From an air traffic control crisis at LaGuardia Airport, to a PR workforce stretched thin by expanding expectations, to fans rewriting the rules of live sports engagement during March Madness—this week's PR Roundup covers timely moments and data for all communicators to learn from.
Crash at LaGuardia Prompts Disappointing Crisis Response
What happened: Late Sunday night, a Jazz Aviation flight, operating on behalf of Air Canada, was on its final approach to LaGuardia Airport when an airport fire truck—called to handle a separate emergency—crossed directly into its path on the runway. Investigators found the plane traveling at over 100 mph at impact. The crash killed both pilots and hospitalized dozens of passengers and crew. LaGuardia shut down for roughly 14 hours, canceling more than 500 flights—pretty unheard of for the third busiest airport in America.
The communications pipeline proved messy from the start. The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed conflicting information about who held ground controller duties that night and inconsistencies in the tower logs. Eighteen minutes after the collision, audio captured a controller telling a witnessing pilot: "We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up”—a moment that quickly went public and shaped an early narrative before any official findings or statements were released. CNN reported that the fire truck had no transponder and the airport's surface detection system issued no alert.
On Monday, following the accident, Air Canada's CEO, Michael Rousseau, offered a measured video statement acknowledging that circumstances were "still being assessed"—a response many felt underestimated the moment with no reveal of lives lost or injuries incurred. Rousseau also only offered the statement in English, which many, including the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, expressed disappointment in, as Montreal, Quebec serves as the company’s home—where French is the primary language.
Communications takeaways: Jennifer George, SVP of Communications at TAG-The Aspen Group, gave a pointed assessment on the response, noting that Air Canada's handling of the incident exposed failure at every layer of crisis communications—from the organizational to the deeply human.
"When legal (not acknowledging fatalities and injuries) wins the argument over communications in a moment like this, it isn't just a PR failure but a failure of basic decency," she says, saying that two people went to work Sunday night and didn't come home, and that the families of crew members are watching how companies respond.
On the question of brand accountability, she's equally direct: "The logo owns the crisis, not the org chart." The franchise model creates a temptation to defer to the operating partner, in this case Jazz instead of Air Canada, but consumers don't read organizational charts—they read the name on the plane. She pointed to American Airlines' response to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport crash in January 2025 as the standard every airline team is now measured against: statement out the same night, family hotline live within hours, CEO on record.
George’s sharpest criticism though, is reserved for the moment Rousseau finally appeared on camera 15 hours after the crash, delivering that statement in English—with just "bonjour" and "merci" bookending French subtitles. This is a big deal because one of the two pilots killed was a French-speaking Quebec resident and the flight had departed from Montreal. The Quebec Premier called for Rousseau's resignation.
And it was, notably, the third time he has faced national controversy over the same issue.
"A crisis statement that creates a new crisis is worse than no statement at all," George says. “The communications team that cleared that video either didn't flag the issue, didn't have the standing to stop it or was overruled. However, a crisis statement exists to make people feel seen, and this one made the people most affected feel excluded. That's a failure of preparation, audience awareness and basic leadership accountability.”
Social Media Courtside: March Madness in Real Time
What happened: March Madness began last week, and the tournament reached its highest viewership since 2011—with social media being an essential part of the broadcast experience as fans increasingly turn to a “second screen.” According to Sprout Social research, 51% of consumers now follow TV through social media either exclusively or alongside the program itself.
Basketball fans are taking to social media to share their brackets, debate upsets and discuss the opening rounds in real time. Since February 23, Sprout Social says the tournament has generated 1,031,511 mentions and 13,385,311 total engagements (likes, comments and shares).
Of course, this is something that gets the attention of brands, who are leaning in with athlete-led content that meets fans where they are. Capital One’s Instagram Reel featuring behind-the-scenes clips of a commercial with WNBA star Caitlin Clark alongside basketball legends Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley, as well as actor Samuel L. Jackson reached 581,983 views and garnered a 6.9% engagement rate—earning $36,281 in estimated media value.
Some key moments on social have included:
- Olivier Rioux’s 7'9″ Height: An Instagram post from the official March Madness page showed Florida Gators center Olivier Rioux baffling his opponent Hassane Diallo with his record breaking height, and it racked up 9.2 million views.
