Crisis Management: Being Ready 24/7

Hi Everyone!

This is my second blog contribution. Instead of pointing out my daily routine at work, let me share more on my thoughts on the topic: Crisis Mangement.

I've been working in CROWD (A boutique agency in Singapore) for more than two months now. Some days consist of routine deskwork, while other days gets a little more perked-up. 

Well, I wouldn't exactly say meeting a crisis is exciting for account managers, it is however an eye opener for me. I’d be sharing three cases of crisis management from various incidents:

The first crisis ignited by a protest from an activist group, whom publicly displayed their unhappiness towards our client for supporting animal cruelty. The activist group involved was PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), known for their strong believe in animal rights. I will not divulge too much information due to sensitivity issue. But in a nut shell, PETA did managed to get it's message thru to the media. As a result, the news featured had reflected negatively on our client's reputation. I recalled having a discussion once during International Public Relation 340 module, that activists group have obtained a higher power of influence to the public than before. Therefore, it is important for companies to work with activists group rather than going against the tides.

The second crisis happened during a sports competition. The roof of the event venue was reported leaking due to heavy downpour and poor maintenance of the infrastructure. The leakage had delayed the match schedules, as the slippery floor needed constant cleaning. This issue had caused some displeasure amongst top-notch athletes and reflected badly on the event venue. The crisis did not directly affect our agency as we were not representing the event venue. However, our agency do have to give an official statement considering that we are the media liaison for the event. During such times, it is important to draw a clear line of whose responsibilities should it be, to refrain from getting  unwanted complains. 

Last (and hopefully the least), was an internal management crisis happened just yesterday. An athlete from the Singapore's team had abruptly announced his/her departure from the team prior to an upcoming international competition. As a result, the players list needs to be restructured in order to replace the athlete's position in the competition. The athlete's departure was based on his/ her own accord, thus I would say that our client, the sports organisation, was being "blind-sided".

These three crisis that I've mentioned above might be familiar to some. There may even be some resemblance to scenarios given in previous exam papers. Through this series of unfortunate events, I've observed and learnt how to handle such sticky situations.

• It came to my realisation that crisis can never be anticipated. We are however, able to get ourselves prepared with a contingency plan. 
• In times of chaos, we need to stay calm and resilient. 

• As client's representative, we must always ensure  that our client approved the official statement given to the media. 

• High efficiency in delivering official statement to the media would reflect well on the client's reputation.

• Account manager needs to brief their client clearly on the boundaries of information being divulged to the media. 

• Lastly, committing to the job meant committing to a silent agreement to be contactable at any time of the day. This meant sacrificing your personal time even on a weekend. When crisis occurs and the call arrives, you need to be on your way.  

Well, are you up for such commitments?

Till my next post,
Candice

Managing sponsors through a crisis!

Over the past couple of weeks I have been interning at an equine welfare organisation called Second Chance Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation based in Bullsbrook.

Together myself and the Fundraising Coordinator have been busy planning a Fundraising Gymkhana, which for all those who aren't involved in the equine world, a show with fancy dress, games, show jumping and hacking classes. Hence it has something for everyone. 

I have been busy organising sponsors for the day as well as securing media coverage, with a number of newspapers preparing stories as well as photographers and journalists coming from WA's very own Perth Rider Magazine. It was all running very smoothly, until disaster struck and we were forced to cancel the Show, which was mean to be held on the 22nd of September in the suburb on Wungong.

Luckily due to the warning we gave many of our suppliers and the host venue, the charity received most of their investments into the event, back.

We sent out a number of media alerts and contacted journalists and editors first hand to tell them the bad news and to make sure no one drove all the way to the venue grounds on the day and found that it has been cancelled that way. We emailed all the Second Chance members, posted an alert on our Facebook page as we all the website and a number of forum pages.

It was my job to contact all the sponsors and tell them the extremely bad news. 

I did a mixture of emails, phone calls and letters, depending on how professional the business were, how eager they were to get on board and how they had approached the sponsorship. Many small businesses preferred personal phone calls whilst other "chain" establishments regarded the emails and letters as professional so they can easily record the situation.

Out of the 16 sponsors we had for the show, 14 of them understood the situation and were eager to be contacted about sponsorship for future events. Because we contacted them promptly, professionally according to their desire and gave them a large warning period before the event, majority were happy with how we handled ourselves and the image of Second Chance.

We issued the stock that was sent to us by the sponsors extremely fast, hand delivering it in some circumstances, whilst refunds and receipts were sent within 24 hours of the news going out.

Hence because we acted swiftly and transparently we minimised any negative impacts that could be placed onto Second Chance and have secured relationships with these businesses for the future. 

Trouble In Musical Paradise

Hello everyone!

I have been at Zaccaria Group for about 5 weeks now, completing my internship for two days a week. I have learnt so much since my first day about not only public relations but also marketing, advertising and maintaining important professional relationships.

Here at Zaccaria Group, we have recently been having a bit of "trouble in paradise", you might say. I have learned that things do not always run smoothly, as we would hope. What do you do when you are the promoter of a touring musician or act, you've expended your marketing and publicity budget, and tickets are just not selling? I had never considered before that tickets for a well-known show would not sell - as an avid concert-goer myself, I never really think about the logistics and workings behind actually selling a show. As members of the public, we just buy our tickets and attend, that's all there is to it. So I have had my first taste of crisis management in the music marketing industry. The artist at hand is Kate Ceberano - her regional WA shows are selling fantastically but Perth is just not buying it! We have promoted Kate over the past month on television (you can see the television advert in my previous post), radio, print articles and press releases, but still no cigar.

The last two marketing and finance meetings have revolved around strategising ways to improve sales - it has gotten to the point where it is vital to consider all other marketing avenues. The marketing budget has been completely spent, with only 30% of forecasted tickets sold. Not good. As the promoter of this tour, Zaccaria Group takes risks and must put on a show no matter what - cancelling the show is not an option. The worst-case scenario would be cancelling, and this is at the high probability of not only damaging our professional reputation, but also our relationships with the artist's management. Would they sign that deal with us again, knowing we cancelled on them last time? No, probably not. Instead, business would go to our competitors. Not only this, but the artist does not want to be playing a show to a half empty venue. Could you think of anything worse? I have learnt from this that maintaining relationships with important stakeholders is a key skill in public relations practice.

Our outlook in this situation is "SELL TICKETS NO MATTER WHAT!", we will proceed with the show at any cost, because nothing is worth sacrificing a reputation. Our strategy is to bring planned advertising forward a couple of weeks, so tickets start selling earlier rather than in a couple of weeks time. We have also arranged give aways with 96fm radio and changed advertising to different tv networks - we determined this by looking at shows which get the highest ratings, then liaise with that tv network to dedicate a 30 second spot during that prime time tv show. We can also tell that, for example, women over 30 are watching Channel 7 on a Sunday night because of a particular show being broadcast. This is all vital information which helps up strategise ways out of our "crisis".

We have also considered different ticketing strategies. Sometimes it comes into consideration to drop ticket prices so that sales take off, but at times this is not appropriate. Would it be beneficial to focus on selling a more expensive ticket package (such as a meet and greet after the show and a glass of champagne) to entice our audience? Tickets just might not be selling because people do not want to see a cheap show - they want an experience. Again, we need a good relationship with our artist and their talent management for this to occur - there will be no "meet and greet" if we have already hinted chance of cancelling the show.

So that is just one aspect of crisis management in the music PR industry that I have been faced with. I hope to report on my other tasks in my next blog, as I have just realised this has taken up far too much space already! Hope you found it interesting and please feel free to comment below. I also hope you are all enjoying your placements! It seems to be flying by, considering how daunting it seemed at the start!

Until next time,

Delta.

Is a crisis still a crisis if no one admits there was a crisis?!

My time at Swan Districts Football club as their PR intern has been interesting and last week I encountered the most interesting moment of all. What we would call a 'PR crisis'. Well, it wasn't a full blown crisis but something did come up that needed to be addressed by the club.

The interesting thing was though, not everyone within the club came to the same conclusion on how big the issue was. Some thought it was only slightly important, while others thought it was a non issue. This all comes down to a personal opinion but within a PR professional setting, opinion shouldn't be the driving force behind crisis management, there should be some specific motions in place that decides what needs to occur after a crisis occurs, but also to stop it from happening in the first place.

