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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

From helping support Covid-19 relief efforts to raising awareness around social inequalities, we’ve seen a string of brands up their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and purpose-driven marketing in the past 12 months. The year 2020 was forced brands to reevaluate their relationship with consumers and the communities they operate within as people all over the world looked to politicians and brand to do better.  

But, today's consumers don't just want to read a polished corporate statement from a company's PR team — they want action. Social responsibility needs to be deep-rooted in the DNA of your organization to prevent audiences from perceiving you as ‘woke washing’, ‘greenwashing’, ‘good washing’, ‘armchair activists’, ‘slacktivism’ and the rest. Implementing CSR initiatives into your marketing strategy requires a willingness to help others, not only your bottom line. In this blog, we'll explain what an authentic CSR program looks like. 

But first, what is the definition of corporate social responsibility?

 If you are asking yourself, “what does CSR mean?” we like to defer to this CSR definition:

“Corporate social responsibility is a mechanism for businesses to assess the impact they have on society and put responsible, ethical policies in place to support individuals, the local community, the marketplace and the environment.”

Unfortunately, each company has its definition of corporate social responsibility, but there are notable common threads used to define what is CSR in business:

An aim of contributing to societal goals through philanthropic or charitable acts

An acknowledgment of the fact that corporate responsibility is a self-regulated initiative that helps a company to be more socially accountable through corporate governance

Acknowledgment of the fact that CSR assists relationship management between the company and its surrounding environment (e.g. stakeholders and local communities)

What is the Purpose of Corporate Social Responsibility?

Giving back to the communities you serve and helping protect the environment is the cost of doing business today. While why a company begins to focus on CSR should be driven by an internal motivation to do good, external forces are also making sure CSR in on the corporate agenda.

Audiences place a high value on social responsibility, in fact, 78% of people want companies to address social justice issues and 63% said they hoped businesses will drive social and environmental social responsibility change where government regulation lacks. By focusing on social responsibility, corporates are giving their audiences what they demand.

Also, it’s nice to be nice. Having a CSR strategy should come from wanting to be/ do better — and not from wanting to drive profits. Today’s savvy consumers can spot brands that partake in social responsibility from a ‘selfish’ standpoint from miles away. And if an organization is looking to begin a CSR campaign solely as a means of making money or improving the company's reputation, the truth is that this can actually end up damaging your brand rather than enhancing it. That’s not to say you can’t promote your CSR  initiative — you can, but you have to make sure you do so tastefully which we’ll discuss later in this article.

4 Ways Businesses can Kick Start CSR Practices

A company that wants to improve its social responsibility efforts may choose to focus on a number of different activities and approaches. Below we explain how a company can denote resources, change its products or services, give back to employees and contribute to supporting the environment. 

With a growing interest surrounding brands that take their earthly responsibility seriously, we thought it would be the optimal time to break down the 5 best environmental campaigns on social media in recent history.

Corporations can embrace corporate philanthropy by making strategic donations to causes. For example, you may wish to donate a percentage of your profits, sponsor an event or hold an employee volunteer day.

Remember, just because you’ve parted ways with some cash, that doesn’t mean that you’re putting your money where your mouth is. For that to happen, you need to embody the values of the nonprofit you’re partnering with, which in turn, means you need to walk the talk. With this in mind, it’s best practice to find a nonprofit that’s responsibility aligns with both your company priorities and that of your audience.

2. Make changes to your products or services

For CSR to work, it’s important for companies to look in the mirror and, as Gandhi said, “Be the change they wish to see in the world.” These changes could be anything from making your packaging eco-friendlier or, on a bigger scale, ensuring corporate social responsibility in global supply chains is closely monitored. 

If your business takes on the responsibility to evaluate, rework, or make the product more socially responsible, make sure this is communicated by business leaders. You can’t expect stakeholders to know what’s happening behind closed doors; communication plays a key role in how socially responsible a brand is perceived.

Adopting practices and programs that support employees is another way to demonstrate social responsibility. During the pandemic, research found 90% of consumers said that it is important to them that brands take care of their employees, with a further 49% expressing how businesses treat their staff as one of their top five purchasing considerations. Beyond ethics, workplace happiness helps productivity and employee engagement, so being socially accountable is a win-win situation for all! 

