Scenario: Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is a space tourism start-up founded by British billionaire Richard Branson in 2004. Since the company's launch (ha ha), it has built several highly photogenic spacecraft and conducted dozens of successful test flights. But it has also endured setbacks, most notably the tragic crash of its VSS Enterprise ship in 2014, which completed destroyed the vehicle and claimed the life of one of its pilots.

In spite of these challenges, in August of 2021 the company flew a successful mission with its first test passengers aboard - including Branson himself, who beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos into space by nine days. But then the news leaked out that the flight had encountered control issues and had veered out of its approved airspace. As a result, Virgin Galactic's ships weregrounded while the US Federal Aviation Administration investigated.

Rumours have begun to circulate that the company's ships were unsafe. There has also been grumbling that the "billionaire space race" is an irresponsible distraction at a difficult time for humanity.

To counter these stories, Virgin Galactic would like to raise awareness about all of the positive measures it has taken to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its crews and future customers. It also wants to continue to raise awareness about its future services and gorgeous spacecraft, as well as about space tourism more broadly.

Assignment #1: Templatefigure: R.A.C.E. framework (Four Stages of Developing a PR Plan)

Step 1: Issue/Opportunity

What is the problem facing the organization? What does the organization want to achieve?

Step 2: Situational Analysis

What are two ways you could conduct research to learn more about the problem you have identified in step 1?

Step 1: PR objectives

Develop one PR objective for this campaign, using the SMART objective formula. Put your PR objective into a sentence as discussed in the lesson.

Step 2: Identify Stakeholders

Recommend two key stakeholders you will need to reach to achieve your PR objective in step 1.

Stakeholder #1

Stakeholder #2

Step 3: Key Messages

Develop one targeted key message for each key stakeholder identified in step 2.

Key Message

Stakeholder #1:

Stakeholder #2: