In a hyper-connected world, a crisis can hit at any time and from any direction. From social media backlash to operational failures, businesses must be prepared to respond swiftly, clearly, and effectively.
When handled well, a crisis becomes an opportunity to demonstrate accountability, transparency, and commitment to stakeholders. When mishandled, it can erode brand trust, impact financials, and leave lasting reputational damage.
This fourth instalment in our PR planning series for 2025 outlines how to prepare for the unexpected and create a robust crisis communication plan that safeguards your brand and builds trust.
Why Crisis Communications Matter in 2025
Crisis communication is no longer a “nice-to-have”—it’s a business imperative. According to PwC’s Global Crisis Survey, 69% of business leaders have experienced at least one major crisis in the past five years. What’s more, 95% of those leaders anticipate a future crisis.
With consumer expectations at an all-time high, how brands handle crises directly impacts trust and loyalty. The Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that brands that communicate openly during crises are more likely to retain customer trust.
As PR practitioners, we know that hope is not a strategy. Proactive crisis planning can reduce the impact of the crisis, safeguard your brand, and even turn adversity into an opportunity to build deeper stakeholder trust.
How to Build a Crisis Communications Plan
- Identify Potential Risks: No business is immune to crises. Start by identifying potential vulnerabilities, both internal and external. Common crisis triggers include:
- Operational failures (product recalls, supply chain issues)
- Reputation risks (social media backlash, employee misconduct)
- Data breaches and cyberattacks (a growing concern as businesses digitize)
- Natural disasters and health crises (pandemics, extreme weather events)
How to Do It:
- Conduct a risk assessment with input from PR, legal, HR, and senior management.
- Prioritise risks based on likelihood and potential impact.
- Create crisis response scenarios for high-priority risks.
🔍 Tip: The Deloitte Crisis Management Guide provides practical methods for identifying potential risks and vulnerabilities.
- Build Your Crisis Team: A crisis team is your frontline defence. It must be agile, decisive, and well-coordinated to handle unexpected challenges.
Who Should Be on Your Crisis Team?
- Crisis Lead: Typically the Head of PR or Communications
- Spokesperson: A senior leader (CEO, COO) who acts as the face of the response
- Legal Representative: Ensures that the response complies with legal obligations
- HR Representative: Handles internal communication and employee issues
- IT & Cybersecurity Expert: Especially important for data breaches and cyberattacks
How to Do It:
- Assign roles and responsibilities before a crisis occurs.
- Establish a clear chain of command for decision-making.
- Document the process of escalation for different crisis scenarios.
🔍 Tip: Ensure your spokesperson is media-trained. Even the most experienced leaders can stumble under pressure. Media training can ensure your key representatives are calm, clear, and confident.
- Develop Holding Statements & Messaging: During a crisis, speed is critical—but so is accuracy. Pre-prepared “holding statements” help you respond quickly before all the details are available. A holding statement is a brief, pre-approved message that acknowledges the situation, provides assurance, and outlines next steps. It’s a placeholder message that gives your brand time to investigate further.
How to Do It:
- Prepare holding statements for various crisis scenarios (data breach, operational failure, social backlash, etc.).
- Review and update these statements annually.
- Avoid “No comment” responses, which can fuel public speculation.
🔍 Tip: Use tools like Notion or Confluence to store pre-approved holding statements and templates so the team can access them quickly.
- Select Your Communication Channels: In 2025, you’ll have to manage multiple communication channels at once—social media, email, website updates, press releases, and internal platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams.
How to Do It:
- Identify which channels will be used for which audience (e.g., employees, customers, media, stakeholders).
- Ensure internal teams are aware of the process for posting on social media or updating the website.
- Monitor sentiment in real-time using tools like Brandwatch or Hootsuite.
🔍 Tip: Use your internal communications platform (like Microsoft Teams) to alert employees before the crisis goes public. If employees learn about a crisis on social media, it damages internal trust.
- Monitor & Adapt: No crisis communication plan is static. It must evolve as the situation unfolds. Active monitoring allows you to track sentiment and adjust your messaging accordingly.
How to Do It:
- Use media monitoring tools like Meltwater or Google Alerts to track mentions of your brand.
- Monitor social sentiment on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
- Adjust your messaging in real-time to address emerging concerns.
🔍 Tip: Crisis reviews are essential. After every crisis, conduct a post-crisis review to identify what worked and what didn’t. Document learnings for future use.
Linking Crisis Communications to Trust & Brand Loyalty
A well-managed crisis doesn’t just protect your brand—it strengthens it. Research from the Edelman Trust Barometer shows that when companies take swift, transparent action, customer trust increases.
Here’s how:
- Speed builds confidence. If your company responds quickly, people see you as prepared and capable.
- Transparency builds trust. Being honest (even when the news is bad) strengthens credibility.
- Empathy drives loyalty. Acknowledging the impact on customers and employees makes your brand more human.
Next Steps for Your Crisis Plan
- Audit potential risks and map them into scenarios.
- Assemble a crisis team and assign roles.
- Create holding statements and templates for common crisis events.
- Invest in media training for your spokesperson.
- Use monitoring tools to track sentiment and conversations in real-time.
Looking Ahead
The next blog in this series will focus on omnichannel PR campaigns—how to create a consistent narrative across platforms to engage your audience at every touchpoint.
Missed the Earlier Blogs in This Series?
“Setting the Stage for 2025: Building a PR Strategy That Works”
