Ok, so we have all seen Kanye West ruining Taylor Swift’s moment in the spotlight at last weeks VMAs and we all have our own opinions about this incident (and they are all very similar, I suppose). Despite his actions, West deserves some credit for his crisis management. Here is what happened:
Country-Pop singer Taylor Swift won her first big award at the MTV Video Awards in 2009. While giving an emotional acceptance speech she was interrupted by Hip Hop artist Kanye West. West appeared on stage, took the microphone out of Swift’s hand and declared that the award should have gone to Beyoncé instead. When he left the stage (and a crying Swift behind) loud boos from the crowd followed him into the dressing rooms.
Kanye found himself in a publicity crisis that night and he decided to apologize to Taylor Swift through his blog. Although he lost a lot of respect from many people as a result of his actions, Kanye did a good job sending out an initial crisis response message addressing almost all of his crisis stakeholders. In his blog entry he acknowledged his mistake and apologized to Taylor (victim), Taylor’s mom (victim’s family), her fans (victim’s friends), his fans (customers), and MTV (host & investor).
Beyoncé, who unwillingly got involved in the entire situation, won an award later that night. She gracefully stated that she had had her share of moments in the spotlight, and invited Taylor Swift back on stage to eventually give her acceptance speech. And that is how pure class can get you out of a crisis.
FC St. Pauli
In May 2003, legendary German football club FC St. Pauli was relegated from second division. Things looked bad for the club from Hamburg’s ill-reputed red light district when then governing football body ‘DFB’ threatened to relegate the club even further due to their debt of 2 Mio Euros. The club officials admitted that there was no money to save St. Pauli and were prepared to take their beloved team into the depths of amateur football.
That’s when the club’s enthusiastic supporters decided to step in. But how do you raise 2 Million Euros (2.4 Million dollars) in a matter of a few weeks?
By thinking outside the box!
1. The supporters designed shirts that displayed the club’s logo and read: ‘RETTER’ (SAVIOUR). 140.000 of those shirts were sold within days for a profit of almost 1 Million Euros.
2. They arranged a friendly against German giants Bayern Munich which put 270.000 Euros into the club’s pocket.
3. And last but not least – my favorite: ‘Saufen fuer St. Pauli’ (Booze-up for Pauli). One Saturday night all bars in the district of St. Pauli charged an additional amount of 50 cent per beer and transfered that extra money into the clubs bank account. And let me tell you: Germans love their beer. Half the city joined the fun. 40.000 beers later another 20.000 Euros were given to the struggling club.
Within weeks, FC St. Pauli was saved from bankruptcy due to the initiative and dedication by its supporters. As a result of their efforts, sponsors all of a sudden realized the full potential of the legendary football club and jumped on the bandwagon. St. Pauli has not been in any major financial trouble ever since.
Thinking outside the box is a vital part of Modern Crisis Management. Unorthodox approaches to handle a crisis stay in the public’s mind for a long time. A crisis is always a good chance to create customer loyality in the long run.
Philip
A: Not you.
Increased media attention is usually a side dish of the crisis main course. The media will report about your situation as long as they feel it is appropriate. Unless the viewers, readers, and listeners get tired of your story the media will happily deliver more information. For you as a company or as a crisis manager that means: keep on handling the incident! Continue the press releases, the press conferences, the regular internal meetings, etc.
Your crisis is over when the public (and as a result the media) loses interest or when more important news happen. Example?
Iran’s election result was headlining the international media news in mid June 2009. Iran’s president Ahmadinejad won by a landslide margin, which caused observers and political opponents to claim that the election was manipulated and rigged. Angry protestors took to the streets of Tehran for the largest demonstrations in the history of the country. The peaceful protests soon got out of hand and turned into riots. At least one activist died on the streets of Iran in the post-election days. President Ahmadinejad ignored the situation and did not address the international media or release any statements. The situation was tense and close to escalation when activists organized a large demonstration for June 25th. Did we ever hear about that demonstration? No. That morning Michael Jackson died.
It was almost like Iran was wiped off the world map overnight. All international (and especially American) news channels broadcasted about the death and legacy of the King of Pop 24/7. Without the international media attention the situation in Iran soon calmed down. Ahmadinejad was appointed president of Iran yesterday.
A number of tragic air disasters happened in early 2009. After every accident I went online to check the dark sites that the respective airlines put up. For those of you who ask: ‘What is a dark site?’ here is a short explanation: A dark site is a pre-designed web page that is unavailable to the public until activated in a crisis. Once activated, it replaces the regular company web site for a certain period of time. A dark site usually provides confirmed and verified information on the crisis as soon as it becomes available. In my mind, dark sites should be plain and respectful towards the victims of a disaster. No logos, ads, or ambience pictures should be visible.
One of the worst post-accident web sites I have seen in years was the Caspian Airlines page. (www.caspian.aero) . On July 15th, 2009 Caspian Airlines had an accident on a scheduled flight from Tehran, Iran to Yerevan, Armenia. 15 minutes after takeoff the airplane crashed into a field in Northern Iran, killing all 168 people on board.
Caspian did not provide any accident information on their webpage for the first 24 hours after the crash. Even worse: they kept their company’s slogan on centre page. ‘Caspian – your first RELIABLE choice’.
Talk about adding insult to the injury for all family members of the passengers on board who tried to get information on the accident online.
It still gets better. Or actually worse. The day after the crash I visited Caspian’s website again and almost fell out of my chair. They put the entire passenger list of flight 7908 online (see red arrow in my screenshot). Never mind calling the families of the victims to notify them of the accident or keeping their names confidential out of respect to local traditions. Just post them online for the entire (media) world to see. Imagine trying to grief over the loss of a loved one with TV stations bugging you for interviews every 10 minutes.
If you ever find yourself in a position where you have to activate a corporate dark site please learn from Caspian’s mistakes. Think of the victims and their families first. They will appreciate it.
I will post more case studies of dark sites soon,
Philip
So I have finally found some time to change the design and layout of my site. Hope you like it.
Some tweaking and re-designing needs to be done still but there is always another weekend.
Unfortunately the new page comes with a minor set-back: the archive is gone. At least for now. I will work on getting some old posts back up soon. Busy days are ahead of me, I’m working on a special project! Keep your fingers crossed.
Check back for comments and analysis on recent crisis management case studies!
Philip
