What a year.
2024 has been packed with examples of organisations and individuals making damming headlines and social media storms.
And when that happens, there are always crisis communication training case studies others can learn from.
We’ve been busy looking back at the past 12 months and have pulled together the crisis media management incidents we feel stand out.
Oh, and if you are hoping to read about the Gregg Wallace crisis that has dominated the recent news cycle, we’ve already covered that spectacular one this month. You can read our thoughts on it here.
Shall we get into it?
The well-oiled machine and the crisis response that hit the skids
One of the first crises off the 2024 start line was the one that engulfed the Red Bull Formula 1 team.
The sport’s dominant team spent weeks facing headlines on the front and back pages over allegations about the conduct of leader Christian Horner.
The scandal started in early February when Red Bull Racing’s parent company confirmed the 50-year-old was being investigated over allegations of “inappropriate behaviour” with a female colleague.
He was not suspended and continued to attend car launch and test events.
Eventually, on February 28, it was announced Mr Horner, married to former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, had been cleared.
But the story took another twist the following day when alleged messages between Mr Horner and the female colleague were leaked to the media. These were also shared with the sport’s bosses and on social media.
And then it emerged that the female colleague who complained of “inappropriate behaviour” by Mr Horner had been suspended by the company.
There was a lot going on. What crisis comms lessons can you learn from it?
Transparency
This is crucial in crisis communication.
You need to be seen to be open, honest and accountable. And that was lacking here.
Even when Mr Horner was cleared, there were no details of the allegations or the investigation. And the barrister who carried out that investigation was not named.
There was a similar lack of information when news broke that the female colleague had been suspended. The tight control of information led to rumour, speculation and third parties filling the void.
Optics
Of course, this was a complicated story. But consider the optics. Mr Horner was not suspended when the allegations were made and carried on working – “business as usual” to use his own words.
You might question how many other senior leaders would have had that luxury when faced with allegations of that nature.
He remained visible, speaking to the media at the team’s launch event. If nothing else, temporarily stepping away from the limelight would have been better from a reputation point of view. The woman who made the allegations, however, was quickly suspended – a troubling contrast.
And with clumsy timing - and more than a hint of tone deafness - the news of her suspension came the day before International Women’s Day. How does that look? Does it help create the impression of a team and sport where women are valued and supported? Does it seem like a sport and an organisation with diversity and inclusion at its heart? Is it a place where women can speak up about the behaviour they encounter?
Blame
The blame game rarely works well when an organisation is in crisis media management mode.
Pointing fingers at others creates an impression of defensiveness, a lack of accountability and misunderstanding the seriousness of the situation. And the public rarely feels sympathy for leaders and organisations who play the victim card.
Mr Horner tried a different approach. Ahead of the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, he accused rival Formula One bosses and the media of exploiting the situation.
He said: “F1 is a competitive business, and elements have looked to benefit from it, and that is perhaps the not-so-pretty side of our industry.”
When a crisis strikes and you are in the spotlight, you must move quickly to protect your reputation. There is little time for planning your responses, fact-checking or ensuring you have covered all the crucial bases. So, when the worst happens, wouldn't it be handy to have a checklist you can follow?
The crisis that broke the internet
Remember that day the internet broke?
How can we forget?
In July, a rogue update linked to Microsoft Windows caused airport delays, disrupted rail travel, impacted emergency services, prevented people from making GP appointments and took down payment systems. It even brought down TV channels.
And it placed a relatively unknown company - outside of geeky IT circles - at the centre of a crisis that caused global chaos. Or, as Elon Musk described it, the “biggest IT failure ever”.
Crowdstrike is a cybersecurity service designed to stop internet breaches. And it brought the world to its knees.
So, how did it handle the crisis, and what can you learn from it?
Visible leadership but…
Well, its initial crisis media management response came from its CEO, George Kurtz, in a post on his personal X account.
CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…
— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024
That is unusual - you would expect a company’s social channels to lead crisis communication.
But there is often something to be said for the boss taking the lead during a crisis. It shows visible leadership.
Unfortunately, the words were not great.
Mr Kurtz's initial statement didn’t acknowledge - let alone apologise - for all the disruption. In a post of almost 100 words, shouldn’t ‘sorry’ have been one of them?
His response was also too technical. It said: “CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.” Who knows what that means?
Not everyone impacted by the crisis will have detailed technical knowledge or work in cybersecurity. They want to know why they couldn’t make a payment or why their flight was delayed. And what is being done to fix the problem.
Crisis statements – even in the initial stages of an incident - must sound like they are written by a human for humans.
Personal apology
But Mr Kurtz was much better when he appeared on TV.
