There’s no question that social media has changed the crisis communications industry. Recent studies indicate that 49% of business decision-makers across the globe believe social media has made their company more vulnerable to a crisis and 79% actually expect to experience a crisis within the next year.
Further evidence that the C-Suite increasingly values reputation management and crisis preparedness: insurance companies are now offering insurance policies that help companies pay for crisis PR.
First, London-based insurers announced their new “Hotel Reputation Protection 2.0″ policy to limit hotels’ liability resulting from negative media coverage or social media backlash. The policy would pay an insured hotel up to about $34 million to cover both lost revenue from negative publicity and the hiring of a crisis PR consultant.
More recently, a division of AIG Insurance now offers a new type of insurance policy that helps embattled companies pay for crisis PR. “Reputation Risk Insurance,” is now offered through AIG’s subsidiary Chartis. As a justification for the new offering, Chartis cited a recent survey of public and private board members showing that 69% now rank reputation risk as their primary concern.
What types of crises do you think this policies should cover? With insurance agencies available to foot the bill, do you think more companies will be more likely to spring for a crisis communications consultant?