Example of a map of a news story. A video posted at 23:40 is picked up by local pages and by a news outlet. Alongside it are the assessment from the review and the company’s statement, awaiting approval from management and the lawyer.

Crisis communication and reputation

Communication and intelligence: protecting a company’s reputation starts before the crisis

A single video, article or wave of reviews can change a company’s reputation overnight. We help organisations spot early what is being said about them, prepare in advance what they will say and handle crisis communication with one voice, together with their lawyers. We do it through intelligence, which here means finding out from public sources what is being said and who is saying it.

Let’s talk about your situation The first hours of a crisis

Open, lawful sources: the press, social media and public channels, never investigations into individuals
One voice: every message agreed with management and lawyers before it goes out
The plan before the crisis: roles, drafts and contacts ready to hand

Example · the news story and sources shown are not real

01 · copy the link to this sectionThe situation

The damage is done in the hours when nobody notices

The first mistake is almost never a wrong reply. It is not knowing that the story is already doing the rounds.

A video about the company starts circulating overnight. By the morning, a few local pages have already picked it up. The first meeting is at ten, and the first public response comes in the afternoon. In the meantime, others have told the story instead of the company.

A long silence is read as an admission. A hasty reply is read as an excuse. And a reputational crisis is often the visible part of something else, such as a cyber attack, a dispute or a dissenting shareholder. That is why you first work out what is happening and who is saying it, and only then decide how to respond.

Example of a crisis timeline. Without a plan, more than fifteen hours pass between a video being posted and the first response. With a plan ready, the signal arrives at once, the facts are checked and the statement is approved before it goes out.

02 · copy the link to this sectionServices

What we do

Four lines of work, which you can use on their own or together. Every one of them starts with a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

INTOpen sources · Reputation review Open-source review At intervals agreed with you, we gather what the press, social media, forums and review sites have published about the company, its brands and its sector. We hand it over with an assessment of how widely it is circulating, who is saying it and whether any action is needed. This is OSINT (open-source intelligence), meaning information gathered from public sources.

INTMedia relations Strategic communication and media relations We work on the company’s key messages and press releases, and we prepare its leadership for interviews and public appearances. The aim is simple. On every occasion the company should say the same thing, in words it can still stand behind six months later.

INTCrisis management Handling a crisis A small team, activated within timeframes agreed in writing, checks the facts and prepares the company’s positions. It decides in what order to inform employees, customers, the authorities and the press, and it keeps track of the reactions. Before any of this is needed, we prepare the crisis manual, with roles and drafts for the most likely scenarios, and run an exercise with management.

INTOnline reputation · With your lawyers Online reputation and false content When the problem is coordinated reviews, profiles impersonating the company or defamatory content, we preserve the evidence in an orderly way and report it to the platforms through the tools provided by the EU Digital Services Act. Where legal action is needed, we work with the company’s lawyers. For the most exposed executives, and with their consent, we check which personal details are public for no good reason and how to reduce them. If an outdated news story still comes up when someone searches a person’s name, for example about a case that has been closed, there is a dedicated page on the right to be forgotten.

Example of a reputation review. Public content about the company is grouped by source, each item with its relevance and status, together with a summary prepared by the AI assistant and checked by a person. — Example · the content and sources shown are not real

03 · copy the link to this sectionArtificial intelligence

AI reads a great deal. A person decides.

In the open-source review, artificial intelligence helps where the work is repetitive. It groups similar content, summarises it, flags items whose tone is shifting and translates what appears in other languages. The assessment, and every word the company will say in public, stay with a person.

There is also a less visible and very practical use, which is the company’s memory. That means approved press releases, answers already given to the press and positions taken over the years, each with its date. With a Company Brain, the company’s own searchable memory, anyone who has to respond quickly can find what the company has already said by asking a question, with the source alongside. That way the company does not contradict itself.

AI-assisted reading of open sources, always checked by a person
An archive of public positions, each with its source and date
Draft replies built only on positions already approved
No text published without sign-off from whoever is accountable for it

Company Brain Artificial intelligence for businesses

Example of a Company Brain for communication. Asked what the company has already said on a topic, the assistant answers by citing a press release, a reply to the press and an approved internal note, with their dates. The draft still has to be approved.

