Wellington PR company, Blackland PR, is expecting a tough year for communicators in New Zealand, suggesting firms be upfront about issues earlier.
The advice comes after the firm released its annual list of the toughest public relations challenges in New Zealand for 2024, showing that the most difficult communications jobs were handling boat catastrophes and energy shortages.
The five toughest challenges included the global Microsoft outage, May energy shortages, the Interislander grounding, and the HMNZS Manawanui sinking.
The company said criticism of electricity generators following business closures due to high energy prices was rated the toughest issue because the event combined the highest public profile with the strongest range of emotional reactions, social impact and complexity of actors involved.
Blackland PR Director, Nick Gowland said organisations handling issues could no longer rely on COVID-19 to divert public attention or serve as an excuse for blame when things go wrong.
"2024 was a year confidence and optimism sunk to new lows. The national gloom was made real with major physical failures.
"It was bookended with two very high-profile and embarrassing mistakes. Both involved boats and both were human screw-ups with handling autopilots.
"The Interislander grounding shows how simple mistakes can be used as evidence to confirm existing assumptions people have about organisations."
Nick said it is rare for non-government issues to rank so highly in terms of profile: "They were kept running by extensive social media, office water cooler chat, and news media speculation on the causes."
Energy shortage issues featured prominently in the rankings, responsible for four of the top 10 toughest challenges, including accusations that high wholesale prices forced the closure of businesses.
"These issues ranked very highly because everyone uses energy, and reasons for the shortages and prices were complex, interdependent, and required multiple actors to resolve and communicate," Nick explained.
"It was much easier for people to construct simple answers to a complex problem and assign blame. High-profile retail generators found themselves unfairly criticised in news media as responsible for job losses.”
Nick said communicators in 2024 had to deal with some unusual issues, from rats in supermarkets, to allegations of mishandling bodies, and sweets contaminated with methamphetamine.
"Photos of rats perched on supermarket shelves sparked disgust and therefore outrage. It spawned a months’ long national craze to find rats. No supermarket was safe.”
He warned that 2025 was also likely to be a very tough year, but companies could make it easier on themselves and consumers by being more upfront about problems earlier.
"In the white heat of a public issue, it's easy to blame and hard to explain. Businesses can best prepare by telling customers when issues are likely, and to give unambiguous, practical information on what they’re doing or what customers need to do.
"Businesses sometimes trip up by explaining too much, but with unspecific language. This confuses, creates inertia and feeds cynicism. One piece of direct, actionable information is usually all that's required to convince.
"A large part of PR is prevention," Nick concluded. "PR's role is to think about the worst possible outcome and change things before they happen, or get too bad."