EXCLUSIVE: CrowdStrike founder and CEO @George_Kurtz speaks on TODAY about the major computer outages worldwide that started earlier today: “We’re deeply sorry for the impact that we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected by this.” pic.twitter.com/fWz6KhgrcZ
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) July 19, 2024
His interview on NBC’s Today show began with an apology.
“I want to begin by saying we are deeply sorry for the impact we have caused to customers, to travellers, to anyone affected by this, including our companies,” he said.
There were also some excellent examples of action.
“We are working with each and every customer to make sure we can bring them back online,” he said.
He added: “It is our mission to make sure every customer is fully recovered and we are not going to relent until we get every customer back to where they were.”
It was an excellent crisis interview and was shared among other media.
We should also say he issued a second social media update later the same day that included an apology.
He said: “We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.”
Crisis planning
How many organisations have ‘causing global chaos’ in their crisis communication plans?
The story is a reminder of the importance of planning for the worst. Always consider the ‘what if’ question and plan how you would respond.
And test that plan before you use it for real. You never know when that next crisis might strike. Or how big it might be.
A botched opening
As venue openings go, it is hard to imagine how the Cop-op Live arena could have got off to a worse start.
The new 23,500-capacity arena was plagued by cancellations, postponed shows, falling air-conditioning units, unhappy fans and a high-profile resignation.
The £365 million Manchester venue was originally due to open last December. That was delayed until April.
But opening gigs with Peter Kay were postponed, and a show with The Black Keys was pushed back until May.
Then, at the start of May, a new opening show with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie was pulled 10 minutes after the venue opened after part of an air conditioning unit fell.
And gigs with Olivia Rodrigo, Take That, and Keane were subsequently cancelled.
There were also issues behind the scenes with Gary Roden, the arena’s manager and executive director, quitting at the end of April following a backlash to a BBC interview where he suggested some small music venues were “poorly run” in response to questions about a £1 levy on tickets to fund grassroots venues.
That’s a lot of crisis before the doors opened. What crisis comms lessons can you learn from it?
Haunt
Cop-op Live failed to get the right blend between optimism and saying things that could come back to haunt.
Tim Leiweke, chairman of the company responsible for running the building, said “We’ll be fine” about the Rodrigo gigs a few days before they were cancelled.
Similarly, the venue posted on X on April 29: “Let’s do this! A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Olivia Rodrigo and Keane are going ahead.”
These buoyant predictions rapidly unravelled.
After a series of delays, a more cautious approach may have been prevalent rather than more backtracks.
Care
The communication around some of the cancellations also felt cold and uncaring.
When the A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie performance was cancelled at short notice, the venue posted: “Due to a venue-related technical issue, tonight’s A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie show will no longer go ahead. We kindly ask fans to leave the area. Tickets (sic) holders will receive further information in due course.”
Due to a venue-related technical issue, tonight’s A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie show will no longer go ahead. We kindly ask fans to leave the area. Tickets holders will receive further information in due course.
— Co-op Live (@TheCoopLive) May 1, 2024
Chaos
We understand there was a desire to change the narrative around the arena.
But the attempt was made too soon. New shows were announced amid the cancelled ones – and without new dates confirmed for the cancelled ones.
It added to the chaos surrounding the venue opening. It should have ensured existing bookings went off without incident first to make the hope about new ones feel believable.
It is the crisis response everyone has been talking about. Gregg Wallace has found himself at the centre of a scandal involving allegations of inappropriate behaviour. And his decision to respond through a series of Instagram videos has managed to make a bad situation significantly worse. Click here to read the blog.
Cow about this one?
Have you heard the one about the cow who escaped from a farm, swam across a river and ended up in the streets of a busy town?
No, it’s not an early cracker joke.
Instead, it is an incident that captured massive media and social media interest after footage showed the runaway cow being twice rammed by a police car.
And those actions put Surrey Police firmly in the spotlight.
Beau Lucy – a 10-month-old calf – escaped her grazing enclosure and swam across the river to Staines-upon-Thames.
Dramatic video footage captured her loose in a residential area before being run down by a police car.
Police try to stop an escaped cow by ramming it with their car in Feltham, West London pic.twitter.com/kRTnGRr5SH
— UB1UB2 West London (Southall) (@UB1UB2) June 15, 2024
James Cleverly, the Home Secretary at the time, branded the incident as “unnecessarily heavy handed” on X, where the footage received 25 million views. The RSPCA said the force’s action “appeared disproportionate”. And BBC wildlife presenter Chris Packham posted: “What sort of monster rams a calf? Twice?”
The story was also covered widely by mainstream media.
How did Surrey Police respond, and what crisis comms lessons can you learn from it?
Lengthy explanation
Surrey police issued a detailed, wordy statement that began with a lengthy explanation.
