New Zealand’s toughest public relations challenges in 2022 were Government changes to covid-related restrictions, and
staffing and supply issues faced by KFC.
Wellington PR company BlacklandPR today issued its annual list of the toughest public relations challenges for 2022,
showing that the most difficult communications jobs sat with Government agencies and a fast-food restaurant.
The company rated the Covid protest at Parliament as the toughest issue because the event combined the highest possible
public profile with the strongest range of emotional reactions, social impact and complexity of concerns.
“The parliament protest was the most discussed issue of the year. It had everything an issue needs to mean something to
every New Zealander.
“The Government had its work cut out to deal with the protest itself, and then explain to the country why and how they
made their decisions.” BlacklandPR Director Nick Gowland said.
“When emotions run high, the communication challenge is incredibly complex – even unresolvable. It is impossible to deal
with such an event and keep everyone happy. At the same time, there are plenty of ways of making the impact of the event
even worse.”
New Zealand’s move to ‘Red’ Covid setting in January ranked as the second toughest comms challenge, followed closely by
the understaffing of New Zealand’s health system, and the wider workforce shortage.
19 of the top 20 challenges this year were fronted by Government. KFC was the only private business to feature. The
staffing, customer service and chicken shortage issues that plagued the popular restaurant throughout 2022 were rated as
the 14th toughest issue to deal with.
“Various international studies have shown that around 90 percent of customers will not complain about an issue. So such
a high level of publicly expressed frustration and confusion shows the problems were significant to Kiwis,” said
Gowland.
“The variety of issues faced by KFC over a short period of time, coupled with poor responses to consumers and media,
created an issue that would be a challenge for even the best PR exponents.”
Honourable mentions that didn’t make the top 30 included the burglary of firearm owner details from the disused Auckland
Police Station, New Zealand Rugby’s scheduling clash of the Black Ferns and the All Blacks, and Air New Zealand’s
not-so-direct New York flights.
Gowland said most of the PR challenges faced by independent organisations were ‘own-goals’.
“Most often, companies were authors of their own misfortune. They made terrible errors of judgement or made things much
worse by the way they responded. There was something about this year that meant companies weren’t watching out for their
reputation.
“For example, NZR’s scheduling clash between All Blacks and Black Ferns was just dumb. It could have – and should have –
been caught and remedied before the fact,” said Gowland.
“A large part of PR is prevention. Many organisations simply don’t have the time or resource, so PR’s role is to think
about the worst possible outcome and change things before they happen, or get too bad.”