Crisis Management

It may be difficult to separate personal feelings from professional ones when considering the story of Stephen Bannon, the former Trump White House strategist, being dis-invited to appear at the New Yorker Festival next month. Nevertheless, the incident provides several timely lessons for communicators in these uncertain times.

A new study from PR News and Dataminr finds nearly 40% of PR professionals lack immediate access to breaking information. Roughly the same percentage admits developments about their brand caught them off-guard.

In each edition of PR News we highlight takeaways from select articles as well as additions to the PR News Resources Center, available to subscribers only at: http://www.prnewsonline.com/subscriber-resources/

There have been a slew of PR crises this summer, so we asked Hill + Knowlton head of crisis/risk Kevin Elliott and kglobal crisis SVP Scott Sobel for their take on several: the response to the PA Grand Jury report; Les Moonves and CBS; MoviePass; Elon Musk: and the death of Jordan McNair, a football player at the University of Maryland. While Elliott and Sobel agree on the importance of a rapid response and transparency, the particulars of the responses and tactics in the various crises divided these experts in several cases.

How long does it take before a crisis is truly over? That’s a question some communicators might be asking after news broke that comedian Louis C.K. performed live for the first time since sexual misconduct allegations against him went public in November.

This could have easily have been a moment of crisis for JUUL Labs, manufacturers of the eponymous JUUL e-cigarette vaporizer, after The New York Times published a lengthy investigative report Monday detailing the company’s history of marketing its sleek, easy-to-use vaporizer to underage consumers. Instead, the fact that nothing nuclear happened to JUUL Labs this morning is a testament to the brand’s “proactive, not reactive” approach to reputation management.

Communicators know if your brand isn’t telling its story someone else will be glad to, and you’ll probably dislike what’s being said. In a case PR students likely will be studying for years, Papa John’s Pizza International is relating its narrative, but so is founder Papa John Schnater, the ex-chairman/CEO, who’s launched a website with a competing view of events.

A recent Grand Jury report detailed over 1,000 cases of sexual abuse by “more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years” by leaders in the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. Several Catholic bishops in Pennsylvania released statements immediately after the report was filed, but there was obvious disagreement among the responses. And Pope Francis didn’t release a statement until the morning of Aug. 20, a full six days after the report came to light.

An almost-constant refrain of PR crisis management pros is that brands and organizations should own their mistakes, apologize and describe how it plans to ensure a similar crisis does not reoccur. Still, many brands ignore this advice. While it delayed for weeks, the University of Maryland did the right thing August 14, admitting legal and moral responsibility for a student-athlete’s tragic death.

Several airlines have been in the news recently for crises, many of which were criticized for how the situations were handled. Alaska Airlines and its subsidiary Horizon, however, seems to have learned lessons from these situations, as its communications surrounding this tragic incident were quick, measured and informative. Here are some takeaways for communicators from the Alaska Airlines situation.