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This week’s PR Roundup looks at whether or not Delta’s compensation to crash survivors is good PR, fun partnerships between brands and “The White Lotus,” and the Institute for Public Relations’s new report that looks at the most impactful research of 2024 for communicators.

A new C-suite outlook report from The Weber Shandwick Collective indicates that business executives have little confidence in their teams’ abilities to properly respond to an unexpected PR disaster. But communications professionals shouldn’t panic. Executives cited their team’s lack of resources to handle crises—which creates a tremendous opportunity for CCOs and their teams to bring value to C-suites and play a bigger leadership role in corporate structures.

Making crisis drills a regular occurrence can improve communicator response skills and boost team confidence.

Platforms rise and fall, but one thing remains: people crave connection. Whether you’re testing Bluesky, RedNote, or the next breakout platform, remember: your audience follows relationships, not logos.

For PR professionals, Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show approach offers valuable insights into how storytelling, symbolism and bold authenticity can be leveraged to create impactful communication strategies.

This week’s PR Roundup looks at PRSA’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, The White House’s risky media relations move with The Associated Press, and how Shopify’s reputation received some major blows after not acting quickly enough in a crisis with Yeezy.com.

The vast majority of audiences tune out jargon. Nobody wants to hear from a robot. But more often than not, speakers are experts on something, and they really want to nerd out. Here’s some steps on how to find that balance and simplify complex messaging in speechwriting to move an audience.

The New York Times exposé published in December about Justin Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign against Blake Lively highlighted the dark side of PR. Then a week later, Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times, saying the media outlet got the story wrong. Ultimately, the legal questions in Baldoni’s suit concern media ethics. But in the meantime, the actors’ PR teams should keep these crisis communications tips top of mind.

According to a survey from Morgan Stanley Research, 94% of healthcare businesses use AI or machine learning in at least some capacity. Expectations have forever changed, and healthcare communicators must now rally behind AI to provide optimal outputs for their own companies as well as for clients and healthcare professionals.

Now more than ever, communicators need to play the long game to protect DE&I. Our author provides recommendations for how communicators can shield DE&I during this reputation-building era.