Source: Uncle PR
This is the best era of PR and the worst of times for PR.
Uncle actually doesn't want to use such a "common saying" as the beginning of the annual inventory.
But the reality described in this sentence is really accurate!
How so?
On the one hand, public sentiment is like a balloon, which bursts at one point!
2023 should be the year with the most swipe-level crisis public relations incidents in the past decade, and there is no one.
Uncle is really sifting and sifting, how can he not reduce 4 more cases, so, this year's top ten crisis public relations cases, actually stuffed 14, namely:
Li Jiaqi (Hua Xizi), Cai Xukun, Mayday, Dongfang Selection (Dong Yuhui), Gree, Tsingtao Beer, NIO, Maia Active, BMW MINI, House (Xiaoguo), Cathay Pacific, Rat Head Duck Neck, Hand in Hand, Liu Run......
On the other hand, due to the popularity of ChatGPT and well-known reasons, many publicists have been laid off, or their public relations budgets have been cut, so that by the end of the year, at least two media celebrities in the circle of friends have become "new" news.
Bad and good appear at the same time, and it is a test of the angle and depth of the problem!
In order to be able to explain it thoroughly, the uncle is divided into two articles, the first part talks about cases, and the second part talks about trends.
The following is the "plus version" of the top 10 crisis public relations events in 2023. Rankings are in descending order.
TOP1 Li Jiaqi (Hua Xizi)
Event Summary:
On September 9, 2023, Li Jiaqi "replied" to a female fan who kept brushing "expensive eyebrow pencils" in the live broadcast room, and from the afternoon of September 10, the whole network was detonated!
The two sentences "where is it expensive" and "have your wages risen after so many years, have you worked well" exploded with the power of an atomic bomb, exposing the contradictions between the boss and the migrant workers on social media.
Although at 1:39 on September 11, Li Jiaqi himself apologized, the angry public did not buy it, especially after Li quickly resumed broadcasting after apologizing.
But what is more interesting is that after Li Jiaqi temporarily "avoided the net" from a "relay", Hua Xizi, who was originally lying on the gun, became the focus of public opinion because of the contradiction between PR and the boss.
The new version of "the contradiction between the boss and the worker", as well as the bloody plot of the boss going crazy, cover Li Jiaqi to a certain extent.
From September 11 to November 11, it took nearly two months to make a fuss before the matter was closed. Although Li Jiaqi was "besieged" by Jingdong, Brother Xiaoyang, etc., under the "protection" of many brands, he still successfully passed the Double Eleven, while Huaxizi was obviously "left behind", which also let the public see that business owners do not pay attention to public relations and do not respect public relations, which affects more than just performance.
Uncle's Comments:
1. Recently, in response to "the live broadcast room has become boring", Li Jiaqi explained: "The energy in the live broadcast room is very large, and every word we say needs to be as rigorous as possible." It is enough to show that Li Jiaqi now attaches great importance to public relations. Uncle's tweet with 1.2 million+ reads "10 hours of crisis public relations "wasted" by Li Jiaqi was finally not written in vain.
2. Li Jiaqi's self-reflection also once again confirmed his uncle's judgment a few years ago, that is: crisis public relations, what the company says is more important than the relationship. Uncle believes that in the era of decentralized live broadcast and short video, business leaders have to pay a lot of price for saying the wrong thing. But that's not to say that the relationship isn't important!
3, they are also bosses, obviously, Hua Xizi's boss belongs to the opposite of Li Jiaqi. Uncle believes that the most critical issue of Huaxizi is the depth of understanding of public opinion events, a senior media person once commented on this matter with me, in fact, the consumer is your father, you have to kneel if you are wrong, but you think that you and the consumer is a little couple quarrel, give a gift and it's fine.
Uncle believes that the so-called enterprise branding is not to shoot a TVC, make a marketing gimmick, invite a spokesperson, and make all kinds of materials beautiful, but understand the brand...... Wrong, a qualified brand should first learn to communicate with the public, especially when you have an accident, this sentence should especially be given to new consumer brands that have achieved rapid growth with the potential energy of new media.
Finally, I especially want to say to some self-media, don't just take the "meal" given by public relations, but look down on public relations, and come up with bad ideas like "the boss fires public relations and diverts attention" at every turn!
top2东方甄选（董宇辉）
Event Summary:
On December 6th, the editor of Dongfang Selection took the initiative to lead the war: Dong Yuhui did not write the small composition alone!
On December 9, after responding in Dong Yuhui's live broadcast room, the editor continued to "provoke" the response, completely detonating the contradiction.
Starting from December 9, Dongfang Selection began to lose fans, and sales and stock prices plummeted. On December 12, Sun Dongxu, CEO of Dongfang Selection, responded. There is a lot of nonsense, but the most important sentence is "resolutely say no to the fan circle culture".
At more than 1 o'clock in the morning on the 13th, Dong Yuhui responded for the second time, and there were many words, revealing grievances and helplessness, one of which also had "opposition to the fan circle culture" and mentioned "suspension of broadcasting".
On December 13, Oriental Selection stock continued to fall.
At noon on the 14th, Yu Minhong officially responded, saying that there were big loopholes in the company's management, and he didn't say that fans are fan circle culture. On the evening of the 14th, Sun Dongxu, CEO of Oriental Selection, issued a formal apology video, saying that it was wrong to disclose Dong Yuhui's salary.
