Social networking is obviously an invaluable tool in terms of marketing, but as Dr Pepper has found out to its misfortune, it can also prove rather perilous. As many will know, the gaffe involved an ill-judged facebook status referring to what some may deem a less than refined video presently navigating the internet. Or what some may refer to as plain porn.
The mistake occurred as part of a stunt launched in May by which facebook members handed over control of their statuses to Dr Pepper for the chance to win a thousand pounds. The statuses would then be made as embarrassing as possible, capitalising on the company’s strap line, “What’s the worst that could happen?” The kerfuffle arose as a result of an unsuitable update being posted on a 14 year old girl’s page. While this may well have caused irreparable damage to the brand’s image now, but without the benefit of hindsight the risk may have seemed worth taking.
What Dr Pepper and their agency, Lean Mean Fighting Machine, inadvertently stumbled upon was either a spectacular piece of bad luck or really a catastrophe waiting to happen, depending on which way you look at it. The failure to check the database of potential statuses for the kind of post that looks entirely innocent at first glance – but after a little research turns out to be incredibly explicit – is the ultimate cause of the episode, but perhaps the kind of joke necessary to properly catch the attention of your common or garden facebooker needs to be a little risqué, doesn’t it?
The problem for brands and marketers is that though social media is by far the most effective way of getting the attention of young people, there is a dangerously narrow line between humour and obscenity that has to be respectfully toed. In order to win over interest and grow your brand’s profile, visibility on sites like facebook is a good idea, but not one without its drawbacks. After all, online social networking is a relatively new phenomenon, and marketing on the platform an even newer one. Dr Pepper’s method of approaching the challenge was a clever and innovative one, but hopefully the irony of the tragic consequences that befell a drinks manufacturer whose ad campaigns highlighted the often dire results of risk-taking has not been lost on businesses and B2B marketing agencies looking to social media as a means of expression.
Carol O’Mara
Business Leader
GyroHSR London
In the early, early days of television, the stations recruited the folks who produced for radio to produce their shows for them. And, so, in the archives you find productions featuring an ensemble reading a script on a sound stage, a la Prairie Home Companion. The storytelling and production practices evolved over time. Actors began acting scenes. Scenes were shot on location. And so on.
Social media is in its formative stages—the days of the horseless carriage, before everyone in the neighborhood relented and converted the stables in the back yard to garages.
What will the digital children of the future, twenty years from now, find quaintly alien about the early days of social media?
My guess? The next generation will find the historical ties to one-to-many outbound marketing jarring, which today can give social media the feel of a barker channel on TV. The Tin Lizzies still scare the horses, and we have yet to convert the stables.