Comms hits and hiccups #2

It’s been a busy week for current affairs with so-called silly season officially over. Lots of things are back in Britain – Prince Harry and the Bayeaux Tapestry included – and there have been some winners and losers in the world of comms. Here’s my take on the hits and hiccups in the week that saw the Spice Girls in the headlines and Stacey Solomon bidding farewell to Pickle Cottage.

Comms hits of the moment

Specsavers strikes again, this time with an OOH stunt near the British Museum timed to coincide with the historic return of the Bayeux Tapestry. Focusing on the infamous arrow-in-the-eye moment, the ad asks, “Something in your eye?”. Of course, Specsavers can help treat it in store. I’d argue that A&E would be a better first port of call should one end up like Harold but I’ll forgive that for the wonderful adaptation of the iconic strapline, “Should’ve goneth to Specsavers.” Combining cultural relevancy with strategic media buying, clever creative and brilliant brand guardrails, this was a moment of pure genius. An advert-cum-PR stunt, it shows the power of channel-neutral thinking, effective interagency planning, and true personality-led brand positioning. Something we can all learn from.

Next up, we have Stacey Solomon. To the shock of her 6.1 million Instagram followers, she packed up her chickens, dogs, children, ponies and ducks, and left Pickle Cottage for pastures new. Bigger pastures, with room for even more animals and vegetables. To me, the real reason for the move is that she has pots of money so can afford something grander, and who can blame her?

For reasons I don’t entirely understand, nor will go into, she fell out of favour with some of the red tops earlier this year. Her sister, Jemma, didn’t escape unscathed either. I have categorised the ‘shock move’ as a hit purely because the response has been overwhelmingly warm, with money barely getting a mention. In my view, Stacey, said to have an impressive business mind, handled the unwanted media attention earlier this year very well – going quiet for long enough for her army of fans to both miss her and worry about her, and welcome her back with open arms. Her sister also shared a powerful, full-of-raw-emotion video, asking why women (well, some women) feel impelled to take others down. It was genuinely moving. Stacey came out fighting for her sister too.

When brands have their moments of media scrutiny, the temptation is always to rush out a corporate statement. That’s not necessarily wrong, but in a world where you can address your audience directly, authenticity and honesty on owned channels potentially has a big role to play and I’d urge businesses to take a leaf out of the Solomon book and think beyond media statements, when (and if) appropriate.

The RNLI is one such example. They too have had some negative headlines of late, for helping to ensure migrants don’t die crossing the Channel, which (reading between the lines) has perhaps impacted donations – and has definitely left volunteers subjects of abuse. There wasn’t a video but there was a statement that struck a chord thanks to its wonderful simplicity. Not heavily designed, not costly, instead platform-native in its appearance, it led with facts in a debate driven by emotion: the RNLI launched 9,058 times in 2025. Only 109 of those launches were to those in distress in the Channel, 1.2% of its total rescue work.

I’ve seen this shared countless times on social now and, while it’s a pity such a statement was ever needed, I think it’s a shining example of effective crisis management in a social-first era.

Comms hiccups of the moment

Whether you are Team Windsor, Team Sussex or Team Republic, I think most of us are Team Over It now. There was a public letter from the King, to someone important, regarding the Sussexes, about which Harry and Meghan didn’t have time to respond. Seriously, the first rule of comms is to speak to stakeholders in priority order and try to go public with the most united front possible. United might never have been achievable, given Spare, Oprah, Netflix, varying recollections etc, but the optics might have been better for King Charles had the subjects of his missive had longer than an hour and seven minutes to respond.

Tom Jones is also miffed. Not about Harry and Meghan but on his removal from The Voice, aged 86 and after many years on the show. The issue here seems to be that he was told his departure was due to insurance issues, others have been told it was because of a show ‘refresh.’ Two things here. One, internal comms matter as much as external comms (often more so) when it comes to sensitive matters, so prioritise it. Two, agree a message and stick to it. The net result of doing neither is that Tom, a national treasure, has taken to social to tell his 3.7 million Facebook followers that, “there is never a good time to fire an 86-year-old who is still pretty good at his job.” Given that many of these people probably watched The Voice, this doesn’t feel like a win for ITV.

On the subject of not winning, I hate to say it, but I think the Spice Girls missed the mark this week. A fabulously tantalising post went out on social, teasing a major announcement on 10 September at 2pm BST. The internet was convinced a world tour was incoming. No such luck – they are, in fact, releasing a ‘singles collection’. Cue huge disappointment from fans, with comments such as “*Puts credit card back in purse*” and, my favourite, “This could have been an email.” Exactly. Rather than build excitement over some vinyls, it has caused resentment and likely not helped sales. The learning here? Stress test your message and its delivery strategy. I am very surprised no one saw this coming (especially in the context of some truly brilliant Oasis teasers across Europe at the moment).

Finally, I can’t not mention the air traffic control glitch that saw 2,000 flights cancelled. The response wasn’t all bad. NATS acknowledged the problem quickly, and provided public updates throughout the day. Their overarching message was clear – passenger safety was not compromised. They consistently apologised and directed passengers to airlines for flight-specific information. The main issue was stakeholder management. The media love a bit of Ryanair’s CEO, O’Leary, and he didn’t hold back, accusing the NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe, of “lying to save his own skin.”

NATS had seemingly told airlines that the chaos was down to a rogue flight plan, which Rolfe subsequently denied, saying it was “something different to previous incidents”. O’Leary repeatedly called for Rolfe to resign, and he wasn’t alone. Tactically strong, strategically weak, NATS found itself reacting to events rather than shaping the narrative, and lost control of both the skies and the story.

The author: Jane Ainsworth is managing director of WPR. She has over 25 years’ experience developing and delivering communications strategies for consumer brands including Dunelm, Tesco, Mothercare, Greene King, John Lewis, Bullring, Beaverbrooks and Westfield.