<div class="gn-article"><div class="gn-hero gn-reveal"> <div class="gn-hero__image"><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6877701b88030d58f11ac053/6a16dbdaff9f7985c3df7cb2_playback-crisis-comms-banner-68b89335d18bc112316248.webp" alt=""></div> <div class="gn-hero__head"> <span class="gn-kicker"><span class="dot"></span>Expression</span> <h1 class="gn-title"><em>Playback:</em> Crisis Comms in 2025: Are You Prepared for the Unexpected?</h1> <div class="gn-meta"> <strong>The GO Network</strong> <span class="pip"></span> <span>3 September 2025</span> <span class="pip"></span> <span>1 min read</span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="gn-body"> <h2>Crisis Communications in 2025: What Agencies Need to Know Before the Call Comes In</h2> <p>Every agency that handles PR, communications, or media will face a crisis situation on behalf of a client. The question is not whether it will happen, but whether the agency and its clients are ready when it does. In a session hosted by The GO Network, three experienced agency practitioners shared their frameworks, hard-won lessons, and practical approaches to crisis communications in a landscape that is faster, more fragmented, and less forgiving than ever before.</p> <p>The session featured <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhonatempler/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Rhona Templer</a>, Group Managing Director at <a href="https://gold79.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">GOLD79</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/graeme-mcgilliard-48104b4b/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Graeme McGilliard</a>, Media Director at <a href="https://wearedemocracy.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Democracy PR</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonowenpr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Alison Owen</a>, Head of Public Relations at <a href="https://www.scottpr.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">The Scott Partnership Ltd</a>. Here are the core takeaways for agency teams responsible for building, selling, or delivering crisis communications services.</p> <h2>Anticipate Risk Before the Client Does</h2> <p>Effective crisis communications starts long before any incident occurs. Agencies that wait for a client to raise a concern are already behind. The strongest practitioners build risk anticipation into their ongoing client relationships, treating it as a standing agenda item rather than a reactive conversation.</p> <p>This means mapping out the scenarios most likely to affect each client based on their sector, public profile, supply chain dependencies, and media exposure. A retail brand carries different risk vectors to a professional services firm or a public-sector body. Agencies that understand those distinctions, and document them, are positioned to act with clarity and speed when something breaks.</p> <p>Practically, this involves working with clients to produce scenario plans that outline potential crises, pre-approved messaging frameworks, and clear decision-making chains. The goal is to remove as much ambiguity as possible so that when a situation escalates, the agency is executing a plan rather than improvising one.</p> <h2>Managing Across Channels Requires a Single Source of Truth</h2> <p>One of the defining challenges of crisis communications in 2025 is the sheer number of channels a story can travel across simultaneously. A single incident can surface on X, migrate to LinkedIn, be picked up by a trade title, and reach a national news desk within hours. Each channel has its own tempo, audience, and norms. Trying to manage them all with bespoke messaging in real time without a central framework is a fast route to inconsistency.</p> <p>The speakers addressed how agencies can manage crises effectively across both traditional and digital media. The principle that underpins good multi-channel crisis management is maintaining a single source of truth: one agreed statement of facts, one set of approved messages, and one clear line on what the client will and will not say at each stage of the situation.</p> <p>From that foundation, messaging can be adapted for format and audience without becoming contradictory. A holding statement for a journalist, a staff communication, and a social media post will read differently. They need to be consistent. Agencies that build this discipline into their crisis processes are far better equipped to hold the line when a story is moving quickly and client nerves are high.</p> <h2>Internal Communications Is Not an Afterthought</h2> <p>Too many crisis plans focus almost entirely on external stakeholders and neglect the audience that is often the most consequential: employees. Staff who do not receive clear, timely communication during a crisis become an unmanaged variable. They speak to friends, post on social media, and form their own interpretations of events. That creates a secondary communications problem that can compound the original one.</p> <p>Agencies advising on crisis communications need to push clients to include employee communications as a primary channel, not a follow-up. The messaging does not need to share everything, but it does need to be honest about what is happening, what the organisation is doing about it, and when people can expect further updates. Agencies that can help clients build that internal communications layer into their crisis response are delivering a more complete and defensible service.</p> <h2>Turning a Crisis Into a Trust-Building Opportunity</h2> <p>The session also explored how organisations can emerge from a crisis with their reputation intact, or in some cases, strengthened. This is not about spin. It is about demonstrating values under pressure. Clients who communicate transparently, take responsibility where appropriate, and follow through on commitments made during a crisis often build more durable trust than those who simply avoid public incidents altogether.</p> <p>For agencies, this reframes the value proposition of crisis communications work. It is not just damage limitation. Handled well, it is an opportunity to help a client demonstrate who they are. That requires agencies to think beyond the immediate news cycle and consider the longer arc of the client's reputation, the case studies they will want to tell in twelve months, and the relationships with media and stakeholders that are built or damaged during a crisis response.</p> <h2>Measuring What Matters After the Crisis Passes</h2> <p>Evaluation is the part of crisis communications work that most agencies treat as secondary. It should not be. Establishing clear metrics before a crisis, and reviewing them honestly once it is resolved, is how agencies improve their capability and demonstrate value to clients.</p> <p>Useful metrics go beyond media coverage volume. They include sentiment shifts, response time from incident to first public statement, message consistency across channels, and stakeholder feedback. Where agencies can track these consistently across client engagements, they build an evidence base that sharpens future crisis planning and strengthens the case for retaining communications support on an ongoing basis.</p> <p>The full session recording is available to members of The GO Network as part of the Expression series, which is designed to help agencies grow their presence, creativity, and commercial impact. If your agency is not yet a member, <a href="https://www.thego.network/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">find out more about joining The GO Network</a> to access this and future sessions.</p> </div></div> <aside class="gn-related gn-reveal" data-auto="related-reading"> <div class="gn-related__label">Related reading</div> <ul class="gn-related__list"> <li class="gn-related__item"> <a href="/articles/playback-tiktok-emerging-social-platforms-how-your-brand-can-get-involved" class="gn-related__link"> <span class="gn-related__category">Expression</span> <span class="gn-related__title">Playback: TikTok &amp; Emerging Social Platforms: How Your Brand Can Get Involved</span> <span class="gn-related__excerpt">Agency experts break down how to build audiences and drive conversions on TikTok, BeReal, and beyond. 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