The Holding Statement

We talked at the start of this lesson about the need for public relations staff in various professions to have a playbook or certain kinds of material ready to use that relates specifically to their line of work, from the cruise industry to airlines to higher education.

Sometimes, if a very specific event, opportunity or challenge is likely, the communications staff is tasked in advance with developing a holding statement. Other times it is developed on the spot because of a specific problem that had just occurred or is still occurring. If the communications team for our gubernatorial candidate is aware that Barry Simpson once had an extramarital affair that has never been made public, they may want to have a holding statement ready in the event that one day on the campaign trail the issue is revealed. If they know he was arrested for driving while intoxicated as a 17-year-old, and his record was subsequently wiped clean, they should have a statement ready. The arresting officer in that incident two decades earlier may have a long memory and may favor one of the candidates your candidate is trying to beat.

A holding statement can be pulled out of the PR playbook on a moment’s notice as a negative story spreads like wildfire on social media and as journalists start calling asking for comment. By preparing it in advance, it can be vetted for accuracy. It can be presented calmly and with humility.

Some organizations want to go too far by creating  holding statements for every possible scenario that go into great detail, and these  may not sound quite right in the glare of a sudden real-world scenario that may have different dynamics than those hypothetical situations that were planned for in advance.