September 2, 2024

The call comes in.

A journalist – a national journalist at that – has a story.

It isn’t good.

They’ve uncovered something bad involving your business. It could be anything from alleged illegalities to an employee convicted of something very dodgy.

Whatever it is, your business is in the journalist’s crosshairs and potentially 24 hours away from being splashed all over the papers, the internet and (eek) maybe even the TV.

They are calling for a comment. They want your take.

You suddenly need crisis communications.

The hope is that whoever is leading on your crisis comms will have some magical, Malcolm Tucker-style ability to just make the whole thing vanish.

Spoiler: That probably isn’t happening.

But what experienced crisis communications experts will do is advise on the best steps to take to minimise damage, to potentially influence the story and to limit the fallout.

Often this will include everything from frantic calls to contacts and editors to steer the coverage – often with legal or IPSO threats – to painstakingly crafted statements.

But sometimes, the best approach is far simpler.

Doing nothing.

There’s a temptation when that call comes in, to throw the book at the problem.

But often silence is golden.

A good crisis communications expert can step into a journalist’s shoes and establish how they are putting this story together – probably because they’ve worked in those very shoes before.

They should be able to assess:

• How big is this story going to be? Will commenting give it more credibility?
• Do we need to comment – and could commenting make it worse?
• Could commenting keep this story running for even longer?
• What will readers think – does our response make us look better or worse?

In PR our job is to help build brands, raise awareness, build trust and improve reputations.

In crisis comms, that last point differs slightly as our job then becomes to defend it.

Doing this requires skill, industry-knowledge and the ability to forecast how things may unfold.

And it also requires the ability to do nothing. And in the right circumstances, that’s the smartest move you can make.

But I would recommend a PR professional to help you make that call.

Contact Harvey & Hugo today to discuss your crisis comms strategy: info@harveyandhugo.com