Every crisis is an opportunity to be extraordinary
In a time of brand crisis, the reaction is everything. Do you make vague promises and try to ride out the news cycle, or do you take on the crisis head-on, in a fun, thought-provoking and social way? James Wright, group CEO of Havas ANZ, explores.
It’s the story that still won’t go away, the very awkward kiss cam moment, captured at a Coldplay concert. After a period of considerable global embarrassment, recently we saw the corporate affairs and marketing teams at Astronomer start their “Fix You” response for the brand, drafting in Gwyneth Paltrow to front a satirical business video making light of the situation.
As someone who recently spent over four years working in the US representing many different types of organisations, I was fascinated by the response, but for a different reason than many have written about.
For me from a PR perspective the most interesting thing here is not so much that Astronomer took an unexpected and unusual path, there are many previous examples of this, but that it did so as a B2B brand, a technology company that specialises in data engineering and workflow management. Think about that for a moment. Then add that they are a US company, where B2B brands are traditionally some of the most conservative in the corporate world.