But these two apology statements are all lip service, without a word of actual action, and they have not appeased the angry public. On the one hand, Dong Yuhui can no longer be seen in the live broadcast trailer of Dongfang Selection, on the other hand, many short videos of Sun Dongxu "bullying" Dong Yuhui have been disseminated, and even insiders of Dongfang Selection have revealed that they want to "de-Dong".
On December 15, the anchor Tianquan scolded fans in the Dongfang Selection Live Broadcast Room, which continued to cause a large number of fans to take over, which became a key turning point in the matter.
On the same day, Luo Yonghao publicly supported Dong Yuhui. At 8 o'clock in the evening of the 15th, Luo Yonghao's live broadcast room talked about the Dong Yuhui incident, saying that "corporate executives can take the blame and resign if they do such a low-level thing."
On December 16, Dongfang Selection announced the removal of Sun Dongxu as CEO, and Yu Minhong concurrently served as him.
On the same day, Dong Yuhui appeared in Yu Minhong's live broadcast room, and publicly responded to the matter for the first time, saying that "those who are confidants die", and Yu Minhong also repeatedly mentioned that Dongfang Xiaosun will continue to contribute to Dongfang selection.
On December 18, Dong Yuhui has become a "senior partner of Oriental Selection". On the same day, New Oriental Education Technology (Group) Co., Ltd. appointed Dong Yuhui as the cultural assistant to the chairman of New Oriental Education Technology Group and the vice president of New Oriental Cultural Tourism Group.
On the same day, Dong Yuhui and Yu Minhong appeared in the Dongfang Selection live broadcast room, and Yu said that he wanted to establish a personal studio for Dong Yuhui.
On December 21, New Oriental CEO Zhou Chenggang and Dong Yuhui appeared in the live broadcast room of Oriental Selection and responded to various information again.
On the evening of December 22, Oriental Selection announced that Sun Dongxu had resigned as a non-executive director of the company, effective immediately.
Uncle's Comments:
1. Introductory crisis public relations is a huge challenge for public relations, because you don't know where to stand, and how to deal with it?
Everyone knows that Yu must choose between a star employee and a CEO, and if CEO Sun is fired, all problems will be solved, but why did this decision take 10 days? Because Sun is Yu's person, and maybe the decision to "de-Donghua" came from Yu's instructions?
2. Looking at it now, after Sun was removed as CEO, he would continue to select cadres in Dongfang (Yu Minhong's statement), indicating that CEO Sun was dismissed, and this decision at that time was completely to cater to the angry public sentiment, because Dongfang Selection stigmatized fans into a fan circle in the previous response, and all kinds of short videos of "boss bullying Yuhui" were flying all over the sky, which has angered not only the mother-in-law, but a strong "worker" The identity of the public can only calm public sentiment by driving Sun out of the game (at least not from public view).
3. Who "woke up" Yu Minhong? Unfortunately, it was not the media and his mother-in-law, but the anchor Tianquan.
"I've been putting up with it for days...... You buy a box of eggs, we lose a single order, and if you unfollow it, it's a double kill......" The public opinion incident evolved into the confrontation between Dongfang Selection and consumers, and it completely woke up Yu Minhong, who was "pretending to be asleep", in fact, he was awake all the time, but he was stupid and stupid, and always thought that New Oriental's method of suppressing star teachers could continue to be used on the live broadcast e-commerce platform to suppress star anchors.
In the past, students were only a niche, unable to connect with each other, and had no channels for voice. The public mood, like dry firewood, is waiting for your fire.
4. If there is no heavenly power, where will the situation go? Uncle's personal judgment is that CEO Sun will not only not leave, but will also drag Dong Yuhui to appear in the live broadcast room, pretending to be peaceful to show fans, and the stock price and fans have also risen back, but Dong Yuhui may not be a senior partner and vice president, he can only continue to endure, after all, there are two flags of knowing and reading on his head, and he must not fall.
5, there is another thing that is very interesting, that is, Dongfang selected so many anchors, all of whom are good brothers of Yuhui, and in the whole incident, no one spoke out. From the perspective of crisis public relations, the public relations of Dongfang Selection is still very powerful. From other perspectives, is Dong Yuhui's popularity not good? Or does everyone not hate CEO Sun? Or is everyone jealous of Dong Yuhui and hates CEO Sun? In the end, it turned out to be a former New Oriental teacher Luo Yonghao who was more anxious than anyone else.
Now, has the de-Donghua succeeded? The question is left to you.
TOP3 Gree (Dong Mingzhu)
Event Summary:
On the evening of November 6, 2023, the special program "Q&A Bafang" aired an interview with Dong Mingzhu and Wang Ziru. On November 7, "Xi Ti" had 4 hot searches, and it has been out of control since then.
Wang Ziru "knelt and licked" Dong Mingzhu in front of the screenshot swiped the screen in the WeChat community and circle of friends, Dong Mingzhu publicly responded to the topic of Meng Yutong's expulsion for the first time, which also attracted a large wave of traffic.
despises Wang Ziru, understands Wang Ziru, becomes Wang Ziru, and even once became a popular title routine, the envy, jealousy and hatred of contemporary workers are all in it.
On November 17, because Wang Ziru's interview was "maliciously edited by the self-media, using vulgar and obscene words to insult and slander the company's executives", Gree called the police.
After Wang Ziru temporarily stopped, Dong Mingzhu continued to fire "cannons".
