By Simon Harper and Zoe Schagrin with support from Magan Arthur
There is no doubt that new technologies are causing a permanent shift in the way companies and consumers communicate. But what makes these new channels so attractive – low cost, ease of implementation, global reach – also makes them dangerous for companies who don’t understand their nuances or just how drastically digital marketing has evolved. Some of the biggest names in business have entered the new digital marketing arena with good intentions only to wonder “how could it have all gone so wrong?”
Digital marketing blunders aren’t just the domain of small firms making rookie mistakes. Some of the biggest names in business have had recent misstep or learned lessons the hard way as outlined in these high profile examples:
Starbucks’ Twitter Campaign
Starbucks recently launched a digital campaign which involved hanging a series of posters in major cities and asking contest participants to find and photograph them. The winners were those who first found each poster and uploaded a photo of it to Twitter using predetermined hash tags. Unfortunately, an anti-Starbucks activist and filmmaker was launching a YouTube video the same day condemning Starbucks for its labor practices. He read about the contest in the New York Times and made a post on his anti-Starbucks blog for users to instead post photos of themselves holding politically charged anti-Starbucks posters.[i]
Starbucks ultimately had to abandon this part of their campaign which ironically served as excellent buzz for the filmmaker, Robert Greenwald. His video had 30,000 YouTube views and made it to the first page of Digg. Greenwald explained, “I think that the corporations will learn very quickly that if they want to function in a social marketing arena, then they’re going to have to change some of their practices or else they’ll have to get out.”[ii]
‘Wal-Marting across America’:
In late 2006, an American couple named Jim and Laura began an RV journey to ‘Wal-Mart across America’. They planned to take advantage of Wal-Mart’s policy allowing RVs to park overnight in store parking lots. The couple setup a travel blog to capture their adventures, but there was no indication that Wal-Mart had any affiliation with Jim, Laura, or their blog. However, when posts began to read like company propaganda and the couple seemed to be playing the role of corporate puppets, readers became suspicious. One reader in particular challenged the couple to “reveal” themselves and provide information as to their financial backing.
Ultimately it was revealed that while the couple had approached Wal-Mart to seek approval to park in store parking lots, Wal-Mart had supplied the RV and was covering travel costs. Wal-Mart even paid Laura, a writer by trade, a fee for her blog postings. In its desperation for good press and desire to create a new connotation for the term ‘Wal-Marting’ (commonly used to describe how large retailers drive out small businesses) the company violated one of the tenets of digital marketing – be genuine and transparent. [iii]
Sony’s PSP Blog
A blog supposedly managed by Sony PSP fans was setup to help their friend get a PSP for Christmas.
However, savvy consumers recognized that the blog’s URL was registered to a marketing company and began to question the authenticity of blog posts like the following:
“...we created this site to spread the luv [sic] to those like j who want a psp! …consider us your own personal psp hype machine, here to help you wage a holiday assault on ur [sic] parents, girl, granny, boss—whoever—so they know what you really want.”[iv]
Rather than owning up to the disingenuous campaign when pressed, Sony instead tried to contain the negative buzz, employing the same hip-hop oriented language explaining, ““yo where all u hatas com from... juz cuz you aint feelin the flow of PSP dun mean its sum mad faek website or summ... youall be trippin.”[v]
However, after continued pressure the company finally owned up and posted the following on their site: “Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn’t a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a
little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP.”[vi]
The campaign was a huge embarrassment for both Sony and its marketing firm Zipatoni. Ultimately, the effort was successful in creating a viral buzz, but not quite what either company had hoped for as angered consumers voiced their grievances on blogs and videos:
While traditional marketing campaigns such as TV advertising have typically required an extensive upfront investment of time and capital and have given the advertiser full control of the message, today’s digital marketing campaigns are a totally different breed. Advertisers today don’t dictate the dialogue, they merely initiate a conversation. Publishing a blog post, a YouTube video, a Twitter Tweet or a message across any other digital channel is simply a launching point.
The same audience that stands to make your message the next big thing can also use the same channels to launch a viral campaign condemning your business or brand for its customer service, poor labor practices, or product quality. Just ask Dell, where a single active blogger preaching about what he described as “Dell Hell” ultimately caused the company to revamp their entire customer service methodology.[vii]
In the examples highlighted and in our additional research, we have identified that digital marketing missteps are often due to one of the following:
· A lack of transparency or authenticity
· A hastily assembled campaign due to the easy ability to create and distribute digital content
· The digital campaign is a ‘one off’ and not integrated with the larger brand message
· Failure to monitor the message after launch and/or the lack of a mitigation strategy
· An inability to balance controlling and protecting the brand while providing consumers a voice
We believe that implementing a governance structure and program can be critical to playing ball in the new digital marketing arena and can help mitigate many of these common missteps. An appropriate governance structure won’t guarantee that your firm will launch the next viral YouTube hit , but it will help you to ask the right questions going into a campaign and to get it back on track when it begins to take on a life of its own.
