COVID-19: Our Response
It’s safe to say that the simultaneous dual calamities of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global recession have created a new normal that none of us has experienced before.
Our team at Kane Communications Group is responding with decades of crisis communications experience. We’re working around the clock to help our clients and our communities manage and share complex information to keep people informed and safe and to keep organizations strong. Here is how we’re responding.
Our Community
When this outbreak finally runs its course, it will be important that we remember what we’ve been through together, and the way forward must be together as a region. This means to buy local and support local whenever we can.
To show our support of the community, Kane has partnered with diverse business and community leaders across Milwaukee County to launch #StayHomeMKE, a public information campaign designed to empower and engage people across Milwaukee County to stay home to save lives. We’ve taken the pledge as a business, and are encouraging others to do the same because we know it’s our best chance at protecting our community. Visit StayHomeMKE.com, take the pledge, and join us in this important effort.
Decision Makers
There is no rule book, no guide, to help organizations manage through this particularly unique crisis. That’s why we’ve introduced a series of free resources for business and communicational leaders.
We are making our brand risk assessment tool available so that leaders can identify the potential risks COVID-19 poses to their brand and understand preventative actions they can take immediately. Email insights@kanecommgroup.com for more information.
We’re also offering a free crisis communications consultation with our team. Email insights@kanecommgroup.com for more information.
We will be rolling out free webinars on crisis communications where decision-makers and business leaders can learn from others, glean insights and ask questions.
We also plan to publish a series of C-Level columns and blogs to share some of the best practices that are recommended for executives as this crisis unfolds.
Our Employees
The health and safety of our employees is incredibly important to us. For that reason, we enabled all Kane employees to work remotely beginning March 16. We’ve stayed fully connected with each other and our clients and partners through technology and video- and teleconferencing. Because we already manage our projects digitally, we have been lucky enough to experience very little interruption to the WAY we work together. We’ve introduced virtual happy hours to keep everyone connected, have increased 1:1 meetings via video chats and are constantly exploring ways to improve the employee experience in working remotely.
Our Clients
Our clients have reached out to us for immediate support to help them manage communications during the COVID-19 crisis. Internally and externally. As a result, we have team members serving as communications leads on internal crisis response teams for several of our clients. We’ve scaled up entire teams to create strategic, integrated communications plans, concepts and campaigns in a matter of days – because the communications needs truly are that dire. Our agency’s leaders are working at all hours to help clients think through changes in their businesses as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
Additionally, we’ve had some clients embrace the change of pace and use this time for introspection, planning and research. The communications audits, brand discovery and customer research that they’ve been planning for months are things that senior executives are finding time for. A recession can be a time to invest in marketing and advertising. With less noise, less competition, we’re seeing some clients begin to look at how they can take advantage of the current situation rather than simply weather the storm. We’re working with them to ensure their messages remain relevant and sensitive to the current climate.