On December 14, a video titled "Dong Mingzhu angrily reprimanded Meng Yutong" was widely circulated. Dong Mingzhu mentioned Meng Yutong again in his speech at the induction ceremony of the 2023 college students of Gree Electric Appliances, saying that "I can't even write an article", but "I became an Internet celebrity with the help of our platform, and I can't tolerate such a person in Gree, so I fired her".
For example, in March this year, she proposed legislation to charge training fees for employees' job-hopping behavior: "Because you have worked with me for more than ten years, I have cultivated you, and I have paid so much financial, manpower, material and time, and you slapped your ass and left, then your next unit will at least compensate me for my training fees."
Even Weibo CEO Wang Gaofei couldn't stand it anymore, and replied: "I am not compliant in management, and if I suffer a loss, I will either scold the employees or rely on the law."
Some media commented that Dong Mingzhu stood on the opposite side of young people.
Uncle's Comments:
1. It is common sense that young people just hate the remarks that "daddy" is very heavy. If a CEO can't empathize with young people, it is inevitable to be scolded by netizens. Uncle believes that empathy should be the basic quality of a business leader.
2. According to the theory of "Weak Communication", the strong in reality is the weak in public opinion, Dong Mingzhu is a strong woman in the real world, and the public opinion field is the weak. On the other hand, although Meng Yutong did not do well enough in some places, she was a weak person in the real world, so she became a strong person in the field of public opinion. Therefore, the more Dong Mingzhu scolds Meng Yutong, the more support Meng will get.
The uncle also publicly raised a question at that time, from the perspective of crisis public relations, should Meng Yutong take the initiative to respond to Dong Mingzhu? Now the answer is very clear, it is right not to respond, which strengthens his identity as a "weak" and wins more sympathy and support.
3. Gree's two public opinions on Wang Ziru and Meng Yutong can actually be completely avoided, but why didn't they avoid it? The answer is also very simple, Gree should not have a public relations department! Even if there is, it must not have any authority.
From another perspective, Dong Mingzhu may still think that he understands traffic very well (he really understands it), you see, every time I speak publicly, I can be on the hot search, and a bunch of media interview me for free. Sister Dong quite understands the logic that black and red are also red, but in the long run, will Gree's brand and products be disgusted by young consumers?
The answer is left to 2024, after all, the first batch of post-00s have already graduated from college.
top4 Mayday
Event Summary:
At 22:57 on November 30th, the UP master of station B "Wheat Field Farmer" released the first "questioning Mayday lip-synching" video, which claimed to identify the 12 songs of Mayday's Shanghai concert and found that 12 songs flowed out, and 5 songs were lip-synching.
On December 1, Mayday also held a concert in Europe, and Ashin also reposted the relevant Weibo.
On December 3rd, #Mayday Lip-synching# related topics appeared on the hot search!
On December 3, the reporter called the "official phone" of Believe Music twice, but was hung up after the phone was connected and just explained his intention.
At 23:12 on December 3, Mayday's agency @Believe Music posted a Weibo, with the copy: "All people participate, all people witness, live broadcast the whole process", and attached the time of the London concert at 3 am on December 8!
At noon on December 4, Xinhua News Agency and CCTV News respectively released relevant news that the original video and audio of the "Mayday" Shanghai concert have been submitted to the local cultural market inspection department, and the relevant departments will conduct scientific evaluation and analysis of the audio and video content provided, and announce the results of the investigation.
At 18:30 on the evening of the 4th, @相信音乐 issued a statement emphasizing that it would "actively cooperate with relevant law enforcement departments to carry out investigations...... Please believe Mayday. ”
On the evening of December 6, Ashin, the lead singer of the Mayday band, finally "woke up" and posted a long post on social networks, affectionately posting a long article about his birthday, and responding to questions about lip-syncing. "Every time I sing the high notes of E6 10 beats, I always get down on my knees and pound the ground. Every performance, every voice comes from the voice I've relied on for 24 years. ”
As a result, Ashin's answer not only did not dispel the public's doubts about the lip-syncing turmoil, but also aroused netizens' doubts about whether the height of "10 beats E6" could be achieved.
On the same day, Tang Lei, the original singer of the song "Lilacs", publicly pointed out that as a professional musician, he was eighty or ninety percent sure that Mayday had lip-syncing behavior.
At 3 o'clock in the morning on December 8, the London concert was broadcast live, and netizens said that not only was there a broken tone and an unstable breath, but Ashin did not jump or have the "big swing" action seen in previous domestic performances.
Uncle's Comments:
1. As of press time, 20+ days have passed, and the relevant departments in Shanghai have not released the investigation results of the Mayday Shanghai concert, which shows that the matter is quite complicated. The credibility of the government is once again facing the "challenge" of public sentiment, whether it can stand up, wait for the results, and then comment.
2. One of the biggest mistakes Mayday made in this crisis response was its slow response. Judging from the historical law of entertainment crisis events, netizens have formed a kind of inertial thinking: if you don't refute the rumors as soon as possible, it means that you have a problem!
Cai Xukun just didn't refute the rumors for the first time, and what happened later, you know. Zhang Jike is the same. But there are also negative examples, such as Wu Yifan.
According to the current "plot", if Mayday had refuted the rumors as soon as possible, instead of just hanging up the media, coupled with Ashin's affection (not to mention E6), the government would have intervened in the investigation again, at least it would not have collapsed like it is now, but why didn't it do it?
