Insights

The running charity parkrun found itself in hot water this week over a quite blatant financial conflict of interests that came into the public domain – and one which looks particularly bad in the context of a cost-of-living crisis and households across the country struggling to make ends meet. On Thursday afternoon, alongside stories appearing […]

Like them or loathe them, Brewdog and its founder James Watt are rarely out of the news for long. This week, they were back in the headlines with an announcement that Watt was giving a fifth of his stake in the company to members of staff, something the firm said in a statement would be worth “c£120,000 […]

Crisis communications specialist Alder has appointed Ben Todd, who for the last decade has been UK and European Head of Media at Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment, as a specialist partner. Todd began his career as a journalist, latterly covering showbusiness for the Daily Mail before moving to Syco in 2012. As European media lead he was also […]

Alder has appointed Ben Griffiths as a specialist partner. Griffiths has a combined 20 years of experience at News UK and Reach PLC, leading news and features teams at some of the country’s biggest-selling newspapers, latterly as The Sun’s executive features editor. During this time he was at the centre of some of the biggest stories of […]

Alder was recently asked to advise a global media and entertainment conglomerate, Waystar Royco*. Unfortunately, our preliminary note was shredded by a Mr Hirsch in a fit of misdirected paranoia, and sadly the Board was unable to consider our advice.  We hope the below will assist other global media and entertainment conglomerates facing similar crisis […]

Alder has extensive experience of advising organisations through times of crisis. Last week, we had a slightly different opportunity – lending our support to a charity dedicated to remembering one of the greatest crises of the last century – the AIDS epidemic of the 80s and 90s. The National HIV Story Trust‘s new book Love, Loss & […]

Crisis communications specialist Alder is pleased to have welcomed new specialist partner Sue Bishop and new senior account manager Jack Myers on board in recent weeks. Sue, who will specialise on clients in the education and charity sectors, was most recently director of external relations at the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, which represents the leaders of UK independent schools. She has […]

Businesses going through tough times – and in 2021 of all years, no organisation can be sure when those might hit – need great communications. Alder is delighted that leading insurer AIG covers the cost of crisis PR support in its D&O policies. Through this relationship, we are pleased to support organisations of all shapes […]

Our strategic partner Steve Double was asked by German communications firm Engel & Zimmermann, a fellow member of the Crisis Communications Network Europe, to give insights into perhaps the biggest non-Covid story of 2021 – Prince Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey. In the video below, Steve discusses changes to the royal family’s communications approach, the difficulty […]