A week of learning about Crises and Sponsorship

Hi all,

This past week has been a good learning experience for me as I have learnt how to plan and deal with a Public Relations crisis. The planning part is to me the most important part as it determines how a company will manage a crisis when it occurs. I helped out in this situation by giving the consultants my thoughts on what I would do if I were the PR professional dealing with the crisis. This helped the consultants as it allowed for them to hear what I thought and see if there was anything they hadn’t already thought of. Once the crisis occurs it is then important to assess the situation and depending on the company’s position, the PR professional must decide whether the company needs to act. I have learnt that sometimes it is better to do nothing as the crisis may disappear quietly but other times, depending on the situation, it is important for the company to respond quickly and efficiently – this is where planning comes in handy as generally it has already been planned what is needed to be said. The most important task when dealing with a crisis is to monitor the media and this is the key role I played. It is crucial to monitor the opinions and responses of not only key stakeholders but the public too as this can often determine whether the company needs to act or make a statement and it can also give PR professionals an idea of how the media has portrayed the company.

I have also in this past week gained experience within the area of sponsorship and learning how sponsorship can provide great opportunities for a company. The task was given to me to research potential events in a relative industry to one of our clients and determine whether the events had sponsorship opportunities for the client. Some of the events I came across (especially exhibitions) provided a number of sponsorship packages, each one providing different benefits based on the amount the package was worth. I learnt that sponsorship can act as not only a great source of income but as an expense opportunity for a company that wishes to gain exposure and increase the awareness of their brand.

I hope everyone is enjoying the uni break!