3. Uncle saw a point of view that Mayday fans didn't care whether Mayday had lip-syncing or not, so it didn't matter if he didn't respond. From the perspective of crisis public relations, this is unacceptable, or rather, there may indeed be such "fans", but it cannot be regarded as a universal view.
Because, lip-synching is equivalent to financial fraud of listed companies for singers, which is the key issue of whether there is fraud in its core business data, which is a very serious stain, and Wu Bai's concert is completely different from not singing by himself.
Therefore, there are two constraints on the speed of response: one is the internal investigation and verification of the facts themselves (for example, this time there is an obvious time difference problem, but the uncle really believes that this should not be the problem), and the other is the internal disagreement when the facts are clear.
If it's the latter, now it's just a little more time for yourself to "renew your life", but in the end, whether the "life" of Mayday can be "renewed", the uncle can only say that it is very, very difficult, you can refer to Cai Xukun.
If the final conclusion is that there is no lip-syncing, wouldn't it be better if Mayday denied it earlier?
top5蔡徐坤
Event Summary:
On June 26, 2023, the paparazzi broke the news in the live broadcast room that Cai Xukun and C woman negotiated an abortion after a "one-night stand" caused each other to become pregnant, and the whistleblower posted a lot of detailed relevant evidence.
Three days have passed, and Cai Xukun has not responded publicly.
On June 29, another paparazzi previewed, saying that at 12:30 on July 3, Cai Xukun's other lover was exposed, commonly known as "see you on Monday".
On June 30, because Cai Xukun was a flying guest, the official announcement of "Run" was postponed.
At 11:30 on July 3, Cai Xukun officially responded, it was not a one-night stand, and he did not break the law!
At 12:30 p.m. on the 3rd, another revelation from the paparazzi was issued. It is suspected that an "intimate photo" was sent around 12:43. At 13:08, Cai Xukun responded: It's pure rumors, I've gone to the police!
At 13:57, @PPpig's stinky baby issued a clarification, saying that the photo was released on December 23, 2019, and the photo is the blogger himself, and we have called the police for the rumor-mongers. I hope that all netizens will be cautious about eating melons.
At 18:08, the lawyer entrusted by Cai Xukun said that it had been entrusted by Cai Xukun to report to the police for rumors and defamation, and posted a "receipt of receipt of Shanghai public security case report".
The receipt shows that the alarm time is 13:00:00 on July 3, 2023. In other words, the photo that was exposed by the paparazzi at 12:43, Cai Xukun's lawyer took Cai Xukun's entrustment and called the police 17 minutes later. This point became a slot for netizens to complain about and sparked more discussions.
It is worth mentioning that none of the brands have publicly terminated Cai Xukun's contract, but many brands have deleted relevant Weibo, and none of the official (central) media have commented, which can be regarded as a success for Cai.
On July 14th, Let's Run was officially rebroadcast, and all the pictures of Cai Xukun were magically edited.
On July 15, Cai Xukun's Singapore concert was held as scheduled, but he has disappeared from domestic entertainment to this day.
Uncle's Comments:
1. There is no official conclusion on whether Cai Xukun has completely "collapsed", but the public, media and public opinion have given him a conclusion. If we only look at it from the perspective of facts, a few years ago, both parties had a private chat, and none of the women who jumped out this time were women, then the question is, who is the target of Cai Xukun's crisis public relations this time?
The uncle guessed that something must have gone wrong with some stakeholder. This is Uncle's observation this year, the crisis public relations incident is not only the "resonance" of multiple platforms, but also the "resonance" of multiple stakeholders, and not paying enough attention to any platform and stakeholders will affect the final result. Cai Xukun's "lesson" this time is not enough to use "miserable" alone.
2. Even if the interested parties did not communicate well, the matter was still exposed, if Cai Xukun "knelt" earlier, admitted his mistakes, didn't add drama to himself, and made a "fake revelation + real alarm" to divert attention, would he lose some endorsement and popularity at most, but at least he could still mix in domestic entertainment? For example, refer to Luo Zhixiang, who made a comeback in Taiwan.
Uncle once said that it is estimated that it will be difficult to see such a "ghostly" plot in the next ten years, and the biggest problem of artist public relations is that he does not respect the professionalism of public relations and always wants to drama.
3. You may think that lawyer Cai Xukun's alarm time and the thickness of the legs posted in the original picture are inconsistent, and these problems are all details that have not been dealt with well, otherwise Cai Xukun can successfully reverse. Uncle wants to say that the core values of crisis public relations are: the truth can not be told in full, but it must not be told falsely, because 1 false story needs 100 false words to be rounded, and sooner or later it will be exposed.
The real world isn't about making movies, but it's also really more dreamlike than movies.
Cai Xukun's endorsement of the brand's "small actions" inventory: 18 "pretending to be dead", 2 supported, 5 deleted blogs (deleted)
top6House（笑果）
Event Summary:
On May 15, 2023, talk show actor House's inappropriate remarks during a performance in Beijing were exposed by Internet influencers.
At 14:11 on May 15, Xiaoguo and House apologized.
On May 16, Xinhua News Agency published an article with a picture: "Obey the party's command, be able to win battles, and have a good work style", every word should not be offended!
On May 17, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism issued a document stating that it would indefinitely suspend all performances in Beijing by the companies involved.
Uncle's Comments:
1. Enterprises should respect the country (including the military) and women in marketing, and my uncle has called for three years, but while I am appealing, I have seen many cases, and some cases that can only be said in person. So, although it is a cliché, it still has to be talked about repeatedly.
