Crisis Management

A bevy of questions asked during a recent PRNEWS webinar about media relations form the basis for this roundtable where PR pros discuss pitching and product launches during the pandemic. In short, you can pitch and launch products during the pandemic. It requires careful research and a sensitive approach, however.

As stores and businesses suspended operations in the wake of the pandemic, many sent customers updates of new business hours, closures, delays and service suspensions. The question, though, is how to communicate such messages. Should you be an advocate or an apologist? Both approaches have merit.

A PR and marketing maxim holds that you can never know too much about members of your audience. With so much possibly changing during the pandemic, what PR pros and marketers know about their audiences… Continued

When PR pros use the words internal communications, usually they’re talking about messaging from corporate leaders to staff. Traditionally, internal communications is considered an afterthought, a low priority. At this uncertain moment, though, it’s taken… Continued

The travel industry undoubtedly took a huge hit with the onslaught of COVID-19, so communicators reassessed messaging to address customer concerns and provide assurance. While uncertainty looms around this new normal, brands look to guide customers with a steady hand for any future travel needs. 

Despite the PR blip, Mayo Clinic came out relatively unscathed in the media—a top medical facility whose hands were tied by the executive branch of government—while the vice president’s office still has much to answer for in the court of public opinion.

Working in a highly regulated industry with multiple stakeholders, Aflac’s communications team issued some 150 pieces of content during the pandemic’s first weeks. One tactic the team is using, writes CCO Catherine Hernandez-Blades, is to condition audiences to head to a single point for information and updates.

The PPP loan program was supposed to help small businesses that the coronavirus ravaged. How, then, did ‘small businesses’ like the Los Angeles Lakers, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and AutoNation apply for and receive money?

As a reporter in Washington, you learn that when the president speaks, it’s news. It doesn’t necessarily matter what the president says, it’s still news, according to this rule. A rule all PR pros know is that words have consequences, especially when you’re in a crisis.

In late February, coronavirus was starting to pierce the US zeitgeist. Garland Stansell, the PRSA chair and a veteran health care communicator, told us then that producing a consistent message is critical to communications during… Continued