Protecting brand reputations—why marketers need crisis prevention officers

Nobody keeps statistics on the ill-advised things CEOs say and do. But if they did, the chart for 2023 would look like a tech stock on steroids. No matter how much everybody tries to be on their best behavior, it was a banner year for self-sabotage. In one October week alone, ESPN doctored a rival's video and inserted its logo into it, HBO CEO Casey Bloys admitted his department created fake Twitter accounts to attack TV critics and finance start-up Carta sent emails to its clients urging them to ignore the toxic workplace press coverage it had been receiving—just in case they missed it. Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden defended Ye, formerly Kanye West, whose 2022 anti-Semitic rant led to the company’s costly termination of its partnership. “I don’t think he meant what he said,'' Gulden told a podcast in September. Super Bowl commercials Tracking the latest brand and agency plans Enter here Not to mention DraftKings backtracking on its tasteless wager for all New York sports teams to win on September 11, Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave’s anti-Israel tirade on social media that cost him his job and subscription box service FabFitFun’s off-brand profanity-laced parody of Elon Musk that caused a revolt of their female community. Speaking of Elon Musk, he was in a Hall of Fame category all by himself in 2023, offending X advertisers and users consistently without any self-awareness or remorse while costing him a projected loss of $75 million. The environment in 2023 was ripe for mishaps and errors in judgment to slip out into the public. A number of factors contributed to this perfect storm: Long hours, less sleep: According to Gallup, salaried workers are working five more hours per week, on average, than full-time hourly workers (49 vs 44). The Sleep Institute says more than one-third of adults sleep less than the needed seven hours per night. Together, a perfect storm of waning concentration and cloudier judgment. Fewer people: About 28% of Americans were laid off in the past two years, 400,000 in the tech industry alone during that period. See our Year in Review stories here Fear: Because of those layoffs, people would very much like to keep their jobs. So, the last thing they’re going to do is push back against a CEO’s idea. Weak guardrails: A smaller headcount can mean not enough bandwidth, cohesiveness and cultural diversity to stop mistakes and bad ideas from getting through. There may be fewer people performing and paying attention to the internal checks and balances that every company should have. Cooler heads don’t always prevail: If a CEO is upset or emotional, nothing stands between them and the X app on their mobile phone, day or night. How can companies prevent similar crises from damaging their reputations? It requires discipline and a commitment to setting up guardrails so it doesn’t happen to them. Here are three of them: Appoint a crisis prevention officer Create the position of crisis prevention officer and fill it from outside of the company to assure greater objectivity. Unlike the rest of the company, they should receive their salary in advance and cannot be fired unless approved by a majority of the board. Their sole responsibility is to be an impartial safeguard for all company communications and actions. They would have the right to say “That will get us in trouble” or “That won’t work, and here is why” without repercussions. And they would review language and images used in press releases, marketing campaigns and social media to preempt backlash. Learn from others’ mistakes The crisis prevention officer should track other brand missteps and discuss them within the company, especially with senior managers—emphasizing the mistakes made and how they could have been prevented. There is not an executive alive who would want this kind of damaging attention. Use decision buddies Every professional should have a decision buddy, a straight-shooting, trustworthy sounding board who can talk them out of potentially embarrassing situations—and vice versa. That questionable sentence you’re wondering about in the company layoffs memo? The buzzy marketing stunt that might tick off an activist group? The sarcastic shot you want to take at your biggest competitor on Instagram? Run it by the decision buddy first. A decision buddy doesn’t rubber-stamp everything you do. They encourage you when things look good, maybe even refine your thoughts and stop you from heading off a cliff. The best decision buddies have five characteristics: The bottom line is that decision buddies have each other’s backs. Everybody benefits.

Protecting brand reputations—why marketers need crisis prevention officers

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