How PR industry handled crisis communication in 2023 and the road ahead in 2024

In the fast-paced world of public relations, 2023 brought unforeseen challenges and opportunities for firms across the industry. Navigating a complex landscape, PR agencies showcased resilience and adaptability in their crisis management plans. The sector as a whole witnessed a paradigm shift, with firms prioritizing proactive reputation management and digital communication strategies. As part of our rewind 2023 series, Adgully spoke to a cross-section of PR and Corporate Communications leaders to understand their perspectives, strategies and their ability to evolve that has been pivotal in shaping its trajectory for the year.

Approach for Crisis Management and Reputation Protection

Archana Jain, CEO, PR Pundit Havas Red

Archana Jain, CEO, PR Pundit Havas Red, stressed, “The backbone of crisis management has always been and will always be preparation. We work with our clients to plan for, on how to respond to and then recover from crisis events – with a view to safeguarding the company and brand’s image to minimise long-term reputational damage. We do so by pursuing pre-emptive measures like a vulnerability analysis of the business, training key stakeholders on a coordinated and timely response, outlining a media and social media communications plan, including recommended procedures, protocols, etc. Given the diversity of possible crises and the fact that every specific event will unfold differently and have varying impacts at different times, we canvas a range of generic actions that will assist management in responding to an incident. We believe in building a forward-looking approach of being prepared, build a culture of communicating proactively and develop a mindset of dynamic decision making.”

Tarunjeet Rattan, Managing Partner, Nucleus PR

Tarunjeet Rattan, Managing Partner, Nucleus PR, predicted, “In 2024, bot war and deep fakes will take up a fair amount of our time in the crisis management area. PR professionals will not only have to find a way to effectively deal with this new curveball that amplifies every small challenge turning it into a crisis but will also have to have a fair understanding of cyber laws to handle it.”

Madhukar Kumar, Founder & Chief Strategist, Grey Cell PR

Madhukar Kumar, Founder & Chief Strategist, Grey Cell PR, remarked, “In the world of PR, crises are like uninvited guests. We tackle them head-on with a blend of intuition and strategy. Our approach is to always be prepared, agile, and empathetic. We're enhancing our crisis toolkit with AI for faster issue detection and resolution, making sure we're always a step ahead for our clients.”

Jasrita Dhir, Director - Marketing and Communications, Karkinos Healthcare

Speaking about challenges faced by the PR industry, Jasrita Dhir, Director - Marketing and Communications, Karkinos Healthcare, said, “In the post-pandemic world and in certain sectors such as those dealing with communicable diseases/ public health, etc., there’s a real challenge of burnout that the crisis managers are dealing with, reeling under successive waves of Coronavirus and such.”

Dhir further said, “In the age of misinformation and deepfakes, there’s an actual crisis to deal with as also the misinformed variant of the crisis to counter - a double whammy! In hyper-connected networks and matrix organisations, keeping the chain of command unilateral and ensuring a single communication centre is also a new challenge with regard to information leaks.”

According to Dhir, the strategies crucial in 2024 re:

1. Fact check before jumping into execution
2. Amp up the social listening game including in the vernacular medium
3. Like charity, reputation building also starts at home. Image building starts with internal stakeholders; brand advocacy starts with intra-organisational human capital and these are the first line of resources to tap into during a crisis outbreak.

Jyotsna Dash Nanda, AVP - Corporate Communications, Dharampal Satyapal Group (DS Group)

Jyotsna Dash Nanda, AVP - Corporate Communications, Dharampal Satyapal Group (DS Group), added here, “As PR Professionals, our job is to guide, empower, and equip leadership to deal with crises of all kinds. There is no shortcut to elaborate preparation and complete collaboration with all necessary stakeholders to be able to assess necessary landmines in the crisis and provide a flexible and agile response mechanism for the organization and the senior leadership. Navigating crisis leadership presents a formidable yet indispensable facet of contemporary leadership which effective media and crisis training help hone. We proactively reach out to the senior leadership team and help them to equip themselves and prepare well. The preparation helps them to be seen as taking ownership, communicating with utmost transparency, exhibiting decisiveness, flexibly responding to evolving situations while adhering to the basic rules of communication, demonstrating empathy and support, allocating resources judiciously, and fostering collaboration. As PR professionals we derive lessons from experiences keeping a long-term outlook in mind while upholding ethical standards adeptly managing crisis communication, and prioritizing personal resilience and self-care. Crisis leadership is critical in today’s dynamic business environment and refers to the ability of leaders to effectively navigate and manage an organization or team during times of significant upheaval, uncertainty, or crisis with complete support from the communications team. Our responsibility involves making critical decisions, providing direction, and inspiring confidence in challenging situations so that communication is effective with 100% truth and giving direction on the way forward.”