10 Fearless Public Relations Crisis Predictions For 2012

Some things in life are predictable. Like the sun coming up every morning, you just know there’s going to be a public relations crisis sooner or later. Here’s my 10 PR crisis predictions for 2012 along with some helpful tips and Do’s and Don’ts.

These are only 10, there are obviously countless others but c’mon, you know there’s is going to be buzzing about…

1. Another very religious politician getting tripped up in a sex scandal.
2. One of 2011’s hottest new social media apps “jumping the shark” and becoming stale as old beer.
3. What? A service charge for that !@#!
4. A giant security breach occurring because an employee loses or misplaces a laptop.
5. In a bold slap in the face to tax payers, government employees in X or Y major city abusing their parking and travel expense privileges.
6. He’s a great athlete but a bad husband/dad/pet owner.
7. A major toy maker/auto maker/appliance maker recalling products due to safety issues. Pundits insisting they should have known better.
8. What? His bonus was that BIG even though the company lost money?
9. Kanye, Lindsey, Charlie and/or Whitney in trouble again!
10. What? She was so (uniformed/insensitive/inappropriate) to tweet THAT?

Obviously each of the above issue poses a different set of challenges to brand managers. If that politician referenced in #1 has nothing to do with your particular brand or company, what do you care?

But if that toy referenced in #7 is your best seller, well that of course is another story.

And in today’s digital, real-time, news-in-a-flash on any number of devices, hand-held-or-otherwise world we find ourselves in, companies and brands need to be at the ready to deal with a public relations crisis head on.

Engagement Is Key
The need to engage your customer, prospects and constituencies is even more paramount during a PR crisis because effective and transparent communications coupled with a solid plan can make all of the difference in terms of the positive or negative impact on a brand… be it a business, a celebrity or a politician.

The Do’s and the Don’ts

Here are the three things you MUST do in a crisis situation …

1. Be proactive and assertive. Gather all of the facts, agree to a communications strategy along with key messages and then take control of the presentation of these message as much as possible.
2. Set up a communications chain of command. Agree to who will be delivering the message and get everyone involved to follow this protocol.
3. Continuously access the effectiveness and appropriateness of messaging based on new information, reactions of key audiences, feedback from direct and on-line channels.

Here are three things you should NOT do …

1. Hide or bury the truth. It always comes out — particularly now in the 24/7 on-line news world where traditional and citizen journalists, citizen journalists, bloggers and pundits are all “reporting.”
2. Try to fake it, guess or speculate. Analyze the crisis issue, develop your response and stick to key messages and facts.
3. Belabor the issue. The goal of effective crisis communications is to get your position across in a fast, effective and direct manner so that the world and the public hopefully moves on to other concerns.

Mobile Marketing Spending To Have The Biggest Increase Over Next Five Years

Among all Interactive Marketing platforms, Mobile Marketing is expected to grow 38% over the next five years with an estimated $8.2 billion being allocated to it by the year 2016.

I am surely no rocket scientist nor Al Einstein (he said to me once, ‘You can call me, Al’ – it’s a long story) but anyone with half a brain or perhaps even less than that could foresee the future and see that is paved with mobile phones. I mean, who doesn’t have a cell phone these days?

“The number of advertisers using mobile advertising has doubled in just two years and accordingly mCommerce is growing right along with it. Marketers need to grow along with it.” That was something I wrote back in June titled The Rapid Rise Of Mobile Advertising And mCommerce. About a month later I scribed Another Reason Why Marketers Need To Be Mobile where I told of the fact that the “total value of mobile payments for digital and physical goods, money transfers and NFC (Near Field Communications) transactions is expected to hit $670 billion by 2015 – nearly three times as much as will be seen this year, $240 billion.”

And today I bring you the findings from a Forrester report the “U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2011 to 2016” which states that among all interactive marketing platforms, the one with the highest increase in terms of spending will be mobile marketing.

Now as you’ll see from the chart below, in terms of actual dollars, Search Engine Marketing will still lead the way but will in fact lose some of its interactive spending pie, falling from 55% to 44% from 2011 to 2016. Forrester analyst Shar VanBoskirk attributes the drop in dollars being allocated to Search Engine Marketing to the rise of biddable display media, the growth of mobile and investment in social networks and alternative search networks such as Facebook, YouTube and ratings and reviews sites such as Yelp.

Another not surprising, at least to me, takeaway from this report is the fact that Social Media Marketing will have the second highest growth rate (26%) after mobile marketing. Don’t worry, I’m not going to overload you with the latest Facebook, Twitter and Social Media in general stats, you know and have heard them all by now.

But… What’s perhaps most amazing, most incredible, most… ok, you get my point, but what truly caught my eye, is the fact that spending on Interactive Marketing as a whole will increase 85% from 2011 – 2016. Yes, 85%, with spending on Interactive Marketing accounting for 35% of all spending by the year 2016, up from 19% in 2011. Another way to look at it is by 2016, the amount spent on Interactive Marketing is expected to reach $76.6 billion, which is what is spent on TV advertising right now.

Obviously, at least I think it’s obvious, spending on television (AKA a non-Interactive platform) will increase as well over the next five years. Sorry to all those who have predicted and will continue to predict the demise of television and television advertising, and you know who you are, but television advertising is not going anywhere. It will continue to play a role in any integrated marketing campaign of offline and online strategies.

So, spending on Interactive Marketing is increasing 85% from 2011 to 2016, at least according to Forrester.

Where do you fall in all this?

Are you a marketer who currently allocates a portion of your budget to Interactive?

Do you plan on increasing your spend on Interactive over the next five years?

If so, which platform(s) do you plan on using more?

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