Crisis and Issues Management

When your organisation is the story, hours matter. Senior counsel, by phone.

Call
0408 207 256

When it happens after hours

Crises do not keep business hours, and neither do we. Calls to Ace Strategies are answered around the clock by a senior adviser — not a switchboard, not a callback form. If your organisation is facing media attention tonight, you will be speaking with someone who can act on it tonight: what to say, what not to say, and what has to happen before morning.

0408 207 256 Available 24/7

Crisis & Issues

Crisis and Issues Management — Adelaide and Australia-wide

Ace Strategies provides crisis communications and issues management for organisations across Australia, from our base in Adelaide, South Australia. When employee actions put your reputation at risk, when a project attracts a misinformation campaign, when tomorrow's paper has your name in it — we manage the response across media, government and stakeholders as one coordinated effort, because in a crisis they are never separate audiences.

Our crisis management consultants include an award-winning journalist who has led newsrooms and government offices across Australia, and former political advisers who have managed issues from inside government. We know what the next 24 hours look like from both sides — and the number on this page reaches Matt Neagle, the firm's founder and managing partner, directly.

Key Service Areas

What our crisis and issues service covers

emergency

Immediate crisis response

From first call to first statement: rapid assessment of the facts and exposure, a holding position that buys time without conceding ground, spokesperson preparation, and coordinated response across media, government, staff and stakeholders.

visibility

Issues management, before it becomes a crisis

Most crises are issues that were visible for weeks. We identify emerging threats — regulatory, community, media, political — assess their trajectory, and manage them down while options still exist. Prevention is cheaper than response, and considerably cheaper than repair.

checklist

Crisis preparedness

The best crisis response is written before the crisis. We build the crisis communications plan itself — risk mapping, response protocols, holding statements, spokesperson training and scenario testing — so your team's first hour is execution rather than improvisation.

healing

Reputation recovery

After the coverage ends, the work of rebuilding begins — with stakeholders, government, staff and community. Recovery is reputation work rather than crisis work: slower, audience by audience, and on a realistic timeline.

Reputation management

Proof

When the North Adelaide Golf Course redevelopment was targeted by a misinformation campaign, our Strategic Counsel publicly corrected the record on the project's history, ecology and future. Media issues casework includes BIORG.

At a critical and time-sensitive juncture, Ace Strategies moved from brief to strategy implementation at a pace that evidenced their authority. Their deep understanding of political and regulatory environs, coupled with well-established relationships, enabled us to navigate an extraordinarily complex landscape with confidence. Attributable directly to their stewardship and acumen, we secured a favourable outcome that was widely deemed unachievable.
Cameron Duncan — Head Next Generation, OTR Group
Read the case study
Free checklist

How ready are you?

Thirty questions, five stages, two pages. If your executive team can tick most of them, you are better prepared than most Australian organisations. If they cannot, better to learn that this week than during the event.

Open the checklist

Common questions

We are facing a media issue right now. What do we do?
Call 0408 207 256. That number reaches Matt Neagle, the firm's founder and managing partner. Before you act: do not issue a statement, do not confirm details to a journalist, and do not let executives respond individually before the facts and the position are settled.
What is the difference between issues management and crisis management?
An issue is a threat you can still shape quietly; a crisis is one that has become public and time-compressed. We handle both, and the core value is keeping issues from ever becoming crises.
Do we need to be an existing client?
No. Crisis engagements often begin with a single urgent call. Many become longer relationships; none has to.
Do you work with organisations outside South Australia?
Yes. Our crisis counsel is delivered nationally, by phone and on the ground.

Related insights

Our published analysis on this work.

opinion North Adelaide Golf Course: What You Might Not Know announcement Ace Strategies and Grant Law PR Partner

18 published case studies Adelaide-based, working nationally

If it is urgent, call.

0408 207 256, answered 24/7 by a senior adviser — or start the conversation for preparedness and issues work that is not yet on fire.

Start the conversation