Sally Branson and Tim Ayliffe launch crisis comms training agency
Tony Abbott’s former senior press secretary and a longtime managing editor at the ABC have teamed up to offer elevated crisis preparation and training for business leaders and organisations.
Branson and Ayliffe Crisis Management Consultants is the brainchild of crisis communications leader Sally Branson and media veteran Tim Ayliffe, who have known each other for 20 years, “since the days when I used to pitch to him from the embassy [to the ABC],” as Branson tells Mumbrella.
Branson was the senior press secretary for former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and advisor to senior military officials including US joint chiefs of staff. She has also guided numerous global brands and high-profile operators through various communications crises. The ’embassy’ she refers to is the US Embassy, where she worked for close to a decade.
Ayliffe has spent 25 years in journalism, working in London for Britain’s Sky News, and at the ABC, where he was executive producer of news breakfast, and managing editor of the broadcaster’s TV and news output.
Sally Branson
“Tim and I have combined our experience in politics, diplomacy, defence, media communications and the creative arts to create elevated crisis preparation and training – think what Brad Banducci needed before Four Corners,” Branson says, referring to the former Woolworths CEO’s trainwreck appearance on the ABC show, which Branson unpacked on a Mumbrellacast episode last year.
The partnership combines Branson’s crisis communications expertise with Ayliffe’s understanding of the modern media landscape and the corporations that exist within. The training programs include crisis simulation, public speaking coaching, media response strategies, leadership development, and comprehensive stakeholder communication planning.
“Tim and I kept seeing headline after headline about businesses and individuals scrambling to respond to a crisis and just not being as prepared as they should be under the full glare of scrutiny,” Branson explains to Mumbrella.
“There is some great generalist media training in the market, but we’re still seeing poor performances when it matters most. We said to each other we knew there was a better way to prepare. A way that is laser-focussed on crisis and on the best way to show up in the really worst case scenarios for individuals and brands.
Tim Ayliffe
“Time and time again you’ve heard me say that crisis specific planning and crisis specific training should be BAU [business as usual], because stakeholders expect nothing less than leaders being able to communicate well under pressure.”
Branson says teaming up with Ayliffe “made perfect sense” for this venture, “as it gives clients access to the experience that comes from our real world crisis and media understanding.
“We have been on both sides of the preparation and delivery in the highest stakes crisis communication,” she says.
“It’s one thing to be media trained, but a whole other to be precisely prepped for standing in front of Senate estimates, hostile shareholders or some of Australia’s most skillful journalists. It is not run of the mill training.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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Branson and Ayliffe Crisis Management Consultants
crisis communications
PR crisis
Sally Branson
Tim Ayliffe
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