2. The attribute of the profession of talk show, the so-called "offense" can produce jokes, which itself is very risky, because too many topics and groups of people cannot be "offended" now. We have also seen that including Li Dan, Xiaoguo Culture has had a lot of public opinion incidents in the past few years, and finally fell this matter. Of course, Deyun Club also came over like this.
3. How can we completely avoid it? In fact, it is very difficult, and we can only try our best to do it, such as establishing a "communication blacklist" system, which also reflects the value of the public relations department as the "gatekeeper" of the enterprise, but don't count on the public relations department, otherwise the public relations department will become the back department.
TOP7 rat head duck neck
Event Summary:
At 16:11 on June 1, a person called "Do I have?" In the user, a short video of a suspected rat head in the canteen meal was posted, showing that the address was a university in Jiangxi. (The content has been removed by the author).
At 20:53 on June 3, the university involved issued a statement on the situation, and after that, it arranged for the exposed students and leaders of the supervision bureau to be interviewed by the media, all of whom said that "the rat's head is a duck's neck". But such a response not only did not cool down public opinion, but instead made various jokes appear on the Internet, and then the relevant departments of Jiangxi Province intervened.
On June 17, the investigation team of the Jiangxi "rat head and duck neck" incident released an official message: the situation is "rat" real!
Uncle's Comments:
1. The result of this reversal is in line with the expectations of public sentiment. After all, the credibility of the government cannot be "destroyed" by schools and district-level regulatory departments. From this point of view, will Mayday's lip-tto go to this ending?
2. Uncle proposed in 2019 that we should pay attention to the blowout outbreak of "short video public opinion", and correspondingly, whether it is a company, a school, or a government, you need to cover your public opinion monitoring tools to the short video platform.
3. In the face of short video public opinion events with "video and truth", enterprises should pay more attention to the display of facts and other details when responding, and also use rich media methods and scientific and reliable methods to respond to the public's doubts, but not lies, otherwise the "endorsement" of regulators and the media will play a "counterproductive role".
TOP8 Hand in Hand Door
Event Summary:
On June 7, 2023, the PetroChina hand-in-hand door incident appeared and fermented in the form of WeChat chat records with multiple pictures, videos, and truths.
At 17:30 on the same day, PetroChina, a subordinate unit, issued a briefing. Core 3 points: First, confirm the facts, "it's Hu". The second is to show action, "remove from all positions and accept the verification of the JI committee". The third is to emphasize the attitude and "further deal with it according to the results".
On July 7, PetroChina Beijing Project Management Company issued an announcement that Hu Jiyong was double-opened and terminated the labor contract with Dong Moumou.
Uncle's Comments:
1. Uncle has emphasized many times that all materials that can be forwarded on WeChat with one click can create a swipe, whether it is positive or negative. The PetroChina hand-in-hand incident was caused by an accidental street shooting, but the spread of public opinion was through WeChat chat records. Once the chat record public opinion is triggered, it has three major difficulties: non-traceability, non-deletion and non-statistics.
2. PetroChina's response this time was very fast, and it was a quick knife to cut through the mess, he was removed from his post on the same day, accepted the investigation by the Commission for Discipline Inspection, and announced the results of the investigation a month later, and Hu was double-opened. In fact, there is a rumor in the middle that "Hu has returned to work", which can be regarded as forcing the efficiency of handling this matter and establishing the social credibility of central enterprises. But the processing efficiency is so high, the uncle thinks that there should be a master of PetroChina, and predicts that if this matter is not dealt with quickly, it will bring great harm to the brand.
3. In addition to high efficiency, in fact, PetroChina also has a very effective strategy, that is, without mentioning all the gossip about Dong, he emphasized that he was dismissed. Because in the face of the public's curiosity, no matter how you explain it, you are powerless, but instead grasp the main contradiction, that is, lead Hu, and through the rapid handling of Hu, in order to calm the public's "hatred of the rich" mentality. Once again, it is proved that there are superior people.
TOP9 BMW mini
Event Summary:
On April 20, 2023, BMW mini distributes ice cream at the booth. After they refused a Chinese woman to ask for ice cream on the grounds that "it was finished", in less than 2 seconds, they took the initiative to hand another ice cream to a foreign man. An up master of station B recorded the whole process completely.
At 14:12 on the 20th, @mini China issued a statement, saying, "The staff is derelict in their duties, and I sincerely apologize!"
At 9 o'clock on April 21, @mini China issued a second statement, saying: Several foreigners are employees, and ice cream is reserved for employees. Please give the two etiquette sisters more tolerance, but it angered the public.
On the 22nd, many people were driven away by security guards who conducted a live webcast in front of the mini's auto show booth.
Uncle's Comments:
1. A "foreign car brand" just said "BMW's home is in China" the day before, but the next day it was "flattering" at the China Auto Show, which is a very serious problem of national sentiment.
Although the brand's response will be scolded no matter how it is written, a "qualified" statement should be in line with the "three truths principle", namely: truth, truth, and action, and the two responses of BMW mini are all perfectly reversed. This is really a rare negative teaching material.
2. How can it be all wrong? First of all, the explanation of "foreigners are employees" is very weak, why don't you say it the first time? Second, let everyone give the two etiquette sisters more tolerance, and completely don't understand why the public is angry; Third, there is a lot of nonsense, and there is no actual action to make up for their apologies, and the comments are closed.
