In the last fortnight, I’ve worked on stories involving a Premier League football club, an F1 team, Turkey’s biggest cloud service provider, a global medtech, a Scandinavian steel manufacturer, a second division German football club, a hospital trust in the UK Midlands, and a European university with a massive supercomputer.

If these stories follow the standard approval timelines, I should be ready to name names in about eight weeks.

Customer advocacy moves slowly, for understandable reasons. Customer approval is everything; there is little upside to promoting a story that hasn’t yet been signed off. Going early and risk irritating a customer who regularly spends seven figures a year is not the clever move. Promotion errs on the side of caution.

But could there be another way?

Most modern media brands, working on a feature involving a ‘name’, would have agreements in place to tease the story ahead of publication. This may include behind-the-scenes shots of the interview taking place, and a series of snippets released in the weeks before publication. Some might even invite their audience to suggest questions before the interview takes place. All of this is intended to generate buzz and build engagement. All of this promotional activity is designed to burnish, not embarrass, the ‘name’.

These kinds of agreements shouldn’t be beyond the reach of advocacy marketers. The 1,000-word story, when it is finally approved, is not the story. The story is the fact an interesting, high-profile customer is taking part in your advocacy programme. Shout up.