Dustin Siggins is founding father of Confirmed Media Options.
Nothing sinks a PR professional’s coronary heart just like the information cycle spinning uncontrolled. It occurred to all the world in September 2008 (financial institution bailout/recession), March 2020 (COVID-19 pandemic) and – for those who’re in politics – it occurred on Monday (Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon being fired).
As you would possibly guess, my coronary heart was hitting my toes on Monday. We had an amazing consumer set-up for a press marketing campaign a few key political subject. Inner prep included the consumer’s research being prepared for public viewing, many hours serving to the consumer put together a white paper and getting the spokesperson prepared for interviews. Externally, a top-tier op-ed was deliberate, related media had seen the white paper and the research earlier than the launch, and a press launch was able to exit at 8 a.m.
And, nicely…no person actually cared. Solely the op-ed went off as deliberate. Even the consumer’s allied media didn’t cowl it, and the social media traction was paying homage to a automotive on black ice.
Did I point out that the consumer has a board assembly this week?
It wasn’t enjoyable, particularly given the months of labor for the research’s launch. However we relied on a customer support strategy that saved our heads within the recreation, the consumer’s expectations managed, and the marketing campaign rolling ahead.
First, we didn’t panic. Our PR plan is sound, the consumer understands that PR is a rocket ship – not a sniper shot – and the op-ed was a stable placement. That doesn’t imply that I didn’t waste a few hours checking Twitter and Google manner too many instances for one thing else optimistic to report, or stress manner an excessive amount of about unrelated launch points creating extra issues.
However we didn’t panic. What we did do was contact the consumer early within the day to be upfront about what was happening. We defined how impolite it was for Carlson and Lemon to decide on at this time to be fired – our contact individual bought the joke – after which laid out how that impacted the launch plan. We might nonetheless probably get some protection, however not almost the extent we supposed, a minimum of not this week, and definitely not earlier than the board assembly.
We additionally laid out an answer for presenting the 2023 media marketing campaign to the board in a manner that was each trustworthy and optimistic. The consumer purchased into the strategy – one thing that won’t have occurred if we’d tried to run silent on the information cycle’s sudden shift.
Third, we saved pushing for protection. We reached out to a few of our friendliest media contacts on Tuesday 1-on-1, which resulted in scheduling a top-tier interview. We re-sent the press launch to those that didn’t open the e-mail on launch day, making a mixed 40% open price on a listing of virtually 600 journalists. And we’re going to proceed shifting ahead with different media plans that may squeeze each little bit of juice out of the launch lemon.
Generally, the information cycle simply pivots on a dime. You possibly can maintain off on present plans, proceed as deliberate, or change course. What you may’t do is surrender or not inform purchasers what’s happening. As each PR professional is aware of, that’s a good way to show a brief disaster right into a long-term belief downside.
