Blog: Christmas is a time for Ho Ho, not Uh Oh!

The festive season can be the best of times and the worst of times for being in the media. 

We’re entering what is known in media circles as the ‘silly season’. It’s that time of the year when businesses shut down, parliament is not sitting, school’s out and many people are relaxing by the pool or heading for the (hopefully algal-free) beach. The silly season generally runs from just before Christmas until after the Australia Day long weekend.

Which presents a once-a-year set of challenges for media outlets.  Their staple diet of political news, business announcements and education stories disappears, so they must be more creative to fill newspapers and TV bulletins.

This can be good news - but also occasionally bad news for businesses.

First the good news – this quiet news period is the perfect time to consider announcements that might otherwise struggle to get a prominent run the rest of the year. As a bonus, if your announcement can in some way be connected to the festive season – whether it’s tourism-related, has a summer or holiday theme, or just has something to do with how people make the most of their spare time – there’s a greater chance of attracting the interest of one or more media outlets.

As always, consider the best news ‘hook’ to create interest and, where possible, offer photographic or video opportunities to provide ‘colour and movement’ to enhance the story. Also make sure someone is available for interview to talk up the announcement. There’s not a lot of point issuing a media release if there’s no-one around to talk about it.

On the flip side, the festive season is also a time when businesses can be caught out in a crisis. This can be double trouble – on the one hand you might not have the right staff at work to deal with the crisis and on the other hand, media are desperate for news so a crisis can often be amplified and prolonged in December and January when it would otherwise be overtaken by other news events at other times of the year.

So, the simple thing to remember is that your crisis management plan should be as easily enacted over Christmas and New Year as it is in May or August. If you have all the correct processes in place, your team should still be ready to step up and support the business if absolutely necessary to do so. Are members of your Crisis Management Team seamlessly connected by a group text alert system or able to quickly jump on a Teams call even if it’s from the deck of their holiday rental or sitting on the banks of the River Murray?

Review and ensure your crisis communication plan and protocols are up to date. If not, Hughes can help review or develop a tailored plan in preparation for a potential crisis or emergency.

Take this opportunity to remind relevant team members of key elements of your crisis communication plan and ensure they’re contactable if needed. Crisis management plans should focus on the company's response and how it will communicate to its stakeholders in a crisis.

If your company is involved in critical infrastructure, it should go without saying that at least one or two team members are on stand-by (and that also means sober!) even on Christmas Day, just in case.

So enjoy the holidays, think about any opportunities to proactively promote your business when your competitors are snoozing after the Christmas lunch, and be ready for the outside possibility that something might go wrong.

Mark Williams

Hughes | Consultant