CrowdStrike's president accepting the 'most epic fail' award in person was a PR masterclass, experts say

• CrowdStrike's president just accepted an award for "most epic fail" after a mass IT outage.
• The outage, caused by a defective software update, disrupted thousands of Microsoft systems.
• Experts praised the company's transparency and accountability, seeing it as a PR win.

CrowdStrike's president himself just collected an award for the "most epic fail" following the company's mass IT outage.

The cybersecurity firm's president, Michael Sentonas, said he wanted to receive the award in person because the company aimed to own its mistake.

"I want every CrowdStriker who comes to work to see it," Sentonas said while collecting the trophy. "Because, you know, our goal is to protect people, and we got this wrong and I want to make sure that everybody understands these things can't happen."

The award was presented on Saturday night at the Pwnie Awards , an annual award ceremony for cybersecurity professionals.

The ignominious accolade follows an outage last month in which CrowdStrike disrupted businesses globally after a defect in a software update from the cybersecurity firm caused many thousands of Microsoft computer systems to shut down.

Sentonas' short speech elicited applause and laughter from the audience, and communications experts told Business Insider that accepting the award graciously was the right move.

One crisis-communications expert said that showing up in person helped the company signal that it's still committed to transparency and accountability.

"Sentonas' decision to accept the award in person is perceptually a PR win and a master class in crisis management ," Jeremy Foo, the CEO of the public-relations firm Elliot & Co., said.

"What could have potentially been remembered as a PR nightmare is now trending for the right narrative," he said.

The award shows "that even tech giants are not immune to missteps, and treating them with humility and integrity, and just the right touch of humor, can earn brand love," he added.

Admitting a mistake is usually the first step in addressing a crisis. This acknowledgment should authentically convey contrition to those affected by your actions, Nathan Miller, a Los Angeles communications strategist, said.

The humor of the moment also served as an opportunity to illustrate how seriously CrowdStrike was taking its mistake, Miller said.

While the award ceremony may temporarily repair the company's image, customers will pay attention to what CrowdStrike does in the long term.

"Customers and partners who form CrowdStrike's core stakeholders will want to see that the outage is taken seriously," Foo said. "The key here is consistency."