Quantexa Case Studies Leveraging Text Analysis in PR Crisis Management: A Ryanair Case Study

Edit This Case Study Record

	Leveraging Text Analysis in PR Crisis Management: A Ryanair Case Study Quantexa

Leveraging Text Analysis in PR Crisis Management: A Ryanair Case Study

Quantexa

Technology Category	Cybersecurity & Privacy - Endpoint Security
Applicable Industries	Aerospace
Use Cases	Time Sensitive Networking
Services	System Integration
Challenge	Ryanair, one of the largest airlines in Europe, faced a significant PR crisis when they had to abruptly cancel around 1,900 flights due to an internal administrative issue. This situation presented one of the biggest PR challenges the company had ever faced. The challenge was to manage the negative press and social media backlash effectively. The company needed to understand the extent of the negative coverage, the effectiveness of their PR strategies, and the impact of the crisis on their brand image. To answer these questions, they needed to analyze nearly 600 news stories about the cancellations and 30,000 Tweets mentioning Ryanair over the week following the announcement. Read More
About Customer	Ryanair is a major European airline known for its budget-friendly flight options. Despite facing significant criticism for its service offerings, the company has managed to grow into one of the largest airlines in Europe. Ryanair has a reputation for handling the media effectively, often leveraging the charisma of its CEO, Michael O’Leary, to garner free advertising. However, the company faced a significant challenge when it had to cancel around 1,900 flights due to an internal administrative issue. This event triggered a major PR crisis, prompting the need for effective crisis management strategies to mitigate the negative impact on the company's brand image. Read More
Solution	To handle this PR crisis, Ryanair employed a common PR strategy of announcing the bad news late on a Friday, hoping to minimize negative coverage due to the weekend lull in news reporting. Using APIs for text analysis, the company was able to measure the reaction to the announcement, both in the news and on social media. They tracked the volume of news stories published over the weekend and collected Tweets directed at Ryanair. They also used the Trends endpoint of the News API to gather the 10 most-shared stories about Ryanair on Facebook on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and counted how many times they were shared. To understand the sentiment of the coverage, they used the Trends endpoint of the News API to analyze the tone of the stories. To separate affected customers from people jumping on the bandwagon, they used the Text API’s Concept Extraction feature to identify Tweets that mentioned specific flight details. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Cybersecurity & Privacy - Endpoint Security

Applicable Industries

Aerospace

Use Cases

Time Sensitive Networking

Services

System Integration

Challenge

Ryanair, one of the largest airlines in Europe, faced a significant PR crisis when they had to abruptly cancel around 1,900 flights due to an internal administrative issue. This situation presented one of the biggest PR challenges the company had ever faced. The challenge was to manage the negative press and social media backlash effectively. The company needed to understand the extent of the negative coverage, the effectiveness of their PR strategies, and the impact of the crisis on their brand image. To answer these questions, they needed to analyze nearly 600 news stories about the cancellations and 30,000 Tweets mentioning Ryanair over the week following the announcement.

About Customer

Ryanair is a major European airline known for its budget-friendly flight options. Despite facing significant criticism for its service offerings, the company has managed to grow into one of the largest airlines in Europe. Ryanair has a reputation for handling the media effectively, often leveraging the charisma of its CEO, Michael O’Leary, to garner free advertising. However, the company faced a significant challenge when it had to cancel around 1,900 flights due to an internal administrative issue. This event triggered a major PR crisis, prompting the need for effective crisis management strategies to mitigate the negative impact on the company's brand image.

Solution

To handle this PR crisis, Ryanair employed a common PR strategy of announcing the bad news late on a Friday, hoping to minimize negative coverage due to the weekend lull in news reporting. Using APIs for text analysis, the company was able to measure the reaction to the announcement, both in the news and on social media. They tracked the volume of news stories published over the weekend and collected Tweets directed at Ryanair. They also used the Trends endpoint of the News API to gather the 10 most-shared stories about Ryanair on Facebook on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and counted how many times they were shared. To understand the sentiment of the coverage, they used the Trends endpoint of the News API to analyze the tone of the stories. To separate affected customers from people jumping on the bandwagon, they used the Text API’s Concept Extraction feature to identify Tweets that mentioned specific flight details.

Impact #1	The text analysis provided Ryanair with valuable insights into the effectiveness of their PR strategies and the extent of the negative coverage. The company was able to confirm that their strategy of announcing the bad news late on a Friday was effective in minimizing immediate negative press coverage. The analysis also revealed that this strategy had an impact on the spread of news on social media, with fewer stories being shared over the weekend. Furthermore, the sentiment analysis showed that 85% of the stories about Ryanair had a negative tone, providing a clear picture of the public sentiment towards the company during the crisis. The concept extraction feature helped Ryanair distinguish between customers affected by the cancellations and those merely jumping on the bandwagon, providing a more accurate understanding of the crisis impact.

Impact #1

The text analysis provided Ryanair with valuable insights into the effectiveness of their PR strategies and the extent of the negative coverage. The company was able to confirm that their strategy of announcing the bad news late on a Friday was effective in minimizing immediate negative press coverage. The analysis also revealed that this strategy had an impact on the spread of news on social media, with fewer stories being shared over the weekend. Furthermore, the sentiment analysis showed that 85% of the stories about Ryanair had a negative tone, providing a clear picture of the public sentiment towards the company during the crisis. The concept extraction feature helped Ryanair distinguish between customers affected by the cancellations and those merely jumping on the bandwagon, providing a more accurate understanding of the crisis impact.

Benefit #1	Ryanair was able to analyze nearly 600 news stories and 30,000 Tweets related to the crisis.
Benefit #2	The company's Friday evening news dump strategy resulted in fewer news stories over the weekend, minimizing immediate negative impact.
Benefit #3	Ryanair's strategy also affected social media sharing, with Monday's top 10 most-shared stories being shared over 43,000 times more than Saturday's 10 most-shared stories.

Benefit #1

Ryanair was able to analyze nearly 600 news stories and 30,000 Tweets related to the crisis.

Benefit #2

The company's Friday evening news dump strategy resulted in fewer news stories over the weekend, minimizing immediate negative impact.

Benefit #3

Ryanair's strategy also affected social media sharing, with Monday's top 10 most-shared stories being shared over 43,000 times more than Saturday's 10 most-shared stories.

Download PDF Version

Overview

Leveraging Text Analysis in PR Crisis Management: A Ryanair Case Study

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit