PR Crisis Management - Pitching Stories during COVID19
With the onset of COVID19, PR agencies, departments, and freelancers across the world have dropped what they were doing and started asking questions that have no historical precedent.
- Should I drop my planned PR campaigns and start thinking about new “relevant” ones?
- Should I be pitching to the media right now or is that too insensitive?
- What about influencers? Should I continue to work with them? Which platforms should I focus on?
- Should I showcase how my brand can help in these trying times or will it come across as profiteering?
- Should I check with the media if they’re interested in my story that’s not about COVID-19?
This guide can help PR professionals decide what they should be pitching right now and how they should be doing it.
Revisit the digital PR campaigns you had planned and ask yourself the following questions.
1. Can it be re-focused in a meaningful way to be relevant today?
If you have a campaign that naturally lends itself to being re-focused to include or tie into COVID-19, then you have yourself a plan.
Don’t force relevancy if it doesn’t naturally exist. Not everything can be made into a virtual tour or an online class. Stay critical of how your brand/campaign fits into the current narrative.
2. If your PR campaign can’t be explicitly re-focused, is it still somehow relevant today?
You don’t have to add data about COVID-19 to your campaign to make it relevant.
If your brand is in a unique position to still have a significant use today (e.g. cooking, self-care, reading, etc.), then chances are your story will still be relevant to media and audiences alike today.
If your brand has a positive story to share, it will be more in-demand now than ever before.
There are many journalists right now looking for ethical, positive stories to add variety to their news coverage. Just be mindful of remaining empathetic with the current situation.
3. Is your PR campaign not at all relevant today?
If you can’t pivot, pause.
Carrying on with no acknowledgment of what’s happening around us today can do serious long-term damage to your brand.
Keep these campaigns on the backburner for now. If you can, spend that extra bit of time that you couldn’t afford a few weeks ago, to strategize thoroughly based on data from past campaigns. This can put life back into your campaigns and ensure you’re ready for a successful launch at a future timely moment.
For more tips on how to pitch stories, check out this article.
For crisis management templates, click here.
If you don't know what to do with your planned PR campaigns, answer the questions in this flow chart
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