‘A visible leader is an engaged leader’ Are Ghanaian Banks’ CEOs Not Engaging? CEOs Media Visibility Deficit Ratings.

Does it Matter
According to Dorothy Crenshaw of Crenshaw communications, “a visible leader is an engaged leader and CEOs role extends far beyond the traditional confines of boardrooms and executive suites” (https://crenshawcomm.com/02/14/2024). Certainly, CEOs visibility impacts on how engaging a brand is, with the leader’s identity intrinsically linked to the brand’s image. CEO brands of today are in a competitive communication environment hence the voice of a CEO has a relative force in uplifting a brand above its competitors. Unfortunately, many CEOs continue to trivialize media visibility with less attention. Banking sectors across the globe thrives on their brand’s reputation which is subsequently linked to a CEO’s media engagements visibility and framing. Other CEOs however are deploying consistent brand communication strategies of activities in projecting their banks through the CEO’s public-personality profiling strategy, and also humanizing the CEO whilst increasing the brand’s reputational values. Notwithstanding the positive impact of CEOs visibility on corporate brands, CEOs exposure needs to be managed with tactful public relation strategy to avoid overexposure which is likely to create person-fatigue impact on consumers and relations. As matter of business positioning, media visibility of a CEO stands to gain an integrated CEO-brand awareness, general brand recognition since the CEO’s identity is link to the brand. Furthermore, CEOs visibility also impacts positively on customer-attachment growth, and is likely to draw a volume in investor interest and relations. It is therefore not far-fetched to say, a strategic media coverage of CEOs does matter in positive brand projections effort and brand relations planning. It’s against the backdrop of the importance of CEOs’ media visibility is the following report from January to September, 2024 (Q1 – Q3, 2024) on Ghanaian banks’ electronic and traditional media visibility coverage was conducted.

How Engaging
The study analysed traditional and electronic media coverage of 23 Ghanaian Banks as listed by the Central Bank of Ghana (Bank of Ghana) and their CEOs by employing news content approach of assigning numerical values to CEOs media appearances and its related symbols of brand story coverage and reach. This report seeks to draw attention to the visibility positions of the 23 Ghanaian banks’ CEOs visibility ranking for Q1 – Q3, 2024. The objective of this ranking is to encourage the corporate communication departments of these banks and banks in general to embrace CEO media visibility as a brand engagement strategy for business growth and brand relations improvement. Corporates are to evolve planed events that spurs CEOs news narratives and subsequently media visibility. Again, media visibility should not only be limited to media appearance but the aggregation of direct-voice quoting and paraphrasing - voice of CEOs in a news narrative. A CEO with high voice pitch in direct quotes is seen as more visible with a better sense of brand impact than a CEO with high degree of paraphrased voices or statements. Similarly, CEOs who are neither directly quoted nor paraphrased in news story may suffer a huge brand visibility deficit. This study from the 1^st of January to the 30^th of September, 2024 (Q1 – Q3, 2024) employed news content analysis approach and analysed 1,783 banking news stories of TV, Online, Radio and Print media. In addition, 31, 544 banking related issues, and 87,947 news statements were analysed. The validity of the analysis was based on Inter-Coder validity of 85% Coder Validity.

From the data results, the CEO of the First Bank, Victor Yaw Asante was ranked the most visible Ghanaian bank CEO among the 23 Ghanaian Banks whilst the CEOs of UMB Bank and First Atlantic Bank; Samuel Sakyi-Hyde and Odun Odunfa respectively trailing at the bottom ranks as reflected in Fig. A.

In terms of CEOs voice actuality measurements for direct-voice quotes of banking CEOs visibility perspective; 2,238 CEO’s direct-voice quotes from 87,947 news statements were analysed. The CEO of Fidelity Bank, Julian Kingsley Opuni was ranked the most quoted banking CEO in banking news coverage whilst First Bank CEO, Victor Yaw Asante ranked the most voice-paraphrased CEO among the Ghanaian banking CEOs as highlighted in Fig B and C.

Corporate CEOs visibility should remain at the central element in corporate’s strategic planning and brand positioning. Subsequently, a planned effort of an integration of mentions, pictures, logos, direct voice quotes and paraphrasing into corporate strategic thinking is desirable. Banking CEOs are therefore encouraged to engage their consumers and all relations through a strategic measurable media relations and planning for a rewarding brand gain. Primarily, a CEO’s media visibility deficit in any form should be treated with the needed scientific attention in order to offset the visibility drawbacks.

Fig A