Sefiani and its parent company Clarity Global have launched the inaugural Clarity Global Crisis & Reputation Report, with learnings to assist CEOs, chief marketing officers, corporate communicators, social and digital media managers, and university students.
Lead image: Robyn Sefiani.
Robyn Sefiani, president ANZ and reputation counsel based in Sydney, said: “The past year has seen high-profile companies in Australia from Woolworths to PwC, Optus and Qantas suffer brand and reputation damage due to poorly handled crises. Globally, we’ve seen the same with Taylor Swift – yes, hard to believe now – Southwest Airlines, Elon Musk’s Twitter/X and the Confederation of British Industry.
“It’s valuable for leaders and communicators to reflect on these incidents and apply learnings to their own organisations,” Sefiani said.
The Report includes detailed analysis by Sefiani and Clarity crisis management specialists in Australia, North America and the UK of six high-profile crises, covering the initial trigger incident, how the crisis played out and was managed (or mismanaged), and the reputational impact. Each crisis case study includes key outtakes and learnings, and the report concludes with advice for best practice crisis response, communications and management.
In a case study titled ‘Taylor Swift, Private Jets, the New York Jets and…. SEO’, Clarity’s SEO technical lead in London, Rob Barnes, examines the power of SEO when managing issues and crises.
In another titled ‘UK Politics’ Reputational Perma-Crisis’ Clarity’s president of corporate and public affairs Nick Lansman analyses the “perma-crises” and “omnishambles” surrounding Westminster and Whitehall, and the subsequent erosion of trust in political leaders and the democratic process.
Global airlines are often front and centre in issues and crises. Los Angeles-based Jason Wakeford, associate partner North America explains how a high-profile crisis evolved and was eventually resolved to restore the reputation of an American airline in ‘Flying through Turbulence: a Year of Fallout from the Southwest Airlines’ Holiday Meltdown’.
Closer to home, Nick Owens, Clarity Global’s Sydney-based president corporate and crisis communications analyses the Woolworths Australia Day crisis, considered the beginning of the end for CEO Brad Banducci, who stunningly walked out of a media interview about supermarkets’ price gouging with the ABC’s Four Corners weeks later. What exactly happened and could the entire crisis have been avoided?
No 21st-century crisis report would be complete without Elon Musk. Clarity’s New York-based Rachael Berkey, VP of social strategy, explores the journey of ‘Twitter, X, and Elon Musk: what the Twitter to X transformation means for brand reputation’.
And finally, Michael Gonzales, president corporate strategy in London covers ‘The Confederation of British Industry Crisis: how internal policy and crisis preparedness intersect’. This case study clearly shows how, regardless of your organization’s size, significant time needs to be invested into preparing for crises.