Check out Comparably's ranking of the top 100 highest-rated companies with the Happiest Employees to learn more about what defines being a great place to work. (P.S. Look out for Meltwater on the list!)

It’s easy to get swept up in the idea of grand changes on a global or national level, however, contributing to local social responsibility programs is equally as important. For many businesses, local customers are a key source of sales, therefore, company prosperity depends on favorable conditions within the community. Some local authorities also prefer to award contracts and tenders to businesses that take on the responsibility of getting involved in their community, so having them on your side is a massive win.

Community involvement is a great way to humanize your brand, this can take many forms including contributing financially to local projects or supporting nearby schools or community centers. 

What to avoid when it comes to rolling out a CSR strategy

Asserting commitment to CSR and actually adhering to practices are two different things. As mentioned earlier, companies that don’t walk their talk are at risk of being perceived as frauds, and there's a growing list of terms that people are using to describe such organizations.

Greenwashing refers to making unsubstantiated or misleading claims about the environmental social responsibility benefits of a particular company initiative or decision. In doing so, companies create the illusion they’re more ethical and environmentally friendly than they really are. 

You may remember Heathrow airport coming under fire for this a few years ago? The public slated its eco-sanctuary living wall and Garden Gate as merely an attempt to mask its expansion plans with a proposed new runway.

In our blog “5 Signs of Greenwashing—And How to Avoid Doing It Yourself,” we highlighted greenwashing signals to watch out for, including:

Making environmental social responsibility claims the company is already legally required to provide

Lobbying against measures behind the scenes—while leadership and comms regularly deliver pro-environmental messages

Putting inaccurate environmentally friendly claims on your labels

Wokewashing is a term used to describe when companies cynically prey on customers' social responsibility awareness by adopting the veneer of progressive values using progressive-orientated marketing for profit. 

Unfortunately, we’re seeing an increase in marketing pros commodifying social movements and piling on to the latest cause to “out-purpose” the competition without taking the time to check their own company values and culture. Who remembers Kendall Jenner's Pepsi ad which many claimed appropriated the Black Lives Matter movement? The drink giant's tone death ad failed at its attempt to position itself as both a protest drink for key challenges in the world and as having the power to heal tensions. 

In the wake of the brand crisis, we used Meltwater’s media monitoring tool to track the sentiment of Pepsi before the ad launched and after. As you can see, the reputation plummeted after the ad release and for some time after. Fortunately for Pepsi, judging based on their brand sentiment they recovered from the crisis, but not all brands are that fortunate.

The United Nations defined slacktivism as when people support a cause by performing simple measures, but they’re not truly engaged or devoted to making a change. 

The term is often synonymous with viral movements, which are coming thick and fast in the form of various social media challenges (The Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS, the no make-up challenge for cancer research, and the black and white picture challenge that helped raise awareness of femicide in Turkey, etc). 

The problem with armchair activism/slacktivism is that people often join in because they like the feeling of being a part of something rather than wanting to change something. For example, nobody really knew the foundation of the black and white picture challenge was linked to femicide in Turkey. Instead, many thought the challenge was more about girl power and used hashtags like #womensupportingwomen to accompany the photo. The message, like so many others, was lost.

Maybe slacktivism doesn’t deserve as bad of a rap as it has considering it does bring awareness, but these days a brand’s good intentions need to be exceeded by their CSR actions for them to be considered worth it.

CSR disconnect between your vision and your audience 

The social corporate responsibility areas you choose to invest in should align with urgencies in your wider macro environment (for example, climate change), your company's vision, and audience's interests. Swing too much either way and you risk losing company focus or interest from your audience. Understanding company focus is easy as it’s something you have control over, but getting to grips with the psyche of your consumers is a little more challenging.

How to make your CSR activities successful

Before you launch your own CSR program, make sure you are being transparent about your motivations & actions, letting your audience inform your actions and listening to the responses you are receiving.

