Crisis Management

Vaccines for COVID-19 have arrived and logistics for distribution seem to be in place. Now another hurdle exists: convincing enough of the public that the vaccines work as advertised and that they’re safe and necessary. Reciting data and statistics to bolster trust will work only to a point. The communication piece of the vaccine effort must proceed carefully, speaking to people in language they can understand.

This week on LinkedIn Live the PRNEWS staff gave its 2020 wrap-up. They talked about notable campaigns, missed opportunities and changes for 2021.

In a sense, the public has become inured to data breaches. Everyone seems to have one. Yet when one of the world’s top cybersecurity companies gets hacked, it’s a very serious situation. Fortunately, cybersecurity leader FireEye was transparent in communicating its breach, which it said occurred “recently.”

Unfortunately for many organizations that use the MobileCause platform, its GivingTuesday outage caused challenges. Worse, it took too long to find out what was wrong on the biggest giving day of the year. While the company provided updates via Twitter, it did not release its first email statement to users until hours later.

A PR crisis is bad enough. It’s worse when one occurs on a holiday and potentially ruins your customers’ holiday. That’s the time to act promptly, apologize sincerely and attempt to win back loyalty and trust. Apparently, that’s not how Boston Market is managing its turkey of a Thanksgiving.

[ Editor’s Note: Having a plan is the minimum requirement for crisis pros. That’s not always possible as veteran brand communicator Bobbie Carlton tells us in this Q&A.] PRNEWS: Give us the scenario

The goal of crisis management is to return as quickly as possible to business as usual, right? Actually, regaining public trust might be a better target. However, regaining the public’s trust takes time. In addition, it requires a change story that’s communicated consistently during the transition to normalcy. A good example is Chipotle, which continues to communicate its change story. The brand is a Wall St darling again.

AstraZenica committed classic crisis PR mistakes last week with its initial announcement about its coronavirus vaccine. Its incomplete reporting to the media led to several subsequent statements that could degrade trust in the company and its vaccine.

One of the most enjoyable parts of PR and communication is that you’re constantly learning, even when doing pleasure reading. In this post from Crisis Insider, we learn about two novels with fictional PR crises at their center. While these novels offer fictional crises, the lessons they offer PR pros are real and useful.

The Ring recall may prove daunting, as it appears to place responsibility on the consumer. Not only is support information hard to find on Ring’s website, but the company blames faulty installation for any fires, not the doorbell.