- Nostalgia & Viewing Rituals: Fans are using X to share personal traditions; a March 18 post about memories of skipping school to watch the games drove over 46,000 engagements.
- Historic First Wins: Prairie View A&M won its first NCAA Tournament game in school history and its celebratory Instagram post garnered a 21.75% engagement rate.
Communications takeaways: While social media has paired with live sports events for years, Scott Morris, CMO at Sprout Social, says this year marks the first time that March Madness proved social media was no longer just the “second screen.”
“It’s a primary hub for unscripted fan culture,” Morris says. “Viewers are going beyond the broadcast to find community.”
Morris also notes that for brands and comms pros, the tournament is highlighting how audiences don’t just want to see or engage with campaigns in one place—they carry them to social, meaning social shouldn’t be an afterthought but a central part of how campaigns are built and measured.
“Social intelligence should inform strategy from the start and in real-time, helping communicators understand what’s resonating and where conversations are evolving,” he says. “Best-in-class brands meet audiences where they are, adapt to the organic conversations that are driving engagement and extend the life of their campaigns.”
CCOs are Not Getting any Happier
What happened: The Conference Board's latest CMO+CCO Meter paints a picture of cautious optimism overshadowed by a growing workload crisis. Budget confidence is up from June 2025, but satisfaction with workload is heading in the opposite direction among communications leaders.
On the resources front, the numbers show modest improvement. CCO budget confidence climbed from 23% to 33%, and tool confidence ticked up from 33% to 38%. But team confidence slipped—only 35% of CCOs feel well-equipped by their teams, down from 40% last year.
Meanwhile, communications' perceived business impact is softening: only 54% of CCOs say their CEO views the comms team's impact as growing, down sharply from a recent peak of 69% in March 2025.
The starkest findings are in the workload data. Key stats for CCOs include:
- 34% are satisfied with their workload—down a dramatic 20 points from 54% in June 2025
- 70% report general job satisfaction, down from 79%
- 61% are satisfied with recognition, a modest bump from 58%
- 65% say their team's impact on the business grew over the past six months, down from 69%
As Conference Board Head of Research, Marketing & Communications, US, Denise Dahlhoff says, "AI, expectations and market conditions" are all contributing to the crunch. The tension here is real: communications leaders have more budget than they did a year ago—and less capacity to use it.
Communication takeaways: An expanding workload for CCOs is a modern reflection of how exactly the role has evolved. In addition to leading communications, many CCOs now serve as strategic advisors to CEOs and senior leaders. At the same time, comms leaders are trying to integrate AI into their team’s daily work and optimizing their company’s digital presence— websites, social media, earned media, reviews—to improve visibility in AI platforms and GEO search results.
Dahlhoff offers simple ways for CCOs and their teams to mitigate the workload by clearly delegating and defining responsibilities and prioritizing initiatives, especially on projects with remote workers.
“What can increase efficiency is creating guidelines for collaborators to know when the comms team should be brought in—not too early and not too late in the process,” Dahlhoff says.
Dahlhoff says talent development also enables delegating and thus lighter workloads.
“In 2026, according to our research, CEOs’ and C-suites’ number one priority for communications is corporate strategy, i.e., not just messaging about it but also giving input,” she says. “This requires business acumen, judgment and the ability to interact with senior executives. CCOs can reduce pressure on themselves by developing these capabilities within their teams through targeted project assignments and coaching.”
Bonus: MLB Opening Week’s Most Fun Campaign
Ahead of MLB Opening Day, Alaska Airlines and Mogg Media released a new marketing campaign featuring American League MVP runner-up and Seattle Mariners star Cal Raleigh. Titled “The Big Seat,” the new commercial features Raleigh and the Mariner Moose reclining in Alaska Airlines’ new lie-flat 787 Dreamliner Suites, actually on the playing field. If you aren’t baseball marketing savvy, “The Big Seat” is a nod to Raleigh’s nickname, “The Big Dumper.” Play ball!
Nicole Schuman is a Mets fan and Managing Editor of PRNEWS.