04 · copy the link to this sectionHow we work

From a first snapshot to a plan in place

Each step ends with something the company keeps.

Confidential conversation

We start from what is happening, or from what you want to prevent. Before going into detail, we sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Reputation snapshot

We map what is being said about the company today, where and by whom. We also identify the weak points that could become a story.

Crisis plan

The plan sets out who decides, who speaks and who must be told, in what order. Drafts for the most likely scenarios are approved in advance. Then we run an exercise with management.

Review and update

You receive reports at agreed intervals. The plan is updated whenever people, products or markets change.

Engagement formats

Format	What the company receives	When it is needed
Reputation analysis	A snapshot of what is circulating, weak points, priorities and a summary for management	Before an announcement, a deal or a move into a new market
Periodic review	Reports at agreed intervals on what is being said about the company, an updated crisis plan and terms written into the contract	Companies and organisations highly exposed to public scrutiny
Crisis response	A small team with activation times agreed in writing, positions and a communication schedule	When a story is already unfolding

What the company keeps: The crisis manual, the archive of approved positions and the review reports.
How do we get to a proposal?: We do not publish prices. The first conversation carries no commitment. If there is work to be done, you receive a written proposal for the initial assessment, usually one or two days of work with the people involved. After the assessment comes the proposal for the project, with phases, timing and costs.

05 · copy the link to this sectionReference

The first hours of a reputational crisis

Five rules that apply to every organisation, even before you call anyone.

Updated 16 September 2026

Check before you speak. Establish what really happened, who is saying it, where, and how far it has spread.
One voice. One person speaks for the company. Nobody else replies from their own accounts.
A first statement, even a short one. Say what is known, what is being checked and when an update will follow.
Preserve, don’t delete. Take screenshots showing the date and web address, and keep copies of the content. Do not hit back at the authors.
Look behind the story. If the crisis stems from a cyber attack, a dispute or a conflict between shareholders, the response changes.

Who must be informed, and under which rules

A reputational crisis often brings specific legal duties with it. These are the main ones in Italy and the European Union.

If the crisis involves…	What the law requires	Reference
a personal data breach	The supervisory authority must be notified without undue delay and, where feasible, within 72 hours. The people affected must be told when the risk to them is high.	GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Articles 33 and 34
a serious cyber attack on a company subject to NIS2	An early warning must go to CSIRT Italia, the national incident response team, within 24 hours of the company becoming aware of the incident. The notification follows within 72 hours.	Legislative Decree 138/2024 (Italy’s NIS2 law), Article 25 · NIS2 explained
a listed company	Inside information concerning the company must be disclosed to the public as soon as possible, except in the cases where a delay is permitted.	Regulation (EU) 596/2014 (Market Abuse Regulation, MAR), Article 17
illegal content on a platform	Every service that hosts content must provide a mechanism through which anyone can report it.	Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act), Article 16
fake reviews	Posting them, or having them posted, to promote products is a commercial practice that is misleading in all circumstances.	Codice del consumo, the Italian Consumer Code (Legislative Decree 206/2005), Article 23, letter bb-quater, added by Legislative Decree 26/2023
checks on individuals	Carrying out investigations or gathering information on behalf of private parties requires a licence from the Prefect, the Italian government’s representative in each province.	Royal Decree 773/1931 (TULPS, Italy’s Consolidated Law on Public Security), Article 134

This box is for information only and is not legal advice. For businesses in San Marino the framework is different and must be assessed case by case. For personal data in San Marino, Law No. 171 of 21 December 2018 applies.

Sources (consulted on 16 September 2026)

06 · copy the link to this sectionPrinciples

What we don’t do

Our method is simple. We use public, lawful sources, we sign a non-disclosure agreement and we keep the team small.

