Chris Talago, VP PR and communications JAPAC and EMEA at Oracle, gives an in-house perspective on the Covid-19 lockdown

Chris Talago, VP PR and communications JAPAC and EMEA at Oracle gives us an in-house communicator’s perspective on the Covid-19 lockdown.

Here’s a flavour of what Chris and I discuss:

• How have the comms team at Oracle coped with the Covid-19 crisis so far? What message is the comms team trying to get across at the moment?  
• Why Covid-19 requires a fundamental rethink of communications, not merely a pause on the status quo.  
• Whether the technology sector is insulated more than most to the financial meltdown we’re seeing in the economy.  
• Has the way Oracle is working with its agency partners changed since the Covid-19 lockdown kicked off? Has it reduced budgets or just rescoped work?  
• Why the fast-paced changed we’ve seen over the last five years in communications just got a lot quicker.     
• What’s it like as an in-house communicator during the Covid-19 lockdown?     
• How should in-house communicators manage their companies’ reputations through the Covid-19 crisis?     
• Some agencies, particularly those working in the tech sector, are faring better, but in travel and hospitality I’ve heard of agencies being 70% down, many consumer agencies are down between 30% and 50%. Chris and I discuss how this is the beginning of a long, hard road.