Crisis communication plan Name: Lori van Gurchom Course: Strategic communication management Studentnumber: 2202603 Table of contents Introduction 3 Organization identity 4 Issue analysis 5 Issue life cycle 7 Risk matrix 8 Stakeholder analysis 10 Communication advice 14 Bibliography 17 Attachment: Crisis day evaluation 18 2 Introduction In this document you will find the Crisis communication plan for the company Pinkpop. First I am going to analyse the company thoroughly, then I will pick three issues that can have impact on Pinkpop. These issues will be analysed and after that the most important stakeholders for the issue will be explained. Finally I will write a crisis communication advice for the issue that I choose to work with. In the festival branch there are a lot of issues that can turn into a crisis. They are getting more popular every year, so there is a big chance that something will go wrong one day. If issues that lead into a crisis will not handled properly, it could really damage a company or organization. That is why it is important to know what you need to do during a crisis. Issue management and crisis communication is used to solve these crises. 3 Organisation identity History Pinkpop is the oldest and most famous Dutch pop festival. The festival took place for the first time in 1970 on ‘Pinkstermonday’ may 18th in Geleen. Pinkpop actually means ‘pop with pentecost’ and is usually held in the Whitsun weekend. Since 2008, they did not always held it on Whitsun weekend and departed from it when Pentecost was too early and the organisers could not make a good program, that is when the festival will take place later. (Pinkpop.nl, 2014) In 2008 Pinkpop received the Green ‘n Clean award. To be able to receive this award, a festival has to meet certain requirements for sustainable management, transport, waste management, energy and food and water. Pinkpop is working hard on these requirments every year. (Pinkpop, 2014) Today In 2015 Pinkpop held the 47th edition in Landgraaf. Meanwhile, the organistor of Pinkpop, Jan Smeets, is the owner of the festival terrain Megaland that yearly makes place for 40 international acts and 60.000 visitors. (beeldengeluid.nl, 2014) Culture and structure Pinkpop is organized by Buro Pinkpop and it consists of management, central production, the staff of Pinkpop and legal affairs. The organisations of Pinkpop has been complemented by implementing partners such as Mojo and TSC. The managing director is Jan Smeets. Of the three days that the festival lasts, it attracts about 68,000 people each day. The two biggest genres that are played are Pop and Rock with great artists such as the Rolling Stones, U2, Anouk, The Script and Racoon. Furthermore, the festival has four stages including one hosted by 3FM. (Wikipedia, 2015). Furthermore the festival has a wide range of merchandise products they sell themselves through their website. Think of ponchos, key chains but also T-Shirts and even muffs. (pinkpopsouvenirs, 2015) Mission and vision There is no information available about the mission and vision of Pinkpop. That is why I decided to formulate it myself. This is made by looking at the communication of Pinkpop. 4 Vision (written from the viewpoint of Buro Pinkpop) “Pinkpop thinks that the public and the music should always come first. We are the oldest festival of the Netherlands and we are proud of this. We want our visitors to completely enjoy the music at the festival. For us it is also important that the artist who perform at the festival have a good time at the oldest yearly returning festival.” Mission Because there was no information about the mission I decided to formulate it myself. “Pinkpop wants to be more involved in corporate social responsibility and to be able to apply his to their festival to that they can enhance their position.” Issue analysis An issue is a problem ready for solution and typically involves policy decisions (Cooms, 2012). In this chapter three issues that can happen to Pinkpop will be explained. These issues can eventually turn into a crisis. Drug use at festivals Unfortunately, drug use at festivals is very common, in fact, at some (festival)websites it appears to be ‘normal’ by the festival visitors. What also happens, is that visitors get drugs administered by someone else. Unwanted, through their drink. (forensicon, 2014) Festival goers who choose to use party drugs (like MDMA or ecstasy, marijuana, cocaine, GHB and Ketamine) are not only at risk of overdosing but also dehydration and hyperthermia. In several cases, people lose consciousness and can die. (sossafetymagazine.com, 2015) Ticket resale The black market is a very big problem for festivals. Not only for the companies, but also for the visitors. Sometimes the ticket for concerts or festivals are very quickly sold out, visitors are then forced to buy a ticket for a high price. This is trading without permission from the originator, artist of venture, with profit making as only purpose. In practice, this means that in the Netherlands, thirty companies resale these tickets daily for concerts, events and sport games, just to make profit. These companies do not have to invest in the event, this is why there profit is very high. The organisation makes and pays the promotional campaign for an event, festival or artist and the dealer piggybacks on the success of this. 5 The resale of tickets without happens without permission of the organisation, and because this happens on a large scale, it creates unnecessary scarcity. This leaves little tickets that are for sale to the original price. Visitors can spend their money only one time, and if they pay to much for a ticket, they will spend less on merchandise or catering at the festival or event. This money goes to middleman who do not invest in culture. In this way, less money flows back into the culture industry, which ultimately leads to a less diverse cultural offerings in the Netherlands. (weetwaarjekoop.nl, 2015) Ticket sold to minors This year, the age verification will be tightened again for festivals. On January first 2014 the age for buying alcohol was increased from 16 years to 18 years. It is still difficult to prevent visitors below 18 years from drinking alcohol at festivals. The EU obliges festival organisers to decide who can drink alcohol and who can not, before the festival takes place. A good example sets Britisch festival Glastonbury: ticket bureaus will only sell festival tickets who are registered by name and passport number. Also all the tickets will have a passport photo. (festivalinfo, 2014) Four teenagers were fined for using alcohol at the Electronic Picnic festival. The organisation of the festival has been giving a fine report due to supply of alcohol by people under the 18 (dichtbij.nl, 2014). Even though there are already a lot of action taking against minors drinking alcohol, but it will always be difficult to completely control this at a festival. 6 Issue life cycle Every issue will be placed in the ‘Issue life cycle’, also will be explained why the issues where placed there. 1. Drug use at festivals The first issue is in the crisis stage because there is a public outcry for change, the media is involved and lives are at risk. It is also an openly debated problem in society. It is a very serious issue, because there are people who have died from using drugs at festivals. A crisis is also an event that can have a negative effect on the organisation, industry or stakeholders, if handled improperly. When people that use drugs at a festival and die from it, people will see the festival as responsible: “Why did they not have better security measures?” or “How did they get past security with so much drugs?”. The festivals reputation will be at risk after an accident like this happens. It will also involve politics, because they have to think about a solution for this issue. 2. Ticket resale The second issue is in the current stage because at this point the public, key influencers, and others recognize the importance of the issue and place pressure on governments to either change the behaviour of the organization of industry. 7 It is not a crisis, but the issue has bad consequences for some people and also for the organisation. Because people pay a higher price for the resold tickets from certain companies that only want to make profit, and the organisation of the festival or event is suffering from this issue because when people pay a high price for their entrance tickets, they have less money to spend on catering and merchandise at the festival or event. This solution will also involve politics. 3. Tickets sold to minors The last issue is in the emerging issue stage because the issue does not have a high level of intensity to put it in the current issue stage. In the emerging issue stage the level of intensity will mostly increase, but it is also hard to know the urgency of the issue because of the difficulty in determining if the issue will remain moderate or increase in intensity. There are no real consequences of tickets that are sold to minors, but it still remains an issue. Risk matrix A risk matrix is a key tool for your risk register to identify which risks fall below your level of tolerance, and which you need to plan for. All three issues will be placed into the risk matrix with an explanation afterwards. Drug use at festivals This issue is placed in likelihood ‘high’ and impact ‘very high’.