Crisis Management

Cynthia Martinez has handled some of the worst crises you could imagine. As director of global corporate communications for Royal Caribbean Cruises, Martinez has dealt with everything from fires to a guest committing suicide by jumping overboard. And since any of Royal Caribbean’s guests can tweet or post a video the moment a crisis arises, her team needs to be quick, transparent and, most of all, prepared. Martinez, who will speak at PR News’ Digital and Marketing Show Oct. 17-19 in Miami, shares a few tips on how to own the narrative.

MillerCoors’ CCO Pete Marino discusses why large brands remain vulnerable to crisis and why PR blunders still occur. He also expands on a discussion about his brand’s relatively new blog, transparency and how he would spend an unlimited budget.

Imagine that one day you wake up to find that your brand’s web domain has been seized by the FBI and there is a warning blazoned across the page alleging the brand and its customers have committed federal crimes—and that prison time and fines may be involved. Reputation trouble doesn’t get much worse than that. But this was exactly the situation PokerStars found itself in.

PR pros know that having a Crisis Communications Plan (CCP) is critical. The more difficult task is keeping the plan’s steps top-of-mind for rapid recall when you need them. Chances are your CCP is sitting on a shelf somewhere. This article provides a handy checklist of CCP steps as well as a step-by-step approach to handling crisis communications in a way that will be easy for staff to remember.

In part II of our interview with Taco Bell’s social media and brand engagement manager Matt Prince, we ask him about how the brand manages during the initial moments of a potential crisis. With 7,000 restaurants across the country, incidents pop up constantly, he tells us, making social listening crucial. We also discuss the particulars of how Prince and his team measurement and report metrics to the C-Suite.

Social media can be a blessing and a curse. While it provides an information dissemination platform that an organization can use to communicate with its stakeholders during a crisis, the fact that anyone with access to the Internet or social media can broadcast information about the crisis and an organization’s actions or inactions can result in the dissemination of misleading information. This article provides guidance for using social media in a crisis environment.

Spokespeople may be making poor choices this week, but PR and communications teams are demonstrating that their crisis plans are robust by taking quick, decisive action and communicating it to the public effectively. With influencer marketing on the rise, more PR departments large and small should keep these incidents in mind as potential crisis models to anticipate—and responses to emulate.

While it’s still difficult to distinguish all the facts in the airline industry’s latest crisis, there’s enough material available so that we can extract several lessons. Speaking of lessons, those who make a living teaching PR have to be thankful for the wealth of material the airlines have provided them in just the past six months. Since the only freebies airlines provide regularly are small bags of peanuts and soft drinks, PR teachers might consider making a charitable donation to the carriers.

Several situations last week prompted us to think about how brands respond (or don’t) to situations that could become crises. Ken Peterson, communications director of Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Bell Helicopter CCO Robert Hastings urge brands to include an evaluation process in their emergency plans to determine whether or not a situation is a crisis. This evaluation process should include monitoring social conversations and news coverage. That’s step 1 at the Aquarium, Peterson says. Step 2 is an initial assessment to “ramp up or stand down.”

It’s generally accepted that brands are highly vulnerable to crises. We’ve all heard the maxim, “It’s not a question of if your brand will experience a crisis, but when.” The good news is that since communicators work across the enterprise, they are well placed to know where a crisis might erupt. But how about when it doesn’t take an experienced communicator to know that a brand might be vulnerable? We look at two incidents where issues have arisen and brands might be tempted to act.