As a follow up to my recent article highlighting 7 of Australia’s best social media case studies and examples, I decided to prepare an overview of 4 of Australia’s social media bloopers along with the learning’s we can take from them. Despite the negative press received by all of these examples one thing is for sure and that is that I have no doubt that most of these cases would have received many positive outcomes from it – ranging from receiving many inbound links from a search perspective to getting awareness for their latest products. So whilst these are bloopers they may not be complete disasters for the companies involved.
1. Cotton On – Shaken By Social Media
A few months back Cotton On was hit by a social media communications crisis when one of their risky baby t-shirt slogans crossed the line. Outrage erupted online and whilst anger was growing Cotton On was nowhere to be seen or more so heard of.
What can we learn from this example; Even if as a brand you are not ready to actively participate in the conversation online – start to monitor it so when issues like this arise you can react accordingly.
Read about how the disaster unfolded
Vegemite – It’s Not Technology – It’s Vegemite
In September 2009, Vegemite released a new cheesy vegemite product that it named iSnack 2.0. Vegemite decided to crowd-source the name for their new product. With over 48,000 entries engagement was high, until the winning name was announced, which was then met with public outrage.
What can we learn from this example: Rather than choose the name, Kraft executives should have chosen a shortlist and then put it to the public to decide. Crowd-sourcing the name was a good strategy to allow passionate consumers to feel like they were involved however this was then over-shadowed by final decisions made internally. In such instances Kraft should have followed the theme of such a campaign and put the final name to a public vote.
Read about how the campaign unfolded
Samboy Chips – Playing With Fire
Samboy Chips started with an idea that was good and to their credit the campaign was a strong concept and did actively receive a lot of engagement through the process. The idea was simple consumers were to create a “Samboy is back” group on Facebook and the group with the most members would win $10,000 and loads of free chips. Samboy had a lot of entries and one group attracted over 110,000 members. But one thing Smith’s forgot to consider was the impact of incentivizing consumers to use their brand name for the group. What unravelled was that the biggest “Samboy is Back” group was created to raise money for the Victorian Bushfire appeal – causing campaign hijacking.
What can we learn from this example; Before handing your brand completely over to consumers think through any implications of such an exercise. In addition ensure you think through situations which may result in campaign hi-jacking in an attempt to mitigate them before they occurs.
Read about how the campaign unfolded
Telstra’s – Now We Are Talking – Now We Are Not
Telstra was one of the very first Australian companies to launch into the blogging arena in a big way. Their blog “Now We Are Talking” was active for 4 years and over its time would have attracted a number of followers. And then one day – it was gone. On the 7th of September Telstra put up a message to say the blog is no longer in use and they are working on something new. But what happens to all of their followers and those who were engaging with the site in the meantime?
What we can learn from this example; It seems Telstra has chosen a new direction and with it comes new tools. This is common for many companies however organisations need to have a better plan to migrate users over to new social sites rather than just shut down a platform with little warning. It is hard for brands in general to get consumers to participate in active conversations and thus those who were active on the site may be difficult to re-engage.
Read about how a knee jerk reaction from Telstra has social media experts shaking their heads. http://laurelpapworth.com/telstra-and-shutting-down-nowwearetalking-social-media-site/
http://mumbrella.com.au/telstra-closes-nowwearetalking-com-au-9274
Have you got an Australian social media blooper? If so share it below.
Written By: Teresa Sperti
Lol Telstra suck at social media imo. Their twitter accounts are about as helpful as their phone customer service – long waits to (if you) hear back from them and your issue goes unresolved. Fail.
Many Australian organisations are yet to embrace it or at a basic level even secure their brand name in the social arena with a recent study revealing only 40% of Australia’s top 20 brands have a Twitter account. A Twitter account isn’t the only true indicator that an organisation is actively getting involved in social media but it did make me wonder if major organisations operating in Australia were actively participating.