Bell Pottinger Issues and Crisis Management was appointed by specialist tour operator Mark Warner to provide 24/7 crisis management support following the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from one of the company’s resorts in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

We provided immediate on the ground support in the Algarve and in London to manage the huge, global media interest in Madeleine’s disappearance – fielding up to 200 media enquires a day – and liaising with the family, Mark Warner staff in resort and the British Police to support efforts to find Madeleine. We developed a crisis communications strategy to allow Mark Warner to ‘divide and conquer’ – enabling the company to continuing running its day to day operations around the world, whilst allocating roles and responsibilities to those involved in delivering its crisis response in Portugal and London