FleishmanHillard extends global crisis practice with focus on social-media speed

The crisis practice is led by a trio of the agency’s senior crisis experts, drawing on the experiences of FleishmanHillard’s International Advisory Board (IAB) and partnerships.

The practice in Asia-Pacific will be led by Brian West, with a team of 20 counsellors. West was appointed as managing director and partner, reputation management, Asia Pacific in February 2012. Prior to that he ran Burson-Marsteller Australia for more than four years.

Tim Beecher leads the practice in the Americas, while Harald Simons heads the practice in EMEA.  

“Companies in Asia-Pacific don’t have social media in the heart of their crisis plan,” West told Campaign Asia-Pacific. “They usually have slow response to crisis, use traditional methods, and rely on in-house resources.”

Social media must be a primary crisis response tool because a company response must be delivered at the same speed as the audience response, he said.