Coronavirus: how Kazakhstan brands react and communicate

Today, theseniorlecturerattheDepartmentof PR, UNESCO andInternationalJournalism, KcellbusinesstrainerSaltanatBerdikulova, conducted a guestonlinelecturewithpracticing PR specialists.

Theonlinelecturewasheldintheformatof a webinarfor 3-year studentsinthefieldof “Commercial PR” and “ReputationManagement”.
 
Topic: “ThereactionofKazakhstanibrandstocoronavirus. Anti-crisiscommunications. ”
ThefirstspeakerAnastasiaNemtsova, PR managerofChocofamilyholding, spokeaboutseveralimportantstepsinthisperiod:
1) Holdingheldanonlinepressconferencewiththemediaandbloggers. ThemoderatorwasAlisherYelikbaev. ThiswasthefirstimportantstepforexternalcommunicationstoexplaintothemarketthesituationwiththebrandsforthesaleofairlineticketsChocotravelandAviata, includingtellingabouttheactionsoftheholdingtominimizerisks;
2) The PR teamhascreated a singlecommunicationdocumentforemailmarketers, SMM andotherservicesthatinteractwithcustomerstodeliverkeymessagesoftheholdinginanagreedformat;
3) Tocreateinternalcommunications, wecreated a closedInstagrampagefortheholding’semployees. There, themanagementteamconductsinformativeandentertaininglivebroadcasts, sharesnewsandsupportstheteam.

Thesecondspeaker, KristinaNikulina, PR managerofKolesaGroupproducts, sharedherstepsinbuildinganti-crisiscommunications:
1) AllurgentcommunicationwithemployeesgoesthroughchannelsinTelegram. Thisis a channelwithcorporatenews, a channelofthechiefexecutiveofficer, a chat-chatforinformalcommunication;
2) Flashmobswerelaunchedintheteam, inwhichemployeesshared a photooftheirdesktopathome, collectedhumorouscollagestosupport a positivespirit;
3) TohelpcustomersontheKolesa.kzwebsite, developershavelaunched a serviceforcheckingstatelicenseplateswith a permit / banontravelinquarantinedcities;
4) Aninterestingfact: becauseoftheemergency, thecompanyhadtocanceltheKolesaConf IT event, forwhichallticketshadalreadybeenbought. The PR directionhadtoactivelycommunicateonthistopiconmanyexternalmediaplatforms, includingsocialnetworks, toleveloutthenegative. Theeventwasnotcanceled, butrescheduled. Anditwillnotbetransferredtotheonlineformat, itwillbeheldoffline, sincethemainideaof ​​theeventis “live” networkingof IT specialists.
 
Generallyspeaking, thecurrentcrisisisnotlikeallthepreviousones. Manyanti-crisisprogramsand PR-documentsturnedouttobeineffectiveand PR-drivershadtoadaptcommunicationstothesituation “onthego” andsometimeseverytwohours.
Studentssharedtheirfeedbackaftertheonlinelectureandthankedthespeakersfortheirexperience.