News and Insights
Crisis Communications in a Shifting Political Landscape
January 16, 2025
Businesses, organizations and nations across the world are rapidly absorbing the coming changes as they anticipate the second presidential term of Donald Trump. The 2024 U.S. election has the potential to dramatically alter the regulatory and policy structures currently in place in the U.S. and may similarly shift geopolitical dynamics throughout the world.
We’re set to experience significant changes across every sector, from trade policy and tariffs, the regulation of food, financial services, to energy production to name a few. In crisis communications, we’ve always defined “crisis” as an event or circumstance that has the potential to disrupt business as usual. Policy and regulation help to create the conditions in the marketplace, so … yes, the incoming administration has the potential to create crisis-like conditions across a range of sectors and drastically modify the conversations around many of the issues that have been dominant in the marketplace of ideas. Many clients we’ve spoken to are interested in future approaches to climate and sustainability, for example. It’s definitely not the time to abandon key priorities, but some careful calculations must be made.
For some companies—and indeed some industries—the new administration will be a boon. For others, there will be new challenges and potential obstacles and roadblocks. But far from being a new phenomenon, this push and pull of creating runways versus erecting barriers is a long-standing political dynamic. They say that government shouldn’t be in the business of picking winners and losers, but policy often does just that. And now’s the moment to be looking ahead, clear-eyed at what may come next, because this new political and policy-making ecosystem will require adaptation.
With many proposed cabinet and administration nominees, the candidates have signaled that they will bring a very different approach to how they will lead their agencies. The food industry is set to see both increased scrutiny of ingredients and labeling under the proposed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, who has vowed to “Make America Healthy Again,” as well as being very vocal in his opposition to vaccines.
America First policies have the potential to impact foreign-owned companies doing business in the U.S., and that same lens applied to trade policy has many countries on high alert assessing the potential impact on the status of their trade relations and their exports to the U.S. They will also impact both bilateral relationships as well as regional considerations. The second Trump administration will bring a very different lens to current conflict zones, which will have reverberations across business sectors.
So, what comes next for businesses, organizations and even countries? We’ve been working doggedly with our clients in recent weeks to help them be more agile, to see around corners and to prepare for 2025—whether that means crisis, chaos or shifting opportunities.
Planning for change
Review: Examine vulnerabilities around potential changes that will affect your sector, your company or the issues important to your organization. This strategic review can take the shape of a workshop that includes issue mapping and scenario identification. This includes taking stock of potential threats and risks. Flagging and response modeling is critical.
At the same time, it’s essential to identify any opportunities that you may see on the horizon for positive change. Examine and double down on company or organizational strengths. Where can you lead? Where do you see blue sky? This visioning exercise is happening now and is the key to agile footing in what will be a rapid and dynamic roll-out.
Rethink: We don’t always hear the word creativity associated with “Crisis Communication,” but it’s an often-overlooked element of success. Many times, the most innovative solutions to external complexity come less from a sharpened pencil than from mental fingerpainting.
A brilliant client of mine at one of the embassies in Washington, D.C. was in the midst of a trade deal that had the potential for backlash. He always insisted that in addition to our weekly meeting to review, program and progress, we would meet regularly outside of the office and the confines of the conference room or ZOOM to brainstorm over coffee: to foster blue-sky thinking, examine what-ifs and unabashedly turn over the “crazy” ideas. So often they turned into amazing vectors and effective strategies in our work together.
Reset: Advanced crisis planning isn’t just defensive. Adaptation requires urgent and immediate action, but also a vision for the long term.
How can you shore up areas of weakness? In the face of political risk, how can you demonstrate value, support and positive impact? Is there messaging that needs to be revised, content that needs to be created, are there data that lends credence to your position, or consumer sentiment that can be quantified or demand signals that can be activated?
Build your case: make it stronger and more resonant. Amass stories of impact. Show and tell with data. But also anticipate what’s become a landscape fraught with disinformation and unexpected turns. FINN turns to simulation and modeling with our Media Forensics capability to help our clients prepare for the twists and turns that are part of today’s digital landscape—only exacerbated when filtered through the political lens.
Revise: Viable crisis planning will also need to be iterative. Expect the unexpected. Build in checkpoints and opportunities for strategy revision, messaging review and tactical pivots. Broaden your tent: bring in thinkers, creators and strategists who can help you problem solve. Convergent thinking is essential. Our approach has been to bring in key team members with both policy and crisis chops, research, analytics and modeling, creative along with subject matter experts who know the issues and the business well. Cross-cutting thinking is a powerful tool.
So, whether the coming changes in 2025 seem like a runway or an obstacle course, now is the time to build resilience and agility to be well-positioned in the coming years. Strategic planning, big ideas and innovative programs will help to navigate headwinds and ensure smoother sailing, whatever may come.
Originally posted on O’Dwyer’s on January 16, 2025.