3. In fact, the core is that the second statement should not be issued, because the goal of crisis public relations is set high, and if it has to be reversed, the strategy and action will be deformed. Always thinking about flipping the facts, always feeling that you have grievances, while everyone labels BMW mini as #epic disaster PR#, in fact, you should also use TA as a mirror to look at yourself.
Top 10 Cathay Pacific Airways
Event Summary:
On the afternoon of May 22, 2023, the whistleblower posted the first post on Xiaohongshu, and the picture copy used "Real-name report of Cathay Pacific discriminating against non-English speaking passengers".
At 21:59 on May 22, Cathay Pacific's official Weibo issued the first statement, apologizing, attaching great importance to it, further understanding and serious handling.
At 13 o'clock on the 23rd, the whistleblower posted a third post on Xiaohongshu and was told that a special investigation team had been established.
At 14:28 on May 23, Cathay Pacific's official Weibo released a second statement. It was further mentioned that the flight mission of the relevant personnel will be suspended, and the results of the handling will be announced within 3 days. The payment was made by the director of aviation services, Wu Jiewen.
On the evening of May 23, Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Officer Lin Shaobo issued a statement on behalf of Cathay Pacific, saying that he had dismissed the three flight attendants involved and would lead an inter-departmental working group to conduct a comprehensive review.
On May 24, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said that the words and deeds of the flight attendants involved had hurt the feelings of Hong Kong and mainland compatriots, and undermined Hong Kong's culture and values of respect and courtesy. This is a serious incident that Cathay Pacific needs to review, and a similar situation cannot be repeated.
The Paper quoted Hong Kong media as reporting on May 24 that the Cathay Pacific flight attendant union sent an internal email expressing "regret and heartache" for the dismissal of the flight attendant.
On the afternoon of 25 May, @国泰航空 issued two statements, one clarifying the incident related to the "Aircrew Workers' Union" and the other refuting an English-language internal letter issued by the director of Cathay Pacific Airline Services.
@国泰航空 clarified that the Cabin Service Employees' Union is an independent union and has never represented Cathay Pacific. We expressly state that the Company does not accept, support or agree with the union's position on this matter.
@国泰航空 said in a separate statement that we have come to our attention to an internal letter circulating online about an English-language internal letter from Cathay Pacific's Director of Air Services, which is forged and not true. We do not want this false information to be confusing, and we reserve all rights to pursue legal action.
On 25 August, Cathay Pacific Airways launched its first recruitment of flight attendants in the mainland market, with an estimated 200 to 300 people in total. Lin Shaobo revealed that in the future, the mainland talent pool will continue to expand, including but not limited to cabin crew, Xi pilots and other positions, to better serve passengers. It is estimated that by 2025, the total number of mainland talent recruits will reach about 4,000.
Uncle's Comments:
1. This is a very rare crisis public relations case this year, which has achieved a perfect closed loop, and the uncle strongly recommends that if you want to find a positive case to learn Xi in this year's annual crisis public relations case inventory, the uncle strongly recommends that you learn Xi Cathay Pacific, which is perfect!
2. How can it be perfect? Because Cathay Pacific has operated a whole set of crisis public relations strategies to deal with such a sensitive incident! They are: rapid response (timely response to concerns and timely refutation of rumors), qualitative de-escalation (avoiding discrimination but unpleasant experiences), narrowing the scope (individual actions of 3 people), focusing on escalation (from the second statement to the third statement from the service director to the chief executive officer), and implementing actions (quickly firing 3 flight attendants and starting recruitment in the mainland).
Especially in this "mainland recruitment flight attendant", the uncle saw that the copywriting on the background board was "backed by the motherland, connected to the world", this politics was very correct, and the typical business deeply accepted the opinions of public relations.
Many crisis public relations responses are considered to be temporary, that is, how to quickly cool down, but in this case, we can see that the public opinion in May is still taking action in August, which is to pay attention to the problems exposed by public opinion from the root and effectively solve the problems with actions and systems.
3. Xiaohongshu is already the "outbreak source" of negative public opinion of enterprises, which is a bit of a cliché, but it must be said that the trend this year is very obvious, because from the perspective of traffic, Xiaohongshu is about to surpass station B and become the third social media. In this year's crisis public relations inventory, the uncle put 2 cases that were all from Xiaohongshu to break the news, and the other is Weilai.
top11蔚来
Event Summary:
On the evening of March 3, 2023, a post from a Xiaohongshu user titled "After being raped by a colleague, I was denied retention by the company" detonated social media.
At 11:22 a.m. and 28 a.m. on March 4, NIO issued the same statement on its official Weibo and official Xiaohongshu, respectively. There are 2 core contents: 1. The "almost raped by a colleague" that broke the news is true, the attempted rape on August 6, 2022, and after being arrested on August 18, the man has been dismissed. 2. As for the other half, the special investigation team will investigate the issues of "discrimination" and "injustice" mentioned.
On March 15, the girl opened a small account and claimed that the breaking news post was deleted by the Xiaohongshu platform, and she was "chilled" by the official situation statement of Weilai. In order to prove the false content in NIO's official statement, the girls listed their own Xi certificates, handover emails, and appeal letters written to the company after the incident, confirming that the company falsified the time of departure and selectively ignored the demands of Xi employees after they were sexually assaulted.
