Kemi Akindele, head of corporate and services at We Communications: “One of 2025’s most unexpected crisis comms case studies came from Jet2's upbeat summer jingle, 'nothing beats a Jet2 holiday', which was intended to inspire wanderlust. Instead, TikTok users reworked it into the soundtrack of travel chaos. The jingle went viral as creators paired it with clips of airport breakdowns, cancellations, lost luggage and general holiday misery and #jet2holiday surged into tens of millions of views.

“At first glance, this looked like a brand disaster. The core Jet2 promise — easy, stress-free holidays — had become a punchline. Yet Jet2 avoided a defensive or traditional press statement. Instead, it executed an agile, platform-native strategy focused on TikTok.

“Within days, Jet2 embraced the joke, interacting with creators and posting self-aware, tongue-in-cheek videos that blended humour with subtle brand reassurance. In doing so, it tapped into something fundamentally human: people don’t just want polished messages during a wobble, they want brands that can read the room. Ridicule softened, engagement climbed and Jet2 was reframed as in on the joke rather than the butt of it.

“The lesson? In a fast-moving social landscape, you can’t always control the narrative, but you can meet people where they are. Jet2’s response shows how a human, lightly humorous touch can turn mockery into momentum."

Ian Savage, head of crisis at Porter Novelli: “M&S’ response to its Easter 2025 cyberattack will be remembered as a benchmark for crisis communications — for both its strengths and shortcomings.

“When ransomware halted online trading and exposed customer data, M&S acted fast. CEO Stuart Machin fronted clear, jargon-free updates across web, email and socials, signalling leadership and transparency. This rapid, multi-channel response reassured customers and bought time to stabilise operations  a textbook example of how speed and empathy can protect trust when systems fail.

“However, weeks later, criticism mounted over delayed disclosure of the full extent of the data breach and increasingly sparse updates. What began as a masterclass risked becoming a cautionary tale — in a prolonged crisis with tangible impact on consumers, silence can quickly erode trust and goodwill. While M&S responded positively at the outset, crisis comms can often be a marathon not a sprint.

“The lesson? Cyber incidents are no longer if but when. Brands must plan for sustained disruption, not just the first 48 hours. Plan for continuous, substantive communication – even when answers are incomplete — and align operational readiness with comms strategy. M&S showed how strong leadership and early transparency can win headlines, but also how gaps in consistency can undermine hard-earned trust.”

Ryan McSharry, head of professional services, crisis and litigation at Infinite: "It’s rare for conveyancing to make the front page of the Financial Times. But that’s exactly what happened in the Angela Rayner case – a seemingly routine property transaction turned into a stamp duty storm of national controversy.

"Suddenly, it wasn’t just a politician under scrutiny. Advisers who assumed their work would remain behind the scenes found themselves part of the story. The Rayner saga wasn’t just politics as usual; it was a reputational wake-up call for anyone working with high-profile clients.

"One misstep, one gap in paperwork, and technical experts can become headlines, scapegoats, and targets of intense public scrutiny. Legal compliance and professional privilege only provide limited shelter. The case is a 2025 reminder that every decision, email, and note can be dissected under the media spotlight and the need for professional PR advice is never far away."

Emma Streets, associate director/head of North at Tigerbond: "A slow burn issue that we're seeing continue and evolve is that of influencers vs brands and copyright. Specifically this year, much was said about the fallout from Sweaty Betty adopting fitness influencer Georgina Cox's slogan 'Wear the Damn Shorts' in a campaign that she claims they did not contact her about or credit her for.

"Collaborations are becoming increasingly fluid and complex in the search for authentic and original content. Add AI into the mix and many smaller creators as well as established influencers are fighting over creative rights and control. Understanding the legalities around content use and the power of influencer communities online means that brands need to be more astute as well as faster to respond when the contract overshadows the campaign."

Michael Gonzalez, senior VP corporate comms at Clarity Global: "The AWS outage in October will be remembered as one of 2025’s defining crisis‑comms moments. Operationally, it was painful; reputationally, it was illuminative. AWS showed what ‘good’ looks like at platform scale: fast diagnosis, frequent, jargon‑free updates and highly visible ownership. That limited the vacuum where speculation and conspiracy theories thrive.

"But the more uncomfortable story is what the incident revealed about Europe. When one US-based cloud provider stumbles and half the internet shudders, it’s a reminder of how little critical infrastructure we actually own. Europe talks a lot about digital sovereignty; in practice, we still rent the backbone of our economy from elsewhere.

"That’s the crisis we’ll still be talking about in ten years’ time. Not one bad day for AWS, but a decade of underinvestment that’s left Europe structurally dependent on a handful of non-European hyperscalers in cloud and, increasingly, AI.

"Communications teams should be part of that conversation: helping boards join the dots between short‑term outage risk and long‑term strategic vulnerability and explaining to the public why building and backing home‑grown infrastructure is no longer a nice‑to‑have, but a necessity.”

Kirsty Ostell, MD at O Agency: "This year will be remembered as a defining year in modern crisis comms, where speed, social platforms and AI narrative control outweighed even the most carefully prepared statements. The Coldpaly kiss cam crisis captured this perfectly: a private moment becoming public property in seconds, proving that virality can turn ambiguity into accusation before facts have a chance to catch up. The failure wasn’t just the incident itself, but the hesitation to seize the narrative early.

"In the UK, similar lessons played out closer to home. From the ongoing Post Office Horizon fallout to repeated water company sewage scandals and public-sector tech failures, 2025 reinforced that institutional trust is brittle and once lost, bloody hard to rebuild.

"Brands and organisations that defaulted to a legal stance or just stayed silent were quickly drowned out by social commentary, AI generated misinformation, campaigners and politicians filling the gaps. By this point who knows what’s real and what’s fake? Those that communicated with speed, empathy, clarity and a human approach, even when answers were incomplete, were able to tackle reputational damage much faster.

"The takeaway for 2025 is an important one; crisis comms is no longer just about fast control, but credibility and prebuilt trust when AI can make the rest up. In 2025, the organisations that survived were those that understood that transparency, tone and timing matter just as much as the message itself."