Carnival’s PR Blunder

Costa Concordia Cruise Ship PR | BCBusiness
The media and observers owned the sunken cruise ship story with little intervention by Carnival’s communications team.

Carnival’s non-existent communications strategy resulted in the media owning their sunken cruise ship story.

When reflecting on the sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy, it’s easy to see where their PR strategy went awry and the media frenzy took over. With little communications intervention on behalf of Carnival Corporation, Concordia’s owner, negative publicity swirled, and the media and observers were left telling the damaged cruise ship story.

Carnival seemed strangely unprepared for the crisis, which is puzzling considering the size and value of the company (they control 21 per cent of the worldwide cruise market) and the potential for problems. Carnival should have prepared a crisis communications strategy that could have helped them adequately respond to this or any other calamity that should arise.

As it was, the lack of a clear and defined strategy meant that the media’s storytelling did not reflect positively on Carnival. By immediately putting in place a company spokesperson to brief media on the rescue of passengers, accident investigation and other timely issues, Carnival could have “owned” their story.

Adding insult to injury, Carnival CEO Micky Arison failed to get to the site of the disaster, remaining 5,000 miles away in Miami. In a crisis, the company boss must be on site, be it a sunken cruise ship or a blown-up pulp mill. The only way to combat images of a stricken ship is to have your leader on the ground, doing what he can to help and sympathize with families.

Problems were compounded with news about the captain literally abandoning ship for the safety of a lifeboat, leaving passengers and the crew stranded. His comment that he “tripped into a lifeboat” has made him an international embarrassment, and Carnival should never have allowed him to speak to the media or the public – at least not without prior coaching.

And in a time when anyone can publish videos, tweets or other instant comments, companies have to be engaged in those spaces. Even if the other messages aren’t good, Carnival should have been broadcasting their own updates about the rescue efforts.

The much publicized cruise-discount offer to survivors was the equivalent of offering a poisoned hamburger consumer a half-price burger the next day. This move only trivialized a grave situation and opened Carnival to even more criticism.

Now it’s time for Carnival to get into ship shape and plan a communications campaign that helps rebuild the cruise ship industry and illustrate just how safe it is overall. The recent tragedy can’t be overlooked or whitewashed, and part of their communications campaign must be to focus on what is being done by the industry to ensure future passenger safety.