North 6th Agency Reveals Six Most Influential Brand Crisis Headlines Of 2013

Panel of branding/marketing business executives, media influencers and analysts weigh in with rankings of six most influential stories of 2013

News provided by

North 6th Agency

Dec 24, 2013, 10:00 ET

NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- North 6^th Agency (N6A), an award-winning communications agency based in New York City and San Francisco, announced today the results from the Brand Crisis category in its first annual '6 on 6' program.

As part of the '6 on 6' program, N6A assembled a panel of business executives, media influencers, well-respected analysts and pundits with expertise across the branding industry. N6A then solicited feedback and insights from the panel and asked them to rank the top six most influential stories of the year that involved a brand crisis.

Final results of the N6A '6 on 6' brand crisis category are as follows:

JCPenney: constant turnover on senior management team, low stock prices and revenues keep brand on defensive for most of 2013.
Toyota: recall of 885,000 Camry, Avalon, and Venza vehicles worldwide to fix a problem in the air conditioning condensers keep brand in headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2013.
Abercrombie & Fitch: CEO says company only markets to "cool, good looking people".
BlackBerry: layoffs, high quarterly revenue losses, sale of company cause concern among investors and consumers.
Carnival Cruise Lines: engine room fire in Carnival Triumph, generator failure in Carnival Dream, and mechanical problems in Carnival Legend plague brand throughout 2013.
Burger King: pretends to change their name to Fries King, stirring controversy and confusion among consumers.

The Brand Crisis category is the fifth of six categories that N6A is announcing for its program. Last week, N6A unveiled its top business deals of 2013. Rankings of other categories – including Energy Industry, Media/Publishing, Brand Advertising/Marketing, Brand Crises, and Business Deals – have been revealed on a weekly basis, over the past four weeks, with the final category coming next week, the final week of 2013. The full schedule of category announcements is as follows:

Week of November 25th: Mobile
Week of December 2nd: Energy Industry
Week of December 9th: Media/Publishing Industry
Week of December 16th: Business Deals (M&As, IPOs, etc.)
Week of December 23rd: Brand Crises
Week of December 30th: Brand Advertising/Marketing

"2013 was a fascinating year when it came to brand crises, with many blue chip companies making headlines for all the wrong reasons," said Matt Rizzetta, President and CEO of N6A. "It will be interesting to see how these brands react from a communications standpoint in 2014 in order to regain the confidence from their customers and to restore the same levels of brand equity that they have spent so many years working tirelessly to build."

For more information on N6A please visit http://n6a.com and follow N6A on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. To be added to the distribution list for any category in the '6 on 6' program in the future please email [email protected].

About North 6^th Agency (N6A):
North 6th Agency, Inc. (N6A) is an award-winning brand communications agency based in New York City and San Francisco. Since launching in 2010, N6A has grown its customer base to include more than 20 leading and emerging companies from a wide range of industries, including B2B, technology, consumer services, energy, healthcare, finance, and professional services. N6A has been awarded several prestigious industry recognitions, including Top 50 Fastest-Growing PR Firm by O'Dwyer's, a winner of the Summit International Award for Marketing Effectiveness, a finalist for PR News' Marketing Leader of the Year, and the Golden Bridge PR Agency of the Year, among other honors.

About the N6A '6 on 6' Program:
N6A created the '6 on 6' program to help determine the most influential stories that defined 2013 across categories relevant to the industries that N6A services and has expertise, including technology, B2B, energy, consumer goods, finance, and publishing. As part of the program, N6A identified a list of several stories that captured headlines and were influential to each category over the past year. N6A then polled a group of business executives, media influencers, well-respected analysts and pundits with expertise across each category, and asked them to rank the top six stories in order of influence. To qualify as a panelist, each individual was deemed impartial to the companies listed within each category he/she participated in. The panelist could not be employed by, or compete with, a company that is indexed as one of the top stories in a category. The results of the rankings are representative of the average of the total sum of votes from each participant.

Media Contact:
North 6th Agency, Inc.
[email protected]
212-334-9753

SOURCE North 6th Agency