Governance is certainly a vogue concept, applied to everything from data management to corporate portals. Yet governance is curiously only modestly applied to the area of digital marketing. So what is governance and why does it need to be applied to yet another domain? Governance implies general oversight and broad program management – it involves clear and consistent policies as well as defined processes for decision making. It goes beyond simply developing a one-off campaign to actually formalizing a structure and approach to the channel. In the context of digital marketing, we have identified four primary components for a successful governance program:
1) Develop and promote a clear and consistent strategy
2) Define and track metrics for ongoing value tracking
3) Develop a mitigation / response strategy for undesired feedback or unsuccessful campaigns
4) Develop a strong, cross-departmental governance team
Focusing on these areas can ensure a well-planned, long-term DM strategy and can help to prevent many of these common mistakes from being made.
Furthermore, a well-planned governance team and program can ensure if a mistake or issue occurs in a DM campaign it is quickly dealt with and resolved.
DM campaigns are commonly flawed by their design in isolation of other organizational initiatives. Developing a clear and consistent digital marketing strategy to be applied to all digital marketing channels can ensure that the programs are consistent, in-line with brand images, and convey the desired message. This will allow campaigns to build upon one another, strengthening the company image and voice rather than delivering inconsistent or competing messages to the consumer.
While defining the DM strategy, it is critical to remain true to company values and behaviors. One must keep in mind that the digital age swings both ways. Consumers are smart and messages spread quickly. The same viral power that can help a new commercial take off can also empower a campaign detractor. Consumers can see through transparent or dishonest campaigns, as demonstrated by the Walmart and Sony examples, and they will surely make their protests heard. As such, it is important for all campaigns to remain true to the company values and to represent the organization honestly.
Strong governance necessitates the definition of clear and consistent metrics tracking. Digital channels allow for rapid changes in campaigns and the continued tweaking of message. Therefore, it is imperative to continuously monitor campaigns and react rapidly if they are proving ineffective. The benefit of DM channels is that rapid changes are possible, as opposed to traditional channels which require months of planning and cannot be altered after launch. This advantage should be leveraged in campaigns. Feedback from consumers should be monitored and responded to as necessary. A number of software programs from Webtrends to Salesforce.com exist to allow for DM monitoring of Twitter, Facebook, and other online applications, and this information should be taken advantage of in understanding the effects of a campaign. Additionally, monitoring the success of each channel and campaign can help to determine proper resource and funding allocations.
Integrating social networking tracking techniques can help identify a failed campaign or potential issue early on. A mitigation and response strategy must, in turn, be defined well in-advance to address these problems once they are identified. Having an action plan in place can help to 1) react quickly and definitively 2) adapt the campaign as necessary and 3) ensure that the same mistakes are not made going forward. In the PSP example above, Sony responded poorly to the accusations of insincerity and in-genuineness by continuing to hide behind their character front, and the language used in their response “yo where all u hatas com from…” seemed to simply aggravate the situation even further.[viii]
Another component of strong governance is developing a governance team. This team should oversee DM campaigns and provide strategic guidance for new projects. As such, the governance team should monitor program metrics and consumer feedback. It is important for this team to include a mix of cross-department resources. Proper staffing of this group can bring knowledge and representation to DM from a number of different background and areas. A diverse team can both offer new perspectives as well as prevent a single department from laying claim to Digital Marketing channels within an organization.
Governance can also help provide the structure and funding for centralizing DM programs and applications, initiatives leading to greater efficiencies and reduced costs. One such approach is the new ‘digital workbench solution’ Infosys Technologies is currently developing. The solution offers an integrated platform for developing, sharing, and reusing content across multiple advertising agencies and portals, thereby providing reduced time to publication and lower creative development costs. Infosys Technologies has developed a number of solutions to centralize digital resources and make digital campaigns more effective. Organizations investing in large DM initiatives should consider similar solutions in order to make their programs more efficient and retain DM materials for future use.
As companies allocate additional funding for digital channels, it becomes increasingly important to go in with the ‘right’ approach.
Mistakes can result in major and unforeseen consequences, as seen here.
Applying a governance framework and developing a strong governance team can help to ensure that digital marketing and social media programs are undertaken and maintained successfully.
While digital channels continue to evolve, they no longer represent new territory.
Companies must be smart about how they play the game, as savvy consumers often leave little room for mistakes.
[iv]http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2006/id20061219_590177.htm?campaign_id=bier_innc.g3a.rssd1219o
[v] http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2006/12/sony_gets_rippe.html
[vi]http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2006/id20061219_590177.htm?campaign_id=bier_innc.g3a.rssd1219o
[viii] http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2006/12/sony_gets_rippe.html
