Social media is a fickle friend. One day, it can be the boon of your brand, and the next, it’s bust. This is the internet. Everything is forever, and once you blast your message out there, you lose all control over it. Sure, you can pull a Tweet or edit a Facebook post, but you can bet your bitcoin that somebody out there was smart enough to grab a screenshot.
I’m on a social kick right now, so this time, we’re focusing on three recent social media blunders and the lessons they can teach us.
1. To Represent the People of Pittsburgh
The middle of June saw a short-lived but nonetheless nasty heatwave hit Pennsylvania. High temps, high humidity. Everyone was doing all they could to cool down. Coca-Cola has so tightly associated its brand with being ice cold and refreshing over the years, that the idea of an ice-cold pop (Pittsburgh speak for “soda”) is sure to appeal to anyone who is experiencing extreme heat and has an affinity for bubbly brown sugar acid water.
Coke took the opportunity to flex some new tech and appeal to the people of my favorite Commonwealth by automatically generating personalized content to followers based on contextual triggers. It’s all high tech and very cool. But this is a fails blog, remember?
If you look closely at the Tweet above, you’ll notice that this is a map of Philadelphia. I’m not a geography buff—it literally says Philadelphia. The issue? The copy and the delivery. This map was served up to tons of Pittsburghers, a whole keystone-shaped state away.
Now, Coke was trying something new and cool here, so you can’t really blame them. But the people of Pittsburgh did. The mayor eventually even weighed in, riffing on a recent quote from President Trump:
Lessons Learned:
- Innovation is essential. But watch your new tech closely. Uber still has someone in the driver’s seat of their driverless cars.
- Pittsburghers are friendly but proud of the black and yellow. Be sure to know your market!
- People from Pittsburgh are actually called Pittsburghers. This isn’t a real marketing lesson, I just think it’s cute.
2. [Funny Title for Markelle Fultz Fail]
Social-savvy millennials know that a personal brand can be rolled into sponsorships to make some big cash if you have a big enough following. You know who tends to have a large number of followers? Pro athletes. As of recently, Markelle Fultz is both of these.
On June 22, the NBA held its annual draft, and Markelle Fultz, a point guard for Washington, was drafted first overall by the Philadelphia 76ers. Fultz had already generated a ton of buzz around his name and had a decent following on Instagram, but his numbers would skyrocket after the Number 1 Pick. To capitalize on this newfound followership, Swiss watchmaker Tissot sponsored Fultz, and it seems like they gave him the script to share on social media immediately after being drafted. Markelle just forgot one thing:
In case you can’t read it, the post read, “Excited to head to (City) and join the (team name). @Tissot.us is helping me get started with my (team name) watch. #ThisIsMyTime #NBADraft.”
In the hype of the night, young Fultz forgot to fill in the blanks and thank his new sponsor and new city correctly. Understandable given the gravity of the moment, but a blunder that drew a large amount of criticism nonetheless. The post was quickly revised, but not before ESPN picked the story up.
Lessons Learned:
- Proofread!
- If you sponsor someone, make sure you have some control over the final product when possible.
- Social media fails live on, but can be quickly forgiven if you are wealthy and talented beyond imagination.
3. Context and Word Choice
This one is a bit more solemn. Easily the biggest social fail I’ve seen so far this year belongs to storied athletic brand Adidas. In a highly targeted and personalized email campaign, Adidas delivered the following message to customers that it had identified as participants in the 2017 Boston Marathon in April:
The sentiment is right on here. A marathon is a grueling race, and most humans never have the capacity or desire to complete one, let alone one of the largest and most important marathons in the world. The tone-deaf message delivery is the real issue here.
The subject line IMMEDIATELY drew criticism from recipients and their families and friends. Unintentionally, Adidas had drawn strong allusions to the 2013 Boston Marathon, during which three people were killed and hundreds were injured during an act of terrorism.
Adidas almost immediately apologized for its insensitivity, but the message was out there, out of their control, and the damage was done.
Lessons Learned:
- Historical context is important.
- Word choice is something that should be painstakingly considered.
- What you meant to say does not matter. The message is in its interpretation, and not your intent.
- Share the creative with others on your staff. If one person finds it offensive on your staff, thousands in the public will too.
On the Flip Side: You Cannes Do It
Time to lighten up the mood a bit! While I tend to be a Negative Nancy when talking trash on my favorite fails, I like to end on a happier note. Some ads are bad, true. Lots are. But so many more are amazing, and these creative wonders are the reason a lot of people like me do what we do.
The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is the World Series for brands. Since 1954, the mission of the Cannes Lions has been to “support the campaign for creativity in branded communications.” Ads go head-to-head, and the best of the best are awarded by a jury of some of the industry’s finest. I love Cannes, and so I’m going to highlight one of my favorite winners from this year, while still keeping the social media theme rolling.
What Cadbury has done here in the social media space is amazing. They took some of the most famous viral videos out there and created custom-branded pre-roll for individual videos. It creates a seamless experience between the brand message and the actual video content. It’s fun, it’s playful, and it’s executed brilliantly. Now if only they’d go back to the old Crème Egg recipe.
About the Author:
Bryan Aungst is a social media junkie. You can be his friend on Facebook, but we advise against trying to friend him in real life, as he tends to Poke you at the weirdest times, and instead of laughing at things he finds funny just yells, “Like,” or, “HAHA EMOJI!”