Communication crisis of OKKO: a case on Revutsky Street

At the end of September - in early October 2017, the clashes between activists who opposed the construction of a gas station on Revutsky Street in Kyiv and law enforcement officers occured. Despite the fact that the OKKO company, which built the station, distanced itself from the conflict and tried to redirect the negative attitude to the contractor, the situation brought notable reputation losses to the company.

From September 1 till November 9, 377 publications appeared in the media, which had about 912 thousand contacts with the audience. In Facebook, from October 14 till November 13, when the clashes ended, 126 publications appeared. Negative attitude "hounded" the company even after the clashes ended - the background regarding this topic were found in posts and posts about other topics.

News about the clashes brought OKKO most negative contacts with the audience. However, some media even presented the company's with a negative sentiment. Initially, the company called the protesters action "a provocation" and distanced themselves from construction, but after the biggest fight it sharply changed rhetoric, tried to reach compromise.

There were some neutral messages containing only facts. Most of them were based on the same informational drives as the negative ones. The low proportion of messages with the position of the company is connected, first of all, with its delayed reaction to the events.

For the media, the most interesting were information drives related to fights, reports of the victims, court decisions, and nobody wanted to write news about this event in order to highlight the position of OKKO.