This document reflects relevant online activity related to the grounding of the Costa Concordia which occurred on the evening of Jan 13, 2012. It covers the period between 09:00 Jan 14 - 09:00 Jan 16. It is based purely on external analysis of the incident and communications activities undertaken in the public domain.

1. #Costa Concordia
Digital Crisis Analysis
Conducted by: Brendan Hodgson, Strategy Director, Brussels
Date: Jan 13-16, 2012
@brendanhodgson

2. Parameters
Analysis conducted between 9:00, Jan 14 – 9:00 Jan16
Analysis of relevant publicly accessible sites, including:
– Corporate sites of affected entity
– Facebook
– Twitter
– YouTube
– Forums
– News entities
– Other relevant sites
This analysis is based on purely external analysis and does not
reflect any knowledge of internal crisis communications
procedures at Costa Cruise Lines

3. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
Costa Concordia: 114,500 Tonne
cruise ship
Carrying approx 3200 passengers
+ 1000 crew
Jan 13, 2012
– 19:00 – Sets sail from Civitavecchio
– 21:30 – Runs aground off Giglio
Coastline
– c. 22:20 – Coast Guard begins Real time Web cam
01-14-12
evacuation
6 Fatalities / 16 missing (Jan 16)
Captain taken into custody

4. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
Google News: Google News: Google News:
09:30 Jan 14, 2012 14:30 Jan 14, 2012 11:00 Jan 15, 2012

5. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
01-13-2012
Social Amplification:
– Jan 13 – Jan 16, 2012
35,000+ Tweets
10,900+ Blog mentions
34,000+ News mentions online
4600+ YouTube video mentions
01-16-2012

6. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia 6
Costa Cruises operates
websites supporting a
variety of regions /
languages
The company also
manages a variety of
social platforms:
– Twitter (@costacrociere)
– Facebook (EN & IT)
– YouTube
– CBlog
Screengrabs taken
@ 09:30 AM
01-14-12
1/17/2012

7. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia 7
Jan 14:
– Rapid amplification of
early images from
passengers, witnesses,
media:
Screengrabs taken
@ 09:30 AM
01-14-12
1/17/2012

8. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia 8
Jan 14:
– Media turn to Twitter to
seek passengers / eye-
witnesses
Screengrabs taken
@ 09:30 AM
01-14-12
1/17/2012

9. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia 9
Jan 14:
– Dark site activated early
AM
– Statements time-stamped
1:00 AM and 5:00 AM
Screengrabs taken
@ 09:30 AM
01-14-12
1/17/2012

10. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
Jan 14:
– Rapid activation of
social amplifiers:
• Blog
• Facebook Screengrabs taken
@ 09:30 AM
01-14-12
• Twitter

11. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
INSIGHT: Screengrabs taken
@ 09:30 AM
– As Europe wakes up to the 01-14-12
news, corporate site
struggles to meet traffic
demand
– Social amplifiers become
critical channels to
supplement traditional
processes.
– Inability of corporate site
to manage traffic in early
hours reinforced social
channels as back-ups /
alternate sources.

12. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
INSIGHT:
– At approx. 11:00 AM CET, all
primary corporate sites were
inaccessible.
– For a 3-4 hour period, social media
represented sole direct interface
with company
Screengrabs taken
@ 11:00 AM
01-14-12

13. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
INSIGHT:
– Increased reliance on social networks to share corporate content. Active
engagment
09:30 Jan 14, 2012 15:15 Jan 14, 2012

14. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
INSIGHT:
– Lack of consistency across other FB sites re. Timing of updates (e.g. English).
Protocols must be considered for cross-jurisdictional platform management
09:30 Jan 14, 2012 14:00 Jan 14, 2012

15. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
JAN 14:
– By 15:15, access to
corporate site remains
spotty – contact # is
added to front page.
15:15 Jan 14, 2012

16. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
18:30 Jan 14, 2012
JAN 14:
– Sporadic updates to
crisis site throughout
day. 5 hour gaps
between major
statements /
announcements
– Communications
remains largely
structured for media
15:15 Jan 14, 2012
15:30 Jan 14, 2012

17. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
INSIGHT:
– Active amplification via
Twitter
– @replies informing
interested parties of
emergency tel #
– Negative: Company
avoided #costa hashtag
– Negative: Company did
not include link in @replies
back to site
12:00 Jan 16, 2012

18. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
INSIGHT:
– Parent company,
Carnival Cruise Lines,
joins conversation late
on the 14th.
10:30 Jan 15, 2012

19. H+K CRISIS AUDIT: #Costa Concordia
INSIGHT:
– Dissemination and
dialogue occurred
across wide variety of
platforms, forums,
communities etc.
– Many platforms
referred to past history
of company and vessel
re. Previous
groundings,
superstitions re. launch

20. AUDIT: #Costa Concordia 20
Lessons Learned:
– An organization’s website has become an essential
communications channel, and must be viewed and managed as
such
– Social platforms play an essential back-up role during ‘hot’crisis
activity
– Policies must be considered for effective and consistent
dissemination across multiple regions/jurisdictions
– Use of #hashtags related to crises should exploited vs avoided in
order to gain maximum exposure for message
– Opportunities to fill gaps between statements should be explored
in order to emphasize active response, transparency
1/17/2012