1. Be transparent with your responsibility efforts

Audiences aren’t expecting a complete overhaul of corporate behavior overnight, but they do expect progress. So, define what corporate sustainability means to you and then identify pathways to effectively address this definition. Get all stakeholders involved to commit, establish goals and monitor corporate behavior and progress. Transparency is key here, so don’t forget to share results — both good and bad.

Invest in audience insights to ensure there is no CSR disconnect between your vision and your audience. As Khumo Theko, trend spotter at Flux Trends, discusses, there are new urban tribes that brands should be aware of. One of her stand-out points is that consumers are consciously diverse; there are various groups that are connected, and socially motivated, but all stand for something different. 

Meltwater’s Consumer Insights tool allows you to get rich insights into the different segments and communities following your brand so you can quickly identify what they’re passionate about and find the shared CSR value sweet spot between your brand vision and customer.

As Jeanne du Plessis, Corporate Affairs and Citizenship Leader at Procter and Gamble South Africa said in a previous Meltwater webinar, it doesn’t do any good for businesses to storm in and try to fix things before talking to those affected by the problem. For instance, before you rush in to paint a classroom, take the time to listen. You need to understand the root problem to make a real change. 

Today, it’s not just about having an impact on the bottom line, it’s about having an impact beyond business. Here are a few more examples of brands flexing their corporate social responsibility policy. 

Corporate responsibility angle: Environment sustainability 

Outdoor apparel and gear manufacturer, Patagonia, has been at the forefront of sustainability activism since the company’s 1973 founding. They even recently changed their mission from being product-focused, “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis,” to one that is even more sustainability led, “Patagonia is in business to save our home planet.” The mission goes as far as suggesting that financial performance comes second to the environment. In 2016, they proved this when they announced that they would donate 100% of Black Friday sales to sustainable organizations that benefit the environment. 

CEO, Rose Marcario, also recently announced the company would donate the $10 million it saved as a result of President Trump’s 2018 tax cuts to environmental protection groups. Patagonia then explained how this sustainability initiative allowed them to help “hundreds of grassroots environmental organizations”. Such a significant public action helped solidify the company’s CSR policy and reputation for genuine dedication to sustainable causes.

Corporate responsibility angle: Social injustice

In recent years, Nike’s ads have largely stepped away from traditional formats and instead looked further afield to tap into the current culture of social activism, standing up for what you believe in and proving you have what it takes to win. 

When American football star, Colin Kaepernick, was dropped by the NFL after taking a knee during the national anthem before a 2016 match in protest against police brutality, Nike launched a bold advertising campaign with Kaepernick as the star. The ad sparked protests and boycott threats against the brand, but their solidarity also won many over.

Fast forward to 2020, like many companies, Nike reiterated its stance on the Black Lives Matter movement, but more importantly, behind closed doors they also made changes. As mentioned on their site, during this past year, they’ve stepped up accountability initiatives in the areas of employee Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging to foster an inclusive environment and attract a more diverse employee workforce. What’s more, they’re driven by a commitment to transparency, accountability and impact and share their progress in these areas annually through the corporate responsibility Report.

Corporate responsibility angle: Employee welfare 

One of Starbucks’ main CSR areas is staff wellbeing. Through its very attractive health insurance benefits scheme, Starbucks is better placed to attract talent, build retention and improve morale. Their corporate website also refers to employees as ‘partners’ to emphasize personal relationships, despite how large the company is, stating: “Starbucks succeeds when our partners do, and we believe that success is best when shared.”

Corporate responsibility angle: Investment in supply chain stakeholders

McDonald’s recognizes the strength and agility of their supply chain is grounded in strong corporate collaborations and partnerships with stakeholders. Their ongoing responsibility commitment is to support both the future of farming and work alongside supplier stakeholders to introduce sustainable innovations. They do this by providing them with access to knowledge, tools and best practice farming methods. The result? Increased stakeholder efficiency, productivity and profitability, all while preserving the planet over the long term.

With an increased emphasis on social responsibility, businesses can truly give more attention to the people and communities that rely on them, and not just their stock price or investors. Shifting these priorities will help companies develop long-term, genuine support from audiences and ensure future profitability.

