Political PR & crisis comm on a global scale

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1. ’Tis the season as political PR heats up

Following President Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race, the Democratic Party rallied surprisingly effectively around Vice President Kamala Harris as its new candidate, demonstrating quick unity and decisive decision-making despite potential challenges.
Harris' campaign is increasing its use of social and streaming platforms like TikTok and YouTube, using influencers to target younger voters.
Companies should communicate cautiously during an election year, especially given the volatile political landscape and vilification that can occur when taking a strong stance on either side of the aisle.

25% of Fortune 500 companies went offline amid CrowdStrike’s recent worldwide tech outage, costing these companies, including Delta and Microsoft, an estimated $5.4 billion.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz’s statement after the outage after the outage has been widely scrutinized for its lack of empathy, making Kurtz come off as cold and out of touch.
Due to its inherently technical nature, cybersecurity PR can be extremely nuanced. Kurtz missed the opportunity to take control of the narrative with effective crisis communication. The reputational harm to CrowdStrike and continued fallout will no doubt be a PR case study for years to come.

Keeping your organization in a positive light in the minds of consumers takes careful reputation management. Whether responding to an unprecedented global technology disaster or jumping into politically-themed messaging, tailored communication produces better results.
Tailored communication requires targeting a particular audience in order to present the right message at the right time.
Axia’s communication experts can help plan your media strategy, whether for hot-button topics like politics or reputational management, before, during, and after a crisis. Just ask me how we can help.