When planning your crisis exercise and it’s injects, consider these three ways simulated news stories can transform your scenario and bring it to life:
1. Realism
Many times we get the first hint of an unfolding situation by turning on the morning or evening news. We learn of an impending storm, a new cyber threat, or perhaps a pandemic in the works. Even if your organization has not been impacted yet, the information provided can be used to plan ahead. How will the team use this information to prepare? Another reality of the news, is that sometimes they get it wrong. Misinformation is not uncommon, but when it comes to your organization, and your crisis, it can pose a very serious obstacle. This is a great way to test your communications team and it’s response to such a situation.
2. Impact
Hearing your organizations name in a breaking news story or special report can be jolting to say the least. But there may be times this will be the reality of an unfolding crisis, and what better way to grab the attention of your audience! Text based injects certainly have their place, but including one or more video news injects can transform a two-dimensional exercise by adding this dynamic and engaging component.
3. Presentation of Detail
To break up the monotony of the text based injects, a breaking news story can be a great way to present information regarding an unfolding situation. Instead of a paragraph explaining an impending storm, why not have a breaking news story showing the track of the storm, and explain how the community around you might be preparing? Special reports can also be utilized to present background information on a situation or event, update information from a previous broadcast, or to summarize the events as the crisis winds down. Be sure to include what social media might be buzzing about, the effect on stock share price, or perhaps an editorial focusing on your organization and how it is being perceived during the event.
The creative team at PreparedEx have produced over 150 simulated news videos for clients in various languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Japanese.
For more information on how PreparedEx can help you bring your scenarios to life with simulated news videos, please click HERE.
Related: Crisis Management Tabletop Exercises – A Guide to Success