Hopefully, this blog has answered questions such as what is the concept of corporate social responsibility?, what is the importance of corporate social responsibility? and how can I kick start my social responsibility of business efforts? For more insights on The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Marketing, click to watch our free, on-demand Webinar with P&G.

Psst. You may also be interested in Meltwater's Media Impact Analysis on IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report.

The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), a series by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), looks at the current state of the climate, including how climate change is progressing and the role of human influence in this process. After a stark 'code red for humanity' warning was issued by IPCC, the Sixth Assessment report was highly covered by the media.

We wanted to better understand the media's reaction to this. Take a look a what we found here.

The Ultimate Guide To Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility

We've covered a few of the PR crises that have hit brands this year and the timing to reenter this discussion is important as a new app, Bodega, received condemnation on social media last week. This post on how brands should apologize can help you be prepared for a crisis, rather than scrambling after you're in the thick of it. Download our ebook, Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications and ensure that you'll be able to control the damage, no matter the situation.

2017 has brought us more than its share of communications disasters. Pepsi’s controversial Black Lives Matter ad featuring Kendall Jenner, Adidas’s Boston Marathon email campaign (“Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon”). And, of course, United Airlines, which made a series of missteps in its attempt to appropriately apologize for the forced removal of a passenger. And these are just but a few of the corporate communications faux pas we've seen in recent times. 

When these misfires occur — and of course, they do — it’s vital that brands are prepared to make amends. The first step in this process is the apology. And, it had better be a thoughtful apology. It’s not enough to simply apologize—it’s HOW you apologize that matters.

“Companies need to think carefully about their policies and their crisis communications, so they can quickly move from a defensive crouch to honest, heartfelt apologies,” says Andrew Winston, author of The Big Pivot.

“The biggest mistake is for brands to hedge their apology with phrases such as, ‘We’re sorry to those who were offended,'” says Brad Phillips, president of Phillips Media Relations and author of the Mr. Media Training Blog and the Amazon PR best seller The Media Training Bible. “Such language places the burden on the offended person and stops short of accepting full responsibility.”

Brands should also avoid denying any wrongdoing when they apologize.

“Denial is the simple thing to do, and people grasp wildly at the first straw to occur to them,” said William Benoit, Ohio University Communications professor, and author of Accounts, Excuses, Apologies: Image Repair Theory and Research.

Denial can hurt subsequent apologies. Sincerely owning the mistake is at the heart of an effective apology. There’s an appreciation for laying it all out there by simply saying, “We messed-up and we’re sorry.”

In the case of United, CEO Oscar Munoz did eventually offer a heartfelt apology. After his first two apologies created a backlash, he finally took full responsibility, promising to make it right with the passenger and pledging to put new procedures in place.

“The problem for Munoz is that he bungled the first two apologies, undermining the impact of his third one,” says Phillips. “Had he started with that apology, the incident would have played out far differently.”

The Situation Helps Determine the Tone of an Apology

Another factor to consider is the nature of the incident. “For example, it’s much easier to apologize in cases in which you, too, can be perceived as a victim,” Phillips said. “A medical supply company that couldn’t get vital medications to customers due to an unexpected snowstorm is unlikely to face long-term reputational damage, whereas that same company failing to make deliveries due to incompetence would.”

In some cases, explaining what exactly took place can help clear the air and help folks be more forgiving. For example, at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, PricewaterhouseCoopers made a mistake with the Best Picture envelope, causing the presenter to announce the wrong film. Because the company offered an immediate apology with an explanation of how the mix-up occurred, they were able to keep the client.

So, what exactly should be in an effective apology? According to Dr. Beth Polin, an assistant professor of management at Eastern Kentucky University and co-author of The Art of the Apology, an apology should include one or more of six components:

An expression of regret — this, usually, is the actual “I’m sorry.”

An explanation (but, importantly, not a justification).

And what words should you choose when you apologize? Simple language is best. No need for flowery prose. An example of this is Adidas, who immediately took responsibility for its insensitivity with this apology from spokeswoman Maria Culp: “We are incredibly sorry. There was no thought given to the insensitive email subject line we sent Tuesday. We deeply apologize for our mistake.”