On March 20, NIO finally released the results of the investigation, trying to explain that the "reason" for the dismissal of the employee was that "the position is not established, and the team does not have a campus recruitment and social recruitment establishment in 2023." ”
Uncle's Comments:
1. This matter is very representative, that is, group consciousness and individual awakening impact corporate values. This is the uncle's original words in the "2022 Annual Crisis Public Relations Inventory", which also involves group topics such as sexual harassment in the workplace of women, as well as individual employee rights protection incidents.
2. Xiaohongshu is a new position for the outbreak of corporate public opinion, and sexual harassment and rights protection of women in the workplace are hot topics on the platform. Uncle believes that the rights protection of employees and enterprises will continue to be a key "minefield" in 2024, which in turn depends more on the crisis public relations awareness of the human resources department and how to be both humane and rule-abiding in communication and handling.
3. The whistleblower put "raped" and "refusal to retain" in the title, creating conflicts and topicality, and Weilai tried its best to separate the two in dealing with the response, and the final investigation result was "not compiled", which is in line with the strategy, but such an investigation result, does it take 17 days? On the contrary, Xiaohongshu deleted the post quite quickly, and Weilai's public relations always used the wrong force.
Xiaohongshu has long been not just a grass planting platform, but also a "Baidu" for newcomers in the workplace, and an important source of corporate public opinion.
TOP12 Tsingtao Beer
Event Summary:
At 13:37 on October 19, 2023, Douyin user "Xiao Cai", who has only 200+ followers, posted a short video with a copy: "Let's see if you dare to drink beer in the future."
At 12:03 on October 20, @大皖新闻 posted on Weibo that on the morning of the 20th, he interviewed the local industrial and commercial bureau and the three chiefs of Tsingtao Brewery, and verified the behavior in the video with them, and was told that "I didn't see the relevant video". #Tsingtao brewery workers were exposed to urinate in the raw material warehouse# on Weibo hot search.
On the day of the media report on the 20th, Tsingtao Beer and Pingdu Market Supervision Bureau issued a statement successively, emphasizing that the batch of malt was all sealed.
On October 23, insiders revealed that the person who shot the video and the relevant personnel suspected of urinating were "controlled" by the Pingdu Municipal Public Security Bureau on the same day.
On October 23, Tsingtao Brewery's share price plummeted 6.77% at the open.
On the evening of November 1, @平度发布 issued a notice that Cui Moumou, a stevedore of Qingdao Zhihe Trading Co., Ltd. (which is the outsourcing business company of Tsingtao Brewery No. 3 Factory), was automatically unloaded in the truck, and because there was a small amount of malt left in the carriage, it was necessary to manually clean up, and Cui Moumou urinated in the compartment when he climbed into the truck.
After investigation by the public security organs, Cui Moumou had the illegal act of intentionally damaging property. On October 22, the Pingdu Municipal Public Security Bureau placed him under administrative detention in accordance with the Law of the People's Republic of China on Public Security Administration Punishments.
After the official announcement, Tsingtao Brewery's official Weibo issued a rectification statement on the evening of the 1st and apologized.
Uncle's Comments:
1. Although the original video was deleted, even the relevant video accounts reported by the media could not be displayed, and the relevant participants were "controlled", but the public opinion of Tsingtao Beer's "pee-door" was known to almost the whole network.
This is what the uncle has repeatedly emphasized, in decentralized communication, all "materials" that can be forwarded with one click can be swiped, and the short videos or related screenshots taken by netizens have been widely diffused through WeChat groups and circles of friends, and the swiping of these "materials" and the deletion of the source information link are fundamentally two different things.
Uncle believes that Tsingtao Beer has focused on deletion (blocking) in its crisis response strategy, and its power has been used in the wrong place.
2. But Tsingtao Beer also has something right, that is: on the one hand, it immediately called the police, and on the other hand, it continued to release news through the identity of "insider". In particular, the police not only represents the attitude of the enterprise to prove its innocence, but also conveys the determination of the enterprise to dare to investigate the matter, and the third aspect is that the enterprise needs a third party to return this "innocence".
"Who is the person who pees, why does he do this, how to escape production supervision?" These are the three core questions that need to be answered in this crisis, even if it exposes that Tsingtao Beer may have management problems in safety production, but it is also conducive to its reputation repair, after all, "responsible for food safety, responsible for the health of consumers" is the core value of the company.
At the moment when "there is a video and the truth", it is no longer possible for enterprises to win the trust of the public, but only by calling the police and making the facts public through a third-party perspective, it is possible to return the "innocence" of the enterprise. Judging from the final rectification announcement, it is basically in line with the judgment of the uncle at that time, and the company admits that there are major loopholes in management, so they will fill them one by one and inform the public.
3. One of the biggest problems in this matter is the response time, since the short video was revealed on the 20th, according to insiders, it was controlled by the public security on the same day. Tsingtao Beer is the largest local enterprise, and the government's efficiency cannot be so low, so why did it take 10 days? Judging from the results of the investigation, the facts are not complicated? Uncle really doesn't know, and you are welcome to give advice in the message area.
TOP13 Liu Run
Event Summary:
On October 28, 2023, Liu Run gave his annual speech. Among them, taking the brand discount MAMA as an example, it said that it took 3 years to open 2,500 stores across the country, with a total revenue of more than 1.7 billion, although the price is very cheap, but the gross profit margin is 32%.
