The COVID-19 communications challenges faced by Linhart PR clients during the pandemic have been almost as different as the client organizations themselves. The need to communicate with precision, sensitivity and speed are the common threads connecting the work of our team on diverse coronavirus projects.
National multi-unit restaurant chain: Our restaurant experts were tasked with ensuring customers understand ordering options, including all to-go options, through key messages and media outreach. As restaurants open in new markets even in the midst of the pandemic, some customers not only are new to the ordering process, but are new to the brand altogether, making it even more important — and challenging — to help customers understand how and what to order.
Regional for-profit junior college: Students, faculty and staff at this education institution’s 38 campuses in California and seven other western states needed to know about an almost-immediate shift from on-campus learning to 100 percent online instruction, with variations in different states and even at the county level. Just weeks later, these campus communities needed to learn about plans for a phased return to campus for essential in-person instruction, along with the steps being taken to ensure health and safety in order to maintain trust. Linhart PR's crisis-response team helped drive these critical communications.
Global manufacturing company: While office employees for this essential-industry leader were instructed to work from home at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees at 43 plant locations in North America, Europe and China were expected to report to work to continue producing products for the automotive, airline and construction industries. Helping plant employees understand why they needed to be on the job and steps the company took to prioritize health and safety in its plants were key focal points of the communications plan our team developed and implemented.
National multi-unit restaurant chain: Our team worked to build brand loyalty and reputation by communicating powerful efforts to support frontline healthcare workers in communities from coast to coast, including fundraisers and promotions.
CEO messaging: As the pandemic’s severe economic impacts rippled through B2B value chains, the CEO of a respected global manufacturing company and her leadership team made tough decisions to keep the business financially strong. With help from a longtime strategic communications partner, Linhart PR, the CEO and her team conveyed those decisions and the rationale for them to a worldwide workforce through multiple media, balancing confidence in the company's future with realism about the present.
Leading packaging manufacturer: As consumers stocked their pantries in the early weeks of the pandemic, an unprecedented surge in demand for packaged foods and cleaning products quickly maxed-out production lines across the eight-plant North American network of a CPG packaging manufacturer supplying top national brands. Our enterprise communications team developed CEO messaging for plant leaders, workers and the HQ team to convey the key priorities: Balancing safety, quality and productivity in stressed packaging plants, to meet demand, fulfill customer orders and keep all employees healthy and safe.