Need more examples? On a site called SorryWatch, you can find examples of apologies that worked—and those that didn’t. The founders, Susan McCarthy and Marjorie Ingall, write a weekly post that reviews poorly handled public apologies, giving tips on structure and language.

Their best advice? In the end, don’t make excuses. “Apologizing well means acknowledging that, at that moment at least, you were not good,” says Ingall.

After all, even good people (and brands) can make mistakes. 2017 Has had more than its share of communications disasters and as big brands like Pepsi, United, and Uber make big missteps, a simple statement that brands should apologize becomes a loaded PR strategy. If you’d like to be prepared for the next time you need to apologize, download our crisis ebook.

This Strategy in Practice: Wins versus Fails

By now it's clear that when a very public mistake or mishap occurs within your organisation, a public apology – and a commitment to right the wrong – is in order. 

A swift mea culpa, coupled with some affirmative action to make good and ensure that the likelihood of such an event occurring again is minimised, is the correct approach and will generally help an organisation win back the favour of its customers. Moreover, if the response can be injected with a little humour (where appropriate of course), so much the better. 

Here we have highlighted examples of winners and losers when it comes to public apologies in the aftermath of a PR crisis. 

Last year, KFC went through a highly publicised crisis when “operational issues” with new delivery provider DHL caused a mass shortage of chicken at its fast food outlets across the UK. One of the most bizarre consequences of this was police forces in London and Manchester having to issue statements urging the public to stop contacting the emergency services about the shortage, as it was “not a police matter”! 

KFC responded by taking out full-page ads in the national press, featuring one of its famous buckets with the company name rearranged to read ‘FCK’ instead of ‘KFC’, to reflect the mood of its chicken-deprived customers. It also acknowledged that “a chicken restaurant without any chicken is not ideal.” This humorous response to what was a serious situation for the company was very well received, and no lasting damage was done to the brand. 

One of the highest profile cock-ups to take place anywhere in the world in recent years was the Oscars blunder in 2017, when an envelope mix up resulted in Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly announcing ‘La La Land’ as Best Picture winner, when the actual winner was ‘Moonlight.’

Beatty had a duplicate card with the winner of Best Actress, which had been awarded to Emma Stone for La La Land immediately prior to the Best Picture announcement. Beatty paused as he read the card out but continued anyway, wrongly announcing La La Land as the winner. The La La Land production team and cast were already on stage collecting the prize and delivering their speeches before a representative from accountancy firm PwC came onto the stage to inform them of the error. 

PwC was in charge of supervising the counting of the ballots for each award, as well as the presentations on the night. Following the error, which could scarcely be more public, given that around 30 million people were watching it live in the US and many millions more worldwide, PwC issued a statement saying “We sincerely apologise to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture.” 

PwC added that it deeply regretted that the incident occurred and said it appreciated the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, and the host Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.

Adding to the embarrassment felt by PwC in the wake of the blunder was the fact that in the week leading up to that year’s Oscars ceremony, PwC’s Martha Ruiz and Brian Cullinan, who were responsible for overseeing the counting of the votes and are the only two people who know all the winners before they are announced, gave an interview to the BBC in which they outlined its “watertight system” for ensuring that the awards presentations pass without a hitch.   

Following the ceremony, PwC assumed full responsibility for the blunder and promised to fully investigate what went wrong with the system to prevent such an error occurring in the future. Given that the profile of the event could barely be higher, that PwC have emerged from it with their reputation fairly intact is a credit to them and the steps they took in its aftermath.     

One of the most valuable case studies for comms professionals comes from Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal. When it emerged early in 2018 that a political data firm had harvested the personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge or consent, consumer backlash was immense. 

When the scandal first broke, Facebook vigorously and indignantly defended itself, arguing that people had consented by virtue of their privacy settings. But the backlash only intensified when it was reported that Facebook’s privacy settings were buried across 20 pages of the site, and that Cambridge Analytica were one of many organisations guilty of exploiting that by harvesting Facebook users’ data without their knowledge. 

Eventually, Facebook’s chief privacy officer said Facebook would move all the privacy settings into one place (without offering an explanation as to why they weren’t in the first place), something Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to do “within weeks” of another privacy breach eight years previously but failed to follow through on. 

