s effort to maintain greater autonomy in their communication with the public.