This got me thinking about the importance of communication plans within a company. Every person in every single company need to be aware of what their communication strategies are in order to relay a consistent message to the public and to the key stakeholders. This awareness comes from internal communication plans and making sure everyone is up to speed with the way they are expected to cooperate in the professional setting. This is why professional sportsmen are coached in how to deal with the media, and the whole reason behind having PR people there in the first place! What I discovered through some of the events last week is that it is integral for a company's growth and prosperity to have these plans in place for reference in the case of any problems.

Without specific strategies and communication plans, the professional face of a company can be damaged in a moment due to inconsistent messages reaching stakeholders and mix ups happening. These communication plans also have to be recognised by everyone in the company, to abide by, and every form of communication needs to be run through the public relations or marketing department.

The reason why I felt the need to write about this is because it surprised me when it came up in a professional setting. We, as PR students, are constantly reminded to make sure we have identified our key messages and communication strategies that it seemed odd to me that things can slip up in some cases, or go unnoticed to create problems. I think it's extremely important to develop these plans in order for that smooth transition of communication from company to stakeholder.

What has surprised you in your time as a PR intern?

Lucy

Facebook mistake!

This week was a week of uploading blog posts I wrote that had been approved as well as writing more blogs and focusing on 32dsg’s website content.

I usually upload Facebook posts about upcoming events, working off my events calendar, however this week their Facebook page was devoted to a competition we were offering for two tickets to Perth Fashion week. I think I have mentioned before in one of my previous posts that I have been made an administrator of one of their clients Facebook pages. Not realising I was on the client’s Facebook page (thinking I was on mine), I ‘shared’ the competition on their page. This has NOTHING to do with them or their target audience and therefore was a big mistake. Luckily one of the girls alerted it to me and I was quickly able to take it down. It just outlined the fact that social media while it is easy to use, free and global, it can be extremely dangerous. Luckily this was not such a massive blunder and was easily fixable but you can see how quickly something can turn into a crisis if it is not handled correctly. I may be able to ‘blame’ it on Facebook since it said I was on my own page when I ‘shared’ the post (not realising I had to click another button to say- switch to your personal page), however this would never stand if you were to argue your case in a crisis. Technology may fail you, but ultimately it is your fault in the end. You controlled the mouse and you pressed enter.

After that mistake was quickly rectified I continued with my work. I uploaded my Sharing Healthy Conversations article- choosing the best photo for the subject (one with the most important attendees included). I had to fix the lighting on the photo first and crop it so that all the focus was on the people in it. I had to link all the important peoples names to their personal pages (usually linked in accounts) and make sure everyone’s names were spelt correctly.

I continued to work on companies that are similar to 32dsg and an events list for their Facebook posts. After looking over what needs to be included in the report I was quite pleased to see that we need to write about our companies competitors. Because I have been looking at what other companies there are similar to 32dsg I have in fact been researching their competitors. I have also been looking at what they are doing differently and how we could incorporate some of these positive attributes into our company as well. By collating all this information 32dsg can take the best of their competitors traits and add them to their list of expertise.

It has been interesting for me to look back at the events the company or the people who work for the company have been involved in organising. From the Breast Cancer Foundation’s illumination campaign to the Grand Prix ball, the people working at 32dsg have a diverse range of skills and networks. It’s a privilege to be around such successful worldly people. The collation of events data that I have been looking at, I will be putting into succinct descriptions to put on their website under the events section. This is quite an important job (in my opinion) since ‘case studies’ or previous experiences are important for those wanting to use the company to see.

My blog post on the Perth Baby Expo got approved at 4:45pm but I wanted to stay until it was up online, linked and positioned well. I stayed on after everyone left however I like things to be done and to be done without rushing. I don’t think I will ever mind staying behind to finish up and do a good job. Once you’re at work, what’s another 40 minutes? I also got to write another post for a Frasers Restaurant lunch that the 32dsg team went to this week. It got approved right away (showing how much better I must be getting with my writing skills) and I put that one up too.

You can read all my blog posts on:

http://32dsg.com/blog/

And my news article on:

http://32dsg.com/?post_type=news

Thanks for reading guys!

Xx

Martine