The viral impact of reactive marketing by brands can be huge. We looked at some of the basic principles that advertisers need to consider when attempting to leverage the power of trending social media in our previous post, but what better way to learn than by example.
Of course, for every brand doing it well, there are plenty of others kicking off PR disasters with epic newsjacking fails. Lets take a look at some of the social media highs and lows from advertisers that have made it into the viral hall of fame…
#Wins!
Specsavers:
Specsavers has a long-standing history of responding to events in the news by using the famous slogan, ‘Should have gone to Specsavers’, to have a cheeky dig at public mishaps. So when the flag for South Korea was mistakenly displayed at a women’s football match between North Korea and Colombia at the 2012 Olympics, it presented exactly the kind of opportunity the brand was waiting for. Two days later, Specsavers rolled out an ad depicting the North and South Korean flags, you can probably guess what the caption was! Pretty smart way to piggyback on a topic that was already getting a lot of media coverage, shame they didn’t manage to tweet it during the game though.
This wasn’t the first time the strategy has helped the brand go viral. Following England’s 2012 Euro clash with Ukraine and a controversial decision to disallow a goal, Specsavers released a tongue-in-cheek campaign poking fun at the referee’s decision. Then back in January last year it made headlines again by reacting to a social media row over Chelsea footballer, Eden Hazard, appearing to kick a ball boy during a match.
Denny’s:
Earlier this month, American fast food chain Denny’s sent a cheeky message to Auburn fans after the team lost the BCS title game. The tweet included a loser’s road map pinpointing all the dinner locations where fans could comfort eat their misery away on the long drive home.
Adidas:
When Andy Murray completed his historical winning match at Wimbledon last summer, Adidas was incredibly quick off the mark to respond. Within minutes of the game ending the brand had posted a tweet of congratulations with a customized branded image that clocked up over 3,000 re-tweets in 24 hours.
The brand also received serious kudos from fans when it reacted to Bayern Munich, at long last, winning the UEFA Champions League. Adidas posted an image contrasting Bastian Schweinsteiger’s emotions when winning the tournament last year and losing it a year earlier. The image resonated with the highs and lows experienced by football fans and was re-tweeted over 3,000 times.
Oreo:
Of course any round up of reactive sports tweets wouldn’t be complete without a mention for Oreo’s infamous Super Bowl blackout win. Just minutes after a power cut at the 2013 game plunged the stadium into darkness the brand sent out a tweet that would make it the subject of advertising case studies for months to come. It was re-tweeted over 15,000 times, clocking up over 26,000 likes and shares and putting the brand into the newsjacking hall of fame.
It’s not just major sports events offering up a wealth of social media opportunities for brands. These days advertisers are using trendjacking techniques to capitalize on just about every piece of breaking news or gossip making headlines. When the Royal baby was born we witnessed a barrage of brands trying to cash in on the little bundle of joy with themed ad campaigns and the past 12 months have provided some classic news opportunities for brands to get a bit playful…
Mini:
When the UK horse meat scandal was making headlines across the media last year, Mini launched a tongue-in-cheek ad to promote the launch of the new John Cooper Works Roadster. Playing on the car’s ‘beefy’ appearance and 211 horsepower engine, the campaign had just the right level of humour and relevance to strike a chord with its audience, being tweeted over 5,000 times.
Ben & Jerry’s:
When Colorado state legalised the sale of marijuana to adults earlier this month, Ben & Jerry’s joined the social media conversation with a well-timed cheeky tweet about the munchies.
Bertolli:
Bertolli made social media headlines back in September when it reacted to public controversy over anti-gay comments by the Chairman of rival pasta brand Barilla. The brand responded with a fun Facebook post entitled ‘Pasta and love for all’ which received over 4,000 likes and 3,000 shares in a matter of days.
#Fails!
Of course, there is always a measure of risk involved when brands attempt to leverage trending news stories. For every brand making it into the viral hall of fame, there are plenty of others wishing there was an ‘un-tweet’ button to take it all back!
American Apparel / Gap:
As a general rule of thumb it’s probably safe to say that any brand attempting to exploit a national disaster in its marketing strategy is going to end up feeling the wrath of the internet. So when both American Apparel and Gap decided to cash in on the media coverage of the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy by suggesting that the public use the opportunity to do a spot of online sale shopping, the ads were met with a predictable level of public backlash – #SandySaleFAIL
Fish & Co:
Back in December last year, 100’s of people were caught up in a riot which broke out in the Little India neighbourhood of Singapore after a bus hit a 33-year-old Indian man, killing him. It was one of the worst outbreaks of violence the area had ever seen. But while the eyes of the world were watching the action unfold on the news, Fish & Co thought it would be a good opportunity to promote takeaway meals. Yep, you can probably guess it didn’t end well and it wasn’t long before the restaurant was forced to issue a public apology.
SpaghettiOs:
To mark the 72nd anniversary of Japan’s attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base, canned pasta company, SpaghettiOs, decided to tweet a picture of its smiling mascot holding an American flag. Within minutes the social media community was all over it, accusing the brand of trivializing the attack with a crass marketing ploy. The tweet was deleted later that day and once again we saw another case of a brand’s PR team attempting to smooth over a social media disaster caused by a newsjacking fail.
Don’t let these bad examples put you off though. When done well, newsjacking campaigns can result in a huge amount of positive exposure for brands. Check out our quick guide for marketers on how to effectively leverage social media trends.
