Whether it’s planning for the range of possible crisis scenarios or reacting immediately to the unexpected, we have helped hundreds of companies and other organizations successfully manage crises. Our services include 24/7 emergency response, on-call staffing, accident site communications and coordination with first responders, planning, simulations, program reviews and evaluations.

If it’s urgent, call (612) 839-5172 or e-mail jon@jaustingroup.com now.

Not every situation is a crisis or entirely unwelcome event; in fact, most corporate activities – even positive ones – carry within them the possibility of legal actions, community response, employee and customer reactions and more. These factors must be successfully managed in order to ensure a positive outcome for the organization. We help companies and others manage these situations through planning, development of themes and content, determination communications channels as well as monitoring, synthesis and analysis of opponents’ and third parties’ positions and activities.

Our media training team includes former reporters and corporate spokespeople who have collectively done tens of thousands of interviews and trained hundreds of executives and leaders to be effective advocates for their organizations. Our media training are built on the notion that the hard work in any interview is done long before the light goes hot and the cameras roll through the identification of key messages, the anticipation of likely questions and practice answering those questions under realistic interview conditions.

Working with the media can be an important part of an organization’s overall marketing and communications posture, but not every organization has the resources – or the day-to-day need – to keep experienced media relations professionals on staff. We take on the role of working with the media to coordinate inquiries and responses, to facilitate interviews and provide materials and to speak for an organization through the mediating effect of reporting to key audiences.

Brand reputations can be built over decades or even centuries, but lost in an instant through a misstep or mishandled crisis or issue. We provide strategic-level counsel in the area of brand management to minimize the impact of adverse situations on the reputation of an organization and to position the organization for a quick return to normal operations. We do this by applying our decades of experience to each engagement, by filling the role of trusted, independent advisor and by help to draft, refine and deliver appropriate and impactful messaging.

Public relations – working with the media in its many forms to promote a company, its goods or services – is a vital part of many marketing campaigns. Even so, many organizations lack the internal resources to support marketing initiatives or are rightly concerned that a large public relations agency may blow open even a generous budget. In both scenarios, we offer a cost-effective alternative by using our decades of experience and creativity to design and execute public relations campaigns that catch the attention of the media, that complement and reinforce an organization’s overall marketing efforts without ruining your budget.

Speechwriting requires the ability to convey points of ideas and advocacy in the “voice” of another and to do so in a way that captures and holds the attention of an audience. We have provided speechwriting services for more than 40 years for politicians, corporate executives, academics, authors and non-profit leaders for campaigns, commencements, public policy forums, Congressional testimony, memorials, sales meetings and more.

Communicating to investors, potential partners and vendors on financial matters requires both an understanding of the numbers and the ability to translate the columns and rows of a balance sheet, quarterly earnings announcement or an annual report into narratives that “tell the story” of an organization, its activities and the constituencies it serves. Financial communications also have to be calibrated to abide by applicable regulatory issues and to meet industry standards for disclosure and reporting. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped organizations conceive of and produce annual reports, helped coordinate quarterly and annual earnings across a range of industries, managed investor communications and provide interpretation and guidance to reporters analyzing corporate and non-profit filings in the United States, Canada, Japan and Europe.

Employees are often the most important constituency in an organization. They are also often overlooked as an audience who needs deliberate and calibrated communications and under-utilized in terms of being equipped and empowered to be an advocate for an organization. This is particularly the case in stressful situations, but the reality is that effective internal communications is important day-in and day-out. We have helped dozens of organizations enhance and amplify their internal communications through content creation, producing meetings, training sessions and workshops, speechwriting, development and management of intranets and applications and more.

The tools for keeping up with the media have never been more varied, but the ability to effectively use those tools to pull together a comprehensive picture of how the media is covering an organization or issue requires an in-depth knowledge of how publications make their content accessible, publication schedules and more. We have cost-effective solution in this area that range from low-cost, automated services to active, 24/7 monitoring in real-time conducted by a team of experienced professionals.

Social media can be an important channel for connecting directly with customers, prospects and other key constituencies. Choosing the right platforms for your organization, designing and executing campaigns and managing the conversations that take place across the social media landscape requires experience and a thorough understanding of the culture and norms on each channel. We’ve performed these functions for companies and non-profits, government agencies and individuals and in a variety of circumstances including product launches, recalls, accidents and more.

And, whether you’re being proactive on social media or not, monitoring those channels is a valuable source of information about what competitors and opponents are doing, how the media is interpreting events and other constituencies are reacting. We have cost-effective solution that range from low-cost, automated services to active, 24/7 monitoring in real-time conducted by a team of experienced professionals.

Whether it’s a three-day corporate meeting, a weeklong trade show, a brainstorming session, a fundraising or a product launch, we’ve designed, planned, staffed and produced it. We do videos, work with talent, arrange logistics and myriad other details that make events successful, memorable and impactful.