This July 2011 post is an update from my former ad rant blog – The Creative Briefs.
‘Promoted Tweets’ seem like a good-enough idea right? Not always. In fact, Promoted Tweets can result in some ugly feedback from customers. Last summer I came across the following Promoted Tweet from Subway. In all honesty it seems like more of a product fail than a social media fail – but both the business and the consulting agency should have known better.
The Tweet that started it all
These are the results of this tweet, and what Subway should have learned once it blew up in their faces:
1. Giving consumers the control of your product launch is always risky
Social media is scary in that it gives the everyday person a chance to shape the story of your brand. Twitter is probably not the place to introduce a risky new product.
2. The consumer decides what your brand and reputation is
A brand is a reputation, and a reputation isn’t what you say about yourself, it’s what others say about you. Entering the world of social media means that you’re letting the consumer take a huge role in shaping the story about your brand. Here are some comments that might be off of Subway’s ‘brand strategy’.
3. Social media evens the playing field
We’ve seen it time and again. Some joker on his laptop is able to take down an entire campaign, an entire brand or company. The random 17-year-old in his parent’s basement has as much chance of his tweet going viral in a trending topic as the celebrity (as long as it’s funny). And if the post is shocking or hilarious, people are likely to share it or talk about it.
So now they know. Brands no longer have the luxury of pushing a plethora of cutesy messages down the throat of the consumer and expecting it to go well. The consumer is smarter than that. Especially when the advertising doesn’t reflect the product, and the product doesn’t fit the brand.
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