The lesson? Be wary of launching into defence mode without addressing the grievances of your community; also, ensure to follow through on any corrective measures issued alongside your apology.   

In 2017, Pepsi drew a barrage of negative publicity for an ad featuring Kendall Jenner, in which she quelled a riot by offering a police officer a can of Pepsi, a gesture which elicited cheers from the onlooking protestors. 

Given that the US was at the time (and still is) mired in controversy over the killing by police of African American youths, and the Black Lives Matter movement was gaining momentum with protests over perceived unlawful killings happening all over the country, the idea that a protest could be quelled by a can of soda was not well received to say the least. 

Following the ad’s release, Pepsi was eviscerated on social media, as they were seen to be capitalising on the Black Lives Matter movement to sell soft drink. The daughter of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Bernice King, even weighed in, posting on Twitter “If only daddy would have known about the power of Pepsi.” 

Pepsi eventually pulled the ad, but a few months later, Pepsi’s CEO, Indra Nooyi continued to defend the ad, demonstrating that the company still didn’t get what all the fuss was about. The lesson? Purpose driven marketing and CSR are increasingly important for today's consumers, but authenticity is key here. Brands need to ensure that if they're involving themselves in political and social conversations, their message is not only culturally sensitive, but also aligned with their internal corporate business practices and values. 

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How Brands Should Apologize

Wondering how to improve supply chain risk management? You’ve come to the right place. Supply chains are complex ecosystems to navigate. Their impact, both good and bad, ripples through the whole organisation, and it’s this interdependency that makes them extremely vulnerable. What starts as a small supply chain incident can quickly impact the entire network. Without full risk visibility at each stage of the supply chain, it’s impossible to mitigate risks and fully assess the likely consequences of disruptions. 

Due to the vast sources of potential risks that can impact supply chains, internal and external risk management plays an integral role in keeping them ticking over. While executives have become pros at detecting internal supply chain risks, external risks are sometimes overlooked. One way executives are plugging the external risk visibility gap is by equipping themselves with strategic media intelligence solutions that analyse external data types and signal when a potential risk is on the horizon.

During this article we’ll walk you through the basics of risk management, types of supply chain risks to be aware of, and how to optimise supply chain risk management with media intelligence.

What do we mean by supply chain risk management?

Risk, in an organizational context, is usually defined as anything that can impact the fulfilment of corporate objectives such as profitability, innovation, productivity and market share – all of which are critical for business survival. Companies must, therefore, have supply chain risk management strategies in place to stop them diverging from their key corporate focus areas.

Supply chain risk management refers to the identification, evaluation and prioritization of risks, as well as the application of resources in order to minimalize, monitor and control the probability of them developing. Supply chain risk management has multiple benefits including:

How do I Optimize Supply Chain Risk Management With Media Intelligence?

A large percentage of logistic disruptions occur due to external factors, for example, volatility of suppliers, weather events, political developments, cyber-attacks and more. Internal data types that companies typically monitor, like sales volume or stock availability, do not help professionals predict the arrival of external risks, therefore, only looking inwards at your company puts the organisation in a weak position. This is why executives are increasingly turning to media intelligence to enhance supply chain risk management. Let’s look out how in more depth.

Each day consumers and businesses leave a trail of online breadcrumbs, a litter of digital activity that provides valuable information which assists companies with corporate decision making, such as controlling, managing and mitigating risks.

From supplier acquisitions to customer complaints on social media, insights from digital breadcrumbs sprawled across the web can help businesses stay agile and protected by alerting them of danger signals long before they pose a risk.

Common methods used to identify risk exposure

The graph below demonstrates common methods used by companies to mitigate risks. The SCM World study from 2014 found one in five supply chain professionals leverage insights from social media monitoring (social media insights) for the purpose of identifying emerging risks. While this figure is relatively low compared to others in the chart, professionals are starting to transform their processes and introduce datasets seldom used before. According to SCM World, the use of social media monitoring for risk management will increase rapidly over the coming years.

So what risks can social media monitoring help identify? 

Examples of emerging risks social media monitoring can spot

Read on for some examples of risks we're seeing become more prevalent due to social media, and how social media monitoring can help you identify and manage them.