We do not write, buy or commission reviews. In Italy this is a prohibited commercial practice.
We do not create fake profiles or use other people’s identities, not even to ‘listen in’.
We do not investigate individuals or keep anyone under surveillance. In Italy, investigations on behalf of private parties are reserved for those who hold the licence required by the TULPS.
We do not promise to make a true story disappear. A story that is true and still current stays. You can respond to it, clarify it and give it context. A story overtaken by events, for example about a case that was dismissed or ended in an acquittal, is different. You can ask for it to be updated and to stop appearing when someone searches the person’s name (how the right to be forgotten works). In any case, no one can guarantee the outcome.
We do not attack competitors or people who criticise you.
We do not talk about the cases entrusted to us. They stay with the organisation. An anonymised case is published only with its written consent.

In a crisis, the first question is not what to say. It is what we really know.

07 · copy the link to this sectionFrequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions about crisis communication

What is crisis communication, in practice?

It is the set of decisions about what to say, to whom, when and through whose voice while a story about the company is unfolding. In practice, that means checking the facts, choosing who speaks, preparing a first statement, informing employees, customers, the authorities and the press in the right order, and following the reactions. It works best when roles and drafts have been prepared beforehand, in a crisis manual tested with management.

How quickly can you step in?

With a crisis plan already agreed, the activation times are written into the contract and the team already knows the company. Without an agreement in place, it depends on our availability at the time and on how long it takes to understand the situation. That is why it makes sense to prepare the plan when there is no crisis.

Can you get an article or a review removed?

If the story is true and still current, no. You can respond, clarify, or ask for a correction if it contains errors. A story overtaken by events, for example about a case that was dismissed or ended in an acquittal, usually stays in the newspaper’s archive. But you can ask for it to be updated with the outcome and to stop appearing when someone searches the person’s name. Unlawful content, for example content that is defamatory, false or in breach of data protection rules, can be reported to the platform using the tools provided by the Digital Services Act. With your lawyers, you can also request its removal or its delisting, meaning the link no longer appears when someone searches the name. The outcome does not depend on us and no one can guarantee it.

Is open-source analysis (OSINT) legal?

Reading what has been published about a company, its brands and its sector is lawful, provided data protection rules are respected. Investigating individuals is a different matter. In Italy, carrying out investigations or gathering information on behalf of private parties requires the Prefect’s licence under Article 134 of the TULPS. Our work concerns the client organisation and what is public. Activities that require a licence are not part of our engagements.

Who sees the information we give you?

A small team sees it. Its members are named to the company, and they start only after a non-disclosure agreement has been signed. Who receives the reports, which channels are used to send them and how long they are kept are agreed in writing at the start. At the end of the engagement the materials are returned or deleted, as agreed.

How do you use AI in this work?

We use it to read and summarise large amounts of public content, and to find positions the company has already approved, with source and date. Every assessment and every text meant for the public goes through a person and through whoever is accountable for it in the company. Confidential information is handled only with tools and providers agreed in writing.

Outdated news stories and the right to be forgotten

08 · copy the link to this sectionObservatory

From the Observatory: reputation and intelligence

Guides and analysis by the Strategic editorial team on crises, reputation and open sources.

INTReputation and intelligence

A news story about your company is wrong: how to request a correction

When a newspaper publishes something inaccurate about your company, the main tool is a correction. When Italian law requires one, how to write a request that gets published and how to work with newsrooms.

30 September 2026

INTReputation and intelligence

Online reputation crisis: what to do in the first four hours

A video, a review or an article about your company is spreading. The sequence to follow in the first hours, who to involve, which legal obligations may apply and the mistakes that turn a passing incident into a full-blown story.

22 July 2026

All articles on reputation and intelligence

The essential parts of this page print as a short summary of a few pages, without images or invitations to get in touch.

09 · copy the link to this sectionContact

Is something already circulating, or do you want to prepare in advance?

A few lines are enough. Tell us what is happening or what worries you, who speaks for the company today and any deadlines. We reply by email, usually within two working days.

If the story is already circulating, choose ‘It’s urgent’ in the second step and your request will arrive flagged. The form is not an emergency channel.

Or write to us:WhatsApp staff@strategic.sm

On WhatsApp, messages are answered by Strategic’s AI assistant. Please do not use it for confidential information.