Survey reveals insights into Hungarian crisis communication strategies

The Crisis Communication Department of the Hungarian Public Relations Association (HuPRA) has collected and analysed 397 crises in a publication titled Crisis Map 2023. The publication, compiled by 13 senior public relations and crisis communication experts, classifies and analyses the crises that received high publicity in the Hungarian national media by sector, industry, cause, severity, and duration.

MPRSZ is the leading advocacy, professional development, and services organization of the Hungarian PR industry. Established in 1990, it has nearly 100 members including freelancers, agency staff, corporate communications teams, university professors and social scientists. Now the MPRSZ created the Crisis Map 2023.

Crisis communication map

The industries with the highest number of crises were public life (158), transport (54) and healthcare (44). Accidents and malfunctions (90) were the most common causes, followed by crime/cybercrime (61) and stakeholder objections (56). Quickly resolved cases accounted for 66% of the total, while a third of domestic cases (136 crises) were protracted.

Source: HUPRA/MPRSZ

The 2023 Crisis Map is the fifth study of its kind produced by the Department. The first report was published for the year 2016, after which some years were omitted due to COVID. In the new publication, the main communication trends of COVID years are analysed in detail in a separate chapter. The study concludes with an analysis of the increasing role of social media in crisis communication.

The research shows that the period between 2016 and 2019 had a much lower proportion of crises that were truly severe, destructive or even fatal in the long run. In 2023, critical and catastrophic cases accounted for 39% of the total. There has also been an increase in the number of protracted crises, meaning that a single negative impact has kept companies communicating for longer.

The most significant crisis communication cases in each industry or those with particularly important lessons for a given industry were also analysed. Special attention was paid to the passenger-unfriendly information practices of an airline and the national railway company, the news embargo on battery factories, the miscommunication of two actors’ workplace accidents in the cultural sector, which were the subject of widespread and lengthy news coverage, and a series of cyber attacks on some 50 online media portals, which restricted freedom of expression. On the positive side, the editors highlighted the highly professional communication of financial and technology industry players, such as the successful 3G phase-out campaign and the communication of strong regulatory action against the dominant position of booking.com.

The editors of the 2023 Crisis Map are all experienced corporate communications and public relations professionals from agencies and companies in HuPRA’s Crisis Communication Department, including András Bánki, Senior Consultant, Noguchi; Kornél Bőhm, Communication Consultant, Partner of Impact Works; Attila Csonka, Senior Marketing Manager, Gránit Fund Management; Dóra Horváth, Head of PR Division, Salt Communications; Mónika Horváth, Senior PR Expert, Magyar Posta Zrt.; Ildikó Panulin, Head of Corporate Communications Department, Szerencsejáték Zrt.; Dr. Dániel Gergő Pintér, Head of Corporate Communications, PR and CSR, BioTechUSA-Group; Nóra Somogyi, Head of Public Relations, Positive Adamsky; András Szántó, Account Manager, Noguchi; Katalin Szekszárdi, Communication and PR Expert; Réka Szondy, Communication Consultant, WELL PR; Gabriella Tüske, Senior Account Director, WELL PR; Dóra Vas, Crisis and Disaster Communication Consultant, MatrixPR.

Observer, the professional partner of this publication, has made its extensive database available to the editorial team. The 2023 Crisis Map can be downloaded in Hungarian from HuPRA’s website.