And lengthy explanations in crisis statements can often sound like excuses.
The statement was also the wrong way around.
Remember, the footage had gone viral and been widely picked up by mainstream media. People were angry and upset about what they had seen.
So, you must begin by acknowledging that the footage is upsetting and that people are concerned about the action taken by police.
And you need to quickly update them about the welfare of the cow.
Then it could cover what it is doing about the incident and why it took that action.
Something like that would be much closer to the CARE acronym we use during our crisis communication training.
Second time lucky?
An updated statement from Surrey Police was much closer to the mark.
It began with Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp saying: “I fully appreciate the distress our handling of this incident has caused and will ensure that it is thoroughly and diligently investigated.”
And he went on to acknowledge the cow’s welfare, saying: “She is now back with her owner and recuperating with her herd. She did sustain a large cut to one leg and cuts and grazes. She continues to be monitored by a vet and our rural officers are staying in contact with the owner for updates.”
We also learnt the officer driving the car during the incident has been “removed from frontline duties”, which shows action.
The statement finished by reassuring the public it cares about the welfare of animals.
We have issued an update from Deputy Chief Constable Nev Kemp following the incident on Friday evening (14 June) when a cow was injured by a police car in Staines-upon-Thames. Full statement can be found on our website: https://t.co/86aQGzcmo2 pic.twitter.com/0oyxn58wLS
— Surrey Police (@SurreyPolice) June 16, 2024
It is a much better response, and the force could have done with it 24 hours earlier to gain more control over the story.
It is notable that in the second response, the deputy chief constable is quoted rather than a chief inspector. It shows the incident was now managed at the top of the organisation – a good move given how much attention the incident had grabbed.
A missed opportunity?
While there was a significant improvement with the second statement, Surrey Police could have gone further.
It was a viral video that exposed the police’s tactics to scrutiny. So, why wasn’t there a video of the deputy chief constable discussing the incident rather than just text quotes?
Should the force not put him up for interviews rather than relying on journalists to read his words?
While its statement was read to viewers, Mr Packham was giving interviews. Who do you think got more time to get their views across?
The PR boss who became the crisis
Imagine being the PR boss who created damning headlines across the globe and triggered a new debate about workplace culture.
Cristina Jing Qu was the head of public relations at Baidu – China’s biggest search engine.
And she posted a series of videos on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
In one, she lambasted an employee who refused to go on a 50-day business trip during the pandemic when China imposed stringent travel restrictions and quarantines.
She said: “Why should I take my employee’s family into consideration? I’m not her mother-in-law.
“I’m 10 years, 20 years older than you. I didn’t feel bitter about it or tired, even though I have two children. Who are you to tell me that your husband can’t stand it?
During another video, she said: "If you work in public relations, don't expect weekends off.
"Keep your phone on 24 hours a day, always ready to respond."
She also claimed to have been working so hard that she forgot her eldest son’s birthday and what school grade her younger one was in, adding she did not regret it because she “chose to be a career woman.”
In another clip, she said: “I can make you jobless in this industry.” And she warned employees she did not care about the impact of work on their lives. She said: “'I'm not your mum. I only care about results.”
The comments sparked a significant backlash on social media among younger workers in China who are increasingly unhappy about the work-life balance.
And the story moved to mainstream media, where the coverage – and criticism – went global.
Additionally, the company’s stock price fell six per cent in the US and three per cent in Hong Kong.
There was also wider scrutiny of China’s work-life balance and its tech sector’s culture of 9am to 9pm six days a week.
Ms Qu apologised for “causing such a big storm”, saying her views were not shared by Baidu.
She said: "I apologise that the inappropriate videos led to the public's misunderstanding of my company's values and corporate culture.
"I will learn from my mistakes and improve the way I communicate, and care more for my colleagues.”
She subsequently left her job.
Interestingly, CNN reported the videos were part of a Baidu drive to increase its voice on short video platforms by encouraging staff to make them.
It quoted a source as saying: “The main purpose is to improve everyone’s ability to make short videos. Everyone can have different options over the content, and Cristina chose to speak about her personal experience.”
Oops.
What can you learn from this crisis?
It is another reminder that how leaders treat people and what they say can trigger their organisation’s next crisis.
Is leadership behaviour in your crisis comms plan? Have you tested it?
It may feel uncomfortable to suggest to the CEO – or another senior leader - that your crisis comms scenario should be based on their behaviour or something they said.
But crisis planning and testing often involve considering worst-case scenarios and thinking about the unthinkable.
And it is much better than being struck by a crisis you are not prepared for – something to think about over the Christmas break.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with nearly 40 years of experience.
We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
Click here to find out more about our crisis communication training courses<