The next day, the numbers began to be questioned. Ma Xintong, the founder of Discount Cow, released a video saying that according to the public discount MAMA founder self-report, this brand should have 20 to 30 stores in September this year, and the annual turnover should not exceed 100 million. But in Liu Run, the discount MAMA developed into a chain of 17 billion and 2,700 stores.
Then, Ma Xintong estimated the turnover of 2,700 stores and 1.7 billion a year, with an average of about 600,000 yuan per store a year. Ma Xintong said that there are a lot of discount cattle stores (every month) that break one million, and the average day selling 600,000 yuan a year is 1,700 yuan, and then divided by the customer unit price of 40 yuan, 30 people enter the store a day, "What is the significance of this kind of store?"
In Liu Run's WeChat tweet, some netizens left a message, "17 billion, 2,500 stores, does each store sell about 680,000 a year on average?
Liu Run replied in the comment area that these 2,500 stores include: self-operated stores, co-branded stores, and stores supported by the supply chain. This figure has been confirmed by Xing Yunfei himself. The number of these three types of stores has exceeded 4,000. The total revenue is more than 1.7 billion. If you understand it with the model of a franchise store, you may misunderstand the data.
Xing Yunfei, the founder of discount MAMA, also responded to the controversy in the circle of friends: "1.7 billion should be too little."
On October 30, Liu Run posted again that how could a speech of such a scale be casually said without being confirmed, and after checking it on the Internet. The whole case, and every number, was confirmed by Xing Yunfei, the founder of discount MAMA, before he dared to go on the big screen.
In the face of Ma Xintong's successive questions, Liu Run released an article entitled "Liu Run: 2,700 stores, 1.7 billion, discount MAMA data, is it conjectural?" on the morning of November 1.
On November 2, Liu Run issued a letter of apology through Weibo. In the apology letter, Liu Run admitted that he had done several things wrong and deleted the "justification" article.
During this period, Liu Run's 400,000 internal training courses and other information were exposed.
Uncle's Comments:
1. As the most expensive business consultant in China, Liu Run once had a special chapter in his course to teach people how to crisis public relations, and he emphasized that "to lie hard and apologize is to die". As a result, he responded four times, which was completely "hard explanation, soft apology", almost completely copied the "death" he mentioned, and then fell deeper and deeper, and almost everyone inside and outside the circle knew that such an expensive top consulting boss was not only so unrigorous, but also so hard-mouthed. Uncle thinks that we still respect the professionalism of public relations, just like Liu Run hopes that others will respect his professionalism.
2. Why did Liu Run "overturn" and eat melons so much? Because this is an era when elites and authorities are challenged by ordinary people, Liu Run just didn't understand this status quo, but felt that others rubbed his traffic. Indeed, people are trying to rub your traffic, but you do have hard injuries, the more you want to maintain your "authority" through various ways, the more people who challenge you will "rub salt" on your wounds, and then show them to more people. It is estimated that after responding four times, he finally understood, and Liu Runcai finally "softened", but unfortunately it was a little late.
3. Rigor is indeed a very important asset and label for business consultants, and the uncle understands Liu Run's attempt to defend his rigor, but this just shows that he does not respect the professionalism of crisis public relations, Liu Run falls into his own perspective, or maintains the perspective of his fans, ignoring how the media perspective and the general public perspective view himself. The final result is: being rubbed off by traffic, and falling off the "altar" by himself.
Uncle thinks, in fact, it's good to fall off the "altar", Mr. Run, please be a person.
top14maia active
Event Summary:
ON MARCH 8, 2023, MAIA ACTIVE, A SPORTSWEAR BRAND DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR ASIAN WOMEN, PUSHED A WECHAT TWEET TITLED "THIS 38, SHUT UP". mentioned "excessive feminism, shut up!" and other copywriting, and the message area fell.
At 17:13, MAIA ACTIVE officially issued an apology letter, saying, "The original intention was to call on the outside world to give less guidance and preaching to women on this Women's Day, and to allow women to express themselves freely." ”
As a result, the WeChat message area is all about confrontation.
ON OCTOBER 16, 2023, ANTA SPORTSWEAR CO., LTD. ISSUED AN ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE ACQUISITION OF MAIA ACTIVE'S BUSINESS, ANNOUNCING THAT ANTA ACQUIRED 75.13% OF THE EQUITY OF MAIA ACTIVE, AND THE SPECIFIC PURCHASE PRICE WAS NOT ANNOUNCED.
Uncle's Comments:
1. In the past, we thought that 315 was the "festival" of public relations people, but now, we may have to add 38 sections, how to say it? Public relations is to intervene in all the "actions" of brand and marketing in 38 sections in advance, in case there are incidents involving insults to women.
2. MAIA ACTIVE has at least three problems: first, "corporate self-media" is not "self-media", let alone "media", but many people forget the attribute of "enterprise"; second, the crisis public relations statement should show attitude with actions, rather than playing with words.
3. Third, new consumer brands think they know users well, but your users do not represent public opinion, and the netizens who scold you may not be your users, but they can affect your users' purchase decisions. For specific cases, please refer to Huaxizi.
As for MAIA's acquisition by Anta, there is a saying that it may have been discounted in valuation because of this public opinion, and the uncle has no way to verify it, but for new consumer products, this is definitely a negative teaching material for the "double mistake" of marketing and crisis public relations.
Well, the above is the "first part" of the 2023 crisis public relations case review, and the uncle will make a summary and judgment on the crisis public relations trends mentioned in the above 14 case reviews in the "second part".