Double sided sword

We all have those moments when what appears on the face of it to be a cast iron opportunity, could quite easily become the proverbial double edge sword.

During a client meeting with a new client we discussed media opportunities and the client brought up an incident which recently happened in one of their offices. A burglary in fact, little of value was taken and the police shrugged their shoulders in the belief that there was nothing they could do. A little later, a sharp eyed office administrator noticed blood on a filing cabinet and the police were called back. After analysis a DNA match was found and the burglar brought to book.

The client wondered how they could use this to generate media coverage and we discussed this for a short time – the Miss Marple angle, etc. After coming up with a variety of headlines to match the circumstances, I asked, what does the fact that your offices were broken into inform your customers and potential customers about you? What type of information was available in the office that may have been potentially damaging to you or your clients? What level of security was implemented on the IT systems? As these questions sunk in the faintly amusing headlines faded into the background.

We went on to discuss what level of crisis management planning they had implemented and how this could be strengthened through the development of contingency plans.

The economic climate has created the environment where clients are inclined to listen to PR professionals concerning the impact on a business’ reputation that negative events will have. In today’s environment all clients must be made aware of the steps that can be taken to guard against disaster or to protect the business from the worse effects of negative publicity.

As we know there are always at least two sides to every story, let’s ensure our clients’ version is the one that is heard loudest.