Of all the ways to be caught cheating on your wife, I’d be willing to bet that being found out by Chris Martin’s roving jumbotron must have been low on Astronomer CEO Andy Byron’s bingo card as he entered his Amex details (or drained the company’s expenses budget) for a night of earnest but enjoyable middle-of-the-road soft rock, yet here we are.

It’s hard not to feel some semblance of sympathy for the fallout that his – and Astronomer HR chief Kristin Cabot’s – very public transgression has engendered. The55,000 people at Boston’s Gillette Stadium may have been the first witnesses to their awkward and very public decoupling – the clunky switch from romantic embrace to shameful, face-saving disowning of each other right there in the kiss cam’s glare, yet the couple – and by proxy their respective partners, and shared employer – are now a firm part of 24-hour wall-to-wall public discourse.

Thousands of media column inches, millions of social posts, countless memes, baseless tittle tattle, downright nastiness; this unsavoury – but not uncommon – incident has brought out some of the best, but mainly the very worst of the social media hive mind. After the fervent coverage has died down – and it will – there are still, whatever your view of their conduct, vulnerable humans at the heart of this story. Their welfare and safety are of paramount importance (both parties have been stood down from their respective roles) and those factors are intrinsically linked to the public facing reaction from Astronomer in terms of PR crisis management.

Thus far the US tech company, valued at over $1.3billion – since July 2023, has played to type, releasing an early statement – all ‘values’, ‘culture’, ‘standards’ and ‘accountability’ with no small smattering of follow-on copy that reads like a veritable ‘about us’ – a chance to crowbar in some incalculable ‘brand equity’ amidst the chaos. Canny? Shrewd? Downright cynical and opportunistic? You be the judge.

Whatever your viewpoint, it got me thinking about the importance of crisis management in PR – the key steps for mitigation, encompassing preparedness, anticipation and ‘wargaming’ (although I bet no one could have foreseen this particular hot potato), unified messaging via highly briefed individuals, and the inevitable recovery and rebuild.

Take a look at some of those steps below and – if you or your company ever find yourselves in a crisis of your own making or otherwise – give us a bell before you do a Gregg Wallace and use your hypersensitivity to underpants as a reason to justify your misdeeds.

Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail

  • Before any crisis even happens (and it may not), ensure you have a clear crisis comms plan with even clearer protocols – ask yourselves who will be our spokesperson or spokespeople? Try to keep it to a small, well drilled group of (ideally) media trained individuals. That means no loose cannons or people with a predisposition to simply gabble. These people need to stay on message always and understand the fine art (perfected by politicians) of deflection and brevity.
  • ‘Wargame’ using precedence and worst-case scenarios. Try to anticipate potential crises and run appropriate simulations.

Immediate Response (First 1–24 Hours)

  • Do everything you can to verify the facts of the matter – don’t react to speculation (of which there will be lots).
  • Bring together your PR, legal, leadership, and relevant stakeholders into one cohesive team. The PR team leads from the front (I would say this) but this is why people train in the field for so long. I know I’ve mentioned Gregg Wallace already but it’s clear that individuals like him and Prince Andrew before him either took very little, or simply ignored, decent comms advice. And we all know how these stories ended.
  • Be sure to alert your internal staff and partners before going public. Reassure them that the company will be commenting publicly and ask them to not disclose any information to a third party. Depending on the gravitas of the situation, journalists will be circling. Any enquiries should be swiftly escalated to your assigned spokespeople.

Controlling the Narrative

  • Singing from the same hymn-sheet is a time worn phrase but nowhere is it more relevant than in crisis comms. To properly ‘control the narrative’ your carefully crafted message should be the only outbound communication. In said statement, take accountability and show contrition (if appropriate), acknowledge the issue – don’t deflect or make BS excuses.
  • Be clear and empathetic and establish your version of events to prevent misinformation. Although it may be early in the timeline, try to set out your pathway to recovery – demonstrate the steps you are taking, or have already taken, to mitigate the situation. This will also help buy you time.

Social Media

  • Never has controlling the narrative been trickier and more fraught with pitfalls than on the Wild West of social media, but you can use your chosen channels effectively to push out your statement or post more updates as and when you choose.
  • If you choose to respond to questions and misinformation in real time (and Lord knows you can use the immediacy of social to your advantage for this) prioritise a good quality monitoring service or social listening tool, but you must also create rules of engagement. Aggregate your enquiries in terms of quality. If the Telegraph is asking you a question, jump on it or DM them immediately. If @BigBoy1234 is suggesting your company or its representatives are part of a conspiracy to put human excrement in drinking water, maybe just leave it.

Recovery and Rebuilding

  • All good crises must come to an end but it’s how they’re managed in real time that will echo in the near future. Ensure that any promises made in the process are followed through i.e. investigations, improvements, and appropriate reparations.
  • Continue to transparently share progress and learnings even after the media glare has moved on.
  • Evaluate, learn, and conduct a full post-crisis review to strengthen future preparedness.
Nick Clancy
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