Why being honest matters in a crisis
“Why is it important for companies to be honest in a crisis?” I’m talking to John Brown, founder of Don’t Cry Wolf, an agency that works with ‘no bullshit’ brands – brands that want to make honest and openness a…
Crisis Communications
Six crisis management lessons from top brands at #PRWCRISIS
Who doesn’t love a crisis? Especially when it is not one you are involved with. I attended the PR Week Crisis Communications Conference last week and it was a great opportunity to hear about other crises and how various brands…
The perils of change: lessons from the #KFCCrisis
In February, Kentucky Fried Chicken started working with a new “delivery partner”. Now, usually, most people wouldn’t care about this, but then hundreds of KFC branches closed down temporarily because they ran out of chicken and, well, a lot of…
How to respond to negative reviews
The subtitle to this post should be: “in a way that doesn’t blow up in your face”. No reasonable person expects brands to be perfect. Mistakes happen, it’s the response (or lack of one) that counts. But sometimes businesses seem…
BA’s uncontrolled descent into crisis
Most crises are avoidable. Around ten years ago, my boss and I used to carry home back-up tapes of our server data. That way, if the office burnt down over night we’d still have two copies of the back-up. While…
The five mistakes that shaped United’s crisis
At 7:30pm on Sunday 9th April passengers aboard United Airlines flight 3411 started tweeting about an incident as they waited for take-off. Some tweeted the airline, others local news channels. Several took pictures and video of the chaos on board…
Book your place at Digital Download
If you’ve ever wondered what a live social media crisis simulation would be like, now’s your chance to find out! The Polpeo team will be at this month’s Digital Download in Islington, running a live crisis simulation focusing on the…
Brands are more than their CEOs
On a business level, when it comes to reputation with clients, governments, media and the industry that they are in, CEOs (and their actions) carry a lot of weight. But what about their wider reputational impact? For example, I’m currently…
Brands & Politics: why it’s time to get involved
A regular star of the crisis simulations I write for Polpeo is someone I call AnarchySteve. For years, he’s been one of my go-to guys for causing simulation participants headaches. He’s arrogant, stubborn, opinionated and unyielding. Just when you think…
How brands can safeguard their reputation in a post-truth era
Years ago, I had a Homer Simpson #doh moment when I fell for, and re-shared, some inane Facebook post warning people of something dire and technology related. This post had been passed around my school friends like some kind of…