As the media landscape fractures across platforms and news cycles accelerate, one constant remains: the audience’s value of authenticity.
Customers, current and future, need to feel a connection to brands. Fail to join the conversation and risk third parties defining your brand for you forces quick and ill-prepared reactions. There’s also the risk of shifting public opinion. How the public views a brand can shift in real time.
Consistent visibility is just as critical for crisis readiness as it is for brand building. By maintaining a steady presence and sharing genuine insights, businesses build the “trust capital” they will need later.
The cost of switching PR on and off
Treating PR like a light switch–flipping it on for product launches and off again in between–is a dangerous strategy. Many founders and executives are increasingly tempted by tech culture, where innovators work on projects in “stealth” for months and years, expecting to release them to a rapturous public.
For every one product that makes a splash, 100 others see their supposedly grand launches come and go, leaving no impression. It might be a bit less sexy, but it’s true: reputation is built through frequent communication, not sporadic noise.
When your brand disappears from the conversation, you lose name recognition. Perhaps the market only hears your name as an upstart or competitor defines you – “Unlike x, we actually build our own technology” or “Too many people are sick of the same old service for Y”.
Worse still, if a crisis arises during a quiet period, your absence creates a vacuum. This leaves space for others to define your story, and rarely in your favour.
What “Always-On” PR really means
Having the light on doesn’t mean blinding every journalist night or day without thought. Instead, it means consistency – being steady, reliable communicators, working alongside the regular drumbeat of media rather than drowning it out.
Showing up with purpose to produce sustainable, outbound communications requires a few things:
- Monitoring the landscape: Understanding what is being said about you, your competitors, or your industry before issues escalate.
- Owning relationships: Keeping lines of communication open with key analysts and influencers so that when news breaks, your voice remains relevant.
- Staying visible: Ensuring your perspective is part of important conversations long before you are forced to react.
- Being prepared: Having clear processes, trained spokespeople, and pre-agreed messaging so responses are swift.
When crisis becomes opportunity
When a crisis hits, already being present in the public eye can be the difference between a reputational issue becoming either a mountain or a molehill.
Good crisis communication goes beyond damage control; it safeguards relationships. Clear, timely, and empathetic responses preserve trust, while inconsistent messaging compounds the problem.
Every brand is just one viral moment away from global scrutiny. Pre-existing media presence can serve as a sort of inoculation against the most damaging impacts of unexpected events
Take the recent example of Astronomer, a US tech company thrust into the spotlight after a concert video surfaced online. Within hours, misinformation was rampant. Fake apology letters – complete with satirical Coldplay lyrics – circulated on social media and were even picked up by major news outlets as fact, filling the 52-hour silence left by the company.
Handled correctly, a crisis can actually reinforce credibility. Transparent responses and visible leadership demonstrate brand values in action, deepening connections with stakeholders rather than diminishing them.
The Takeaway
Reputation isn’t a switch you can turn on and off again at a whim; it instead requires careful stewardship over time with thoughtful, impactful and relevant storytelling.
Always-on PR ensures that when a crisis inevitably arises, you are withdrawing from a full account of public goodwill, not an empty one. It shifts your position from a frantic scramble for defense to a confident reliance on the trust you have already earned.