The speed in which information is disseminated across the web has reached new heights since the introduction of social media. Negative conversations, whether they’re true or false, travel fast. Messages become amplified from others engaging in the conversation until the conversation reaches boiling point and turns into a full-blown crisis. It’s this speed and reach that has strong potential to weaken corporate reputation and when customers lose confidence, it’s directly felt on the turnover of the company.

Risks impacting the reputation of an organisation can take many faces and emerge at different stages of the supply chain. For example, this could be down to bad product design, unethical practices of suppliers, lack of customer service or poor protection of customer data. While this means that we have to keep our eye on many signals during supply chain risk management, reputational risks do have the advantage of being easily identifiable – and therefore manageable.

By monitoring trending themes associated with your brand, you can improve vigilance by quickly spotting unusual mentions, for example, words that suggest something is faulty or at threat. Filter the conversation further by selecting trending themes by their sentiment. For supply chain risk mitigation purposes, negative conversations are most important. To ensure you quickly react to risk signals, set up an alert that notifies you when something abnormal occurs like a spike in negative mentions or an increase of conversations in general since this suggests an event you need to be aware of is taking place.

To spark some food for thought, here are the 10 most-watched risks in 2017: 

Active monitoring of social media allows companies to anticipate a problem and react before it becomes uncontrollable or develops into a full crisis. Moreover, social media management also plays a key role in both improving and understanding long-term brand damage, for example, has the sentiment of your brand dived for a prolonged period after a crisis? Are there certain countries who have a particularly negative opinion on your company? What trends are associated with your brand – are they positive, how have they changed prior, during and after a crisis? Answers to such questions should be used for corporate decision making, guiding you on the next step to take.

Regulatory risks can lead to financial penalties, reputational risks and weak links in the supply chain in the case of non-compliance issues. By continuous monitoring online news mentions around regularity topics, businesses can understand the likelihood of future regulatory changes coming into play, giving themselves time to put alternative plans in place and ensure the smooth adoption of regulations with minimal disruption to the supply chain.

Social media is also a critical source of information when it comes to ensuring the compliance of your suppliers, employees and other stakeholders. A brand that’s affiliated with a company who are breaking the law can easily become bogged down in their mess too. Even if the brand didn’t break the rules themselves, audiences may believe they’re endorsing a company that does, purely due to the affiliation they have with the brand causing negative influences for supply chain risk management. 

Financial risks are those that directly affect the revenue of an organisation. Two common risks that often occur include the interruption of activity and breaks in the supply chain. A weakened link in the supply chain can be caused by many external factors including natural disasters, market evolutions, the financial health of suppliers, bad anticipation of the demand, obsolete technologies and an increase in costs of raw materials.

Here are the top financial risks companies are concerned with:

It’s interesting to see that back in 2018, only 14% of companies ranked human diseases as a concern for interruption activity. We’ve witnessed first-hand how COVID-19 disrupted almost every industry and I expect this percentage will rise considerably post 2020.

The emergence of social media has also given rise to new types of risks that are directly related to the public's use of social networks. One example of this is fraud. Over the last few years, numerous cases of social media fraud have come to light, however, the best known is undoubtedly that suffered by Associated Press. In 2013, one of their Twitter accounts was hacked. Messages announcing a double explosion at the White House were published and quickly retweeted by thousands of people. Although the truth in the message was quickly denied by the press organisation, by that point the damage had been done. The market fell by 150 points in minutes, representing a loss of about $150 billion dollars. This goes to show the importance of not underestimating the damage of fake news and the speedy response needed to minimize the damage.

Tip: Learn how to perform an influencer risk assessment.

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The Ultimate Guide To Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility

How Brands Should Apologize

Optimize Supply Chain Risk Management with Media Intelligence

Why is Reputation Important?

Online Reputation Management: The Basics

Crisis Response Across Channels—Best Practices for Social Media

How to Appropriately Respond to Negative Reviews Online

5 Reasons Why Your PR Team Could Save Your Company’s Image

Corporate Sustainability: What’s Trending?

Managing Brand Reputation in an Online World

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