Crisis Management

The alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has grown in intensity as a news story during the course of the past 17 days. Incidents involving the deaths of many more people fail to gain such traction. Several elements surrounding the Khashoggi incident may explain why.

Yesterday (Oct. 17) we wrote about the worsening reputation of USA Gymnastics (USAG). That post is updated with more bad news involving USAG. A former USAG president was arrested Oct. 18 for obstructing Texas’ investigation into Dr. Larry Nassar’s alleged crimes at the Karolyi Ranch. Our Oct. 17 post is updated with information about the arrest.

With so many examples of how not to navigate crises in the news, you’d think more brands and organizations would know the basics of managing them. While many do, the outlier that fails to be transparent,… Continued

Having just a few extra minutes to monitor a situation can mean the difference between good and bad crisis management. The so-called assessment moment is at the crux of a free report from PR News and DataMinr, a real-time information discovery company.

CEOs and board members spend much time worrying about and discussing risks to growth, though a new study from Deloitte indicates they lack strategic plans to counter the risks they’ve identified, such as disruptive technologies and cyber events, which lead the list. The study also shows brand reputation and culture are receiving too little attention.

Regulators already are calling for an investigation into why a Google+ data breach that was discovered in March was made public only this week. Google claims the breach was minor and did not warrant sending an alert to users, though the data of 500,000 might have been compromised. A Google blog post, though, seems to want to hide the data breach, too, creating bad optics for the company.

That hissing sound you hear is the Edelman Trust Barometer dropping like a lead zeppelin. The main culprit this time is Google. Did you read its Oct. 8 blog post? In “Project Strobe: Protecting your data,… Continued

Lawsuits are a part of doing business, which is what makes litigation PR such a crucial part of the overall communications industry and part of every brand’s communications strategy.

But now it’s happening to your brand. You know a suit is being released publicly later today. It’s potentially damaging.

So, what should you do?

Healthy fast-food chain Pret A Manger is in hot water after reports on Oct. 7 that another customer died from an allergic reaction to a Pret food item, making this the second account of an allergen-related death at the chain within the past two years. The brand seems to be reacting correctly, though.

“The millennial and Gen Z audience are always looking behind the marketing narrative at the purpose and the intention of companies and brands that they engage with,” says TwentyFirstCenturyBrand’s Jonathan Mildenhall (formerly of Airbnb and Coca-Cola). Here are some key tips for brands looking to define that purpose from Mildenhall’s keynote address at the PRSA International Conference 2018.