We are clear that a crisis from the communicational point of view is any unexpected event, capable of generating negative publicity that could damage the reputation of an institution and that distracts the main officials from their main occupations to dedicate themselves to solving it.
One of the great mistakes that are made in the management of crisis situations is the lack of a strategy, of tactics, of well-directed actions that have a direction, a meaning. A well-mounted negative campaign can only be compared to being in a war situation.
An action to counter a dirty campaign must be clearly, orderly, coordinated and supervised as if it were a military campaign…
In general, the most common reaction to a media attack is to publish or disclose almost immediately a “paid field” where an institution or person defends, responds or clarifies a news version that refers to it in a negative way or that affects its personal and / or commercial interests.
This type of thoughtless and isolated response is totally ineffective for the following reasons:
1. Being drafted many times on the run and without any strategic vision, they do not communicate anything at all, they are a series of isolated ideas and many messages scattered, aimless and meaningless.
2. They denote despair and smell of justifications and lying excuses, which, far from helping, end up sinking whoever publishes them.
3. They are almost always long and boring texts full of technical terminology and graphics that nobody understands, perhaps only the one who writes them.
4. Nobody notices them for long and confusing.
5. Since they are only published once, they do not generate positioning, there is no repetition or sequence of key messages.
6. This is the expected reaction, following the agenda set by the enemies.
War strategies
When a company is the victim of a negative media campaign, its officials must be aware that they have entered a situation of "war", where the battlefield is the media and public opinion.
And, as in a war, strategies must be devised (and written) to defend territory, harm the enemy, and suffer as few casualties as possible.
Positioning objectives, communication tools, key messages and objectives, etc., must be clearly in this strategy.
The most frequent errors incurred by companies victims of a media attack are:
1. React emotionally, without strategic vision: This leads us to fall into the traps of the enemy, that is why we see some officials who, instead of dedicating themselves to solving the crisis and taking care of the corporate image by generating positive positioning, invest time and resources in suing journalists and the media, they go out to the media to defend indefensible positions and to answer each one of the attacks with vain, senseless and desperate justifications.
2. Be reactive rather than proactive: Many companies are dedicated to reacting to attacks rather than proposing. They set the agenda for them, which means that their enemies handle the topics of public debate around the topics of their company at will.
3. Do not appoint trained spokespersons: In despair, anyone goes out to the media to "defend" the company, without prior training, without proactive key messages, without reactive key messages, without preparation to face the press in conflict situations.
4. Failure to act on time: Many companies allow a long time to pass before making the decision to face the media crisis or negative campaign. When this happens, the number of negative adjectives are very well positioned, so it will cost many resources to balance negative information and enhance positive information. Experts say it costs 3 times more to rebuild than to build.
5. Respond with commercial advertising: Don't make the mistake of counteracting a negative campaign with a traditional advertising campaign, with a commercial focus only. It must be clear that crisis management is not done through a traditional commercial advertising campaign, there are two different application activities, you should look for professionals in this area, crisis management, to advise you.
If we understand dirty campaigns as acts of war and act with cunning and intelligence, a crisis situation can become a great opportunity to relaunch the image of our company.
