Sorry for star jumps advice, says energy boss

Posted by Kate Betts on 12th January 2022

Well done to the boss of Ovo Energy for taking the flak and saying sorry about the flippant advice for customers to stay warm by doing star-jumps, eating ginger or cuddling a pet.

The advice was in an email blog sent to customers of SSE, which is owned by Ovo, and sparked outrage among consumers and politicians.

Stephen Fitzpatrick’s response was a textbook example of how to deal with a media crisis: Get out there and say sorry – and be genuine.

As he said to Channel 4 News: “It was really embarrassing. It was just a stupid thing for us to have written and sent out. It’s something that I obviously regret. I am very sorry that we sent it. And that’s it; there’s nothing more to say. It’s a big company and someone had a bad day. We should have caught it and we didn’t.”

It is also a reminder that all corporate content – whether blog, tweet or email – can harm an organisation’s reputation. Have the people who write your content had the right training? Do they understand the company’s values?

While it is tempting to make online content and company emails as entertaining as you can – after all, we all want people to read and click – you must keep brand values in mind at all times.

A few careless ‘clever’ words can do a lot of damage.

The best way to deal with a media crisis is to avoid it in the first place. And that means having the right processes in place behind the scenes, whether that is training, improving quality, or checking and double-checking.

To quote the councillor I often quote: if you don’t want the bad publicity, don’t do the bad stuff in the first place.

If you want advice about how to deal with a media crisis, please contact us.