Deaths, Diversions and Medal Mix-ups
It’s been one of those years when Issues Management has come into its own across our clients, and whilst pretty intense at the times it’s been a good reminder of some simple rules to ensure comm’s are as smooth as possible when the s**t hits the fan.
Working on mass participation running events unfortunately comes with a fair few runner incidents - and sadly fatalities, London Landmarks Half experienced an unforeseen re-routing as the race started, and in the case of this year’s Great North Run, 2025 saw THE medal mix-up that went global.
Our key take-aways
Responsiveness is key
The event re-routing at London Landmarks was expertly handled operationally by Great Run Company, but together with Tommy’s CEO GTA needed to swiftly communicate not only with LLHM and Tommy’s staff across the route, but also the thousands of runners queuing up on Whitehall about to run. We needed to get the messages out quickly and being together in the same room speeded up the approval process of the communication content whilst our resilience plan detailed who needed know what and by which channel.
Be authentic and human in your responses
Responsiveness was also key when it came to the handling of the Great North Run medal issue, however owning the error and holding our hands up won the day.
Quickly sitting with the Exec Team, we reviewed all possible responses and agreed it needed to feel heartfelt and genuine. There is a natural inclination to go into corporate defence mode and the language to become clinical in an attempt to not communicate anything that could be misconstrued. There is a time, a place and an incident for this approach however when people are involved being human rather than business like endears people to your situation.
It was simply human error that meant the finishers medal featured the wrong river, but not just an error by one person - but everyone who approved the artwork. Sir Brendan Foster’s light hearted, funny response went down well with the media and in turn with runners. He turned the 2025 medals into collector’s items and the Great North Run reputation remained intact.
Processes and people need agreeing before the day
It’s not rocket science but one to be reminded of when everyone is heads down in planning.
What might go wrong?
What’s plan is in place to activate a response quickly?
And who are the people who need to be in the room to agree that plan?
Resilience plans ensure everyone is clear of the process and their role and responsibility within this should the crisis comms team need to be convened and the incident management plan put into action. When reputations and sometimes lives are at stake there is no room for misunderstandings.
If you would like to chat about how GTA can help you with your crisis and issues management planning and responses, please get in touch.