MEDIA RECOVERY PRODUCT

With businesses becoming more complex and global, the potential for brand contamination, where business failure in one part of the organization impacts on the whole group, is an increasing danger. Indeed, it is arguable that catastrophic brand failure is the only scenario under which many corporations would collapse. Yet too many organizations completely omit to undertake basic media contingency planning.

According to a major study compiled by KPMG on behalf of the Financial Services Authority, financial and other institutions' disaster recovery strategies remain woefully unprepared for the communications requirements which a 7/7 or 9/11 emergency will impose. The study, carried out after the largest ever peacetime civil defence exercise, carried out in November 2005, concludes that "many organizations underestimated the extent of the civil authorities' actions (eg the size of the cordons and the length of time these will held in place). They also underestimated how quickly they will receive information." The report also called for "improvements to people-related responses - including communications."

Even without a natural or man-made disaster, brand reputations are always at risk. Arthur Andersen spent millions on a new visual identity in the months before Enron, but when the scandal broke Andersen ripped itself apart and the Big Five suddenly became the Big Four. Ratner’s, an otherwise sound £500m company, was famously destroyed in five seconds flat by a handful of ill-chosen words. How much better it would have beem if these companies had spent a fraction of their budget on a properly structured communications strategy!

“Media Recovery” – a term pioneered by SNC as a necessary counterpart to disaster recovery – is the process by which an organization plans for, trains for, and if necessary implements a communications process in the face of major incidents, accidents or disasters.

Aspects of Media Recovery include:

<	Establishment of bespoke emergency media handling protocols, up to and including 7/7 and 9/11 scenarios
<	Internal communication – how do you reach your employees if they cannot get to your office and their mobile phones are jammed with panic calls?
<	War gaming and senior management Media Recovery training
<	Appraisal of IT systems, establishment of emergency redundant websites
<	Communications aspects of evacuation procedures, working with premises managers and human resources departments
<	Defensive PR – confidential handling of incidents likely to result in major reputational damage
<	Confidential validation of Media Recovery strategy with the Police and Security Services

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