BERLIN, OSLO, LONDON – None of us have experienced anything like the disruption and the political discourse of the past few months.
Increased geopolitical tensions, a fast-changing news environment, often extreme tariff changes and corporate concerns over being singled out for public criticism have combined to create daily headaches for corporate and public affairs teams.
It’s easy to understand why they might feel more vulnerable. Certainty has been in short supply, and many large companies have been challenged by stakeholders to respond to rapid and often uncomfortable change.
That was the focus of conversation at three discussion events which we held in Berlin, Oslo and London this week, led by Ben LaBolt, BPI Group’s new President. We brought senior communications and policy leaders together to understand how we’re working to help clients tackle these challenges, and above all what they can be doing to make their reputations more resilient at a time when it can feel like they’re being threatened on multiple fronts.
The discussions focused on several core topics:
- The nature of reputation promotion and protection has changed as media habits have changed, with more and younger readers now expecting news information to come to them rather than actively seeking it
- That news dynamic leaves the average company more exposed to harmful narratives, with ‘bad actors’ able to serve up misinformation and disinformation packaged as apparently legitimate and trustworthy content
- The media environments becoming ever-more fragmented but also creating new and powerful sources of influence including independent podcasts and long-read slots in established media
- Until broad economic recovery is achieved, we can expect this widescale disruption and its associated challenges to continue
