Over three quarters (78%) of public relations disasters are “the brand’s fault”, according to a new survey. The study, from media monitoring platform Visibrain, was launched in conjunction with the company’s Best Practice Guide for Media Monitoring. Visibrain’s research was conducted in partnership with Nicolas Vanderbiest, a crisis communications specialist at the University of Leuven. […]
Over three quarters (78%) of public relations disasters are “the brand’s fault”, according to a new survey.
The study, from media monitoring platform Visibrain, was launched in conjunction with the company’s Best Practice Guide for Media Monitoring.
Visibrain’s research was conducted in partnership with Nicolas Vanderbiest, a crisis communications specialist at the University of Leuven. His analysis examined over one hundred of the biggest PR disasters from the last year and identified that the vast majority could have been avoided with better internal planning.
Throughout the year, the most common reasons for PR crises included poor product design, flawed communications strategies and ill-thought-out advertising campaigns.
Additional findings from Visibrain’s research also highlight that brands are now 13% more likely to suffer a marketing or PR crisis than they were just three years ago.
Commenting on these findings, Nicolas Huguenin, CEO of Visibrain said, “While it’s worrying to see so many businesses struggling to manage their communications approach, the fact that PR crises are being caused internally is not necessarily the worst news for big name brands.
“If such disasters were typically being caused by external factors, marketers would have far fewer opportunities to pre-emptively manage and address them. Instead, brands simply need to take greater care in considering all possible outcomes to their communications approach.
“It’s for this reason that Visibrain has launched the Best Practice Guide for Media Monitoring – To help marketers understand how to effectively monitor and prepare for a potential crisis before it has had the opportunity to evolve into a full blown PR disaster.”
To find out more about the role of media monitoring in pre-emptive crisis management, download the full Best Practice Guide.
Visibrain’s research was independently conducted by Nicolas Vanderbiest, a crisis communications specialist at the University of Leuven, Belgium. The analysis examined 109 of the biggest PR crises over the last year.
