"A great performance stirs ones soul, rearranges someone's molecules, turns one's being inside out. It gives you a new insight on life, a new place to stand, a new range of experiences." [Benjamin Zander]
To me authentic is the expression of a company culture through marketing communication in human speak. A simple digest of complex information of what the company helps you do that makes it interesting. More storytelling and appreciative inquiry than positioning.
To translate that in internal communications, it's what gives you that rise of pride in your chest when you read a memo. Less messaged, more real. Here's where we are, here's where we're going. You're very much part of it, and this is why.
When related to external publics, it's the easy conversation that takes place with a trusted source, someone who comes through with technical or domain knowledge. What you need to get the story written, the numbers down, the details straight, the community informed. It's when you know that the truth is more important than the facts.
Truth in advertising? There can be such a thing. It may not be a campaign. Truth lasts for as long as things change and things change all the time.
[seal from Mila Displays]