It’s easy to lose sight of what you’re trying to do in marketing campaigns. Some marketers are too focused on developing creative, edgy, and unique advertisements that they forget who they’re marketing to or what they’re trying to accomplish. Some of the biggest marketing fails in recent history inadvertently offended groups of people through bad auditing, bad timing, or just plain bad luck.
Here are some examples of the worst advertising nightmares from the biggest brands in the world. Learn from them to avoid making the same mistakes in your digital marketing campaign.
1. Proof Your Projects
Proofreading is one of the most basic skills they teach you in school, and yet so many people fail to do it. Go over your descriptions, captions, hashtags, and other types of content, and have other people go through them too. Ensuring everything looks good only takes a few minutes to do and can make all the difference.
Otherwise, you’re vulnerable to getting screenshotted and laughed at on the Internet.
Reality TV star Scott Disick only had one job as an influencer, and it was to show off Bootea UK in a good light. As you can see, he failed miserably, and his followers and the media didn’t let that go too easily.
Always proofread your posts.
2. Have Multiple Perspectives
Since the advent of social media, people have become more vocal about societal struggles regarding race, gender, age, and more. This means that if your adverts offended a group of people, in particular, you’re in for a wild ride.
Pepsi’s ad featuring Kendall Jenner is a really great (or really not great?) example of this. The marketing campaign was such a flop that it led to Pepsi president Brad Jakeman’s resignation.
The idea behind this ad was to show Pepsi as a product people of all cultures can enjoy. Great, right? But instead, what we get was a phenomenally tone-deaf video that depicts socialite Kendall Jenner as the star of the show, with people of color as her supporting characters. In a stand-off not unlike a Black Lives Matter protest, Jenner settles the conflict between police officers and protestors with a can of Pepsi.
In just two minutes, Pepsi offended a whole bunch of minority groups. And that was without saying anything of value at all.
As a digital marketer that’s hopefully a lot smarter than Pepsi’s ad team, you want to make sure your campaign is something everybody can enjoy. Look at it from multiple perspectives and understand the implications of your message. If you don’t, you’re not only harming your brand’s reputation, but you’re also harming your audience and undermining their struggles.
3. Keep Up with Current Events
When you’re developing a marketing campaign, you have to make sure you’re releasing it at the right time. Some advertisements released in recent years were just bad because of unfortunate timing.
Take this email sent by Airbnb in 2017, for example.
Pretty, right? You get a picture of a serene-looking house floating on the water. All around the email are suggestions like, “Live the life aquatic,” “Stay above water,” “How to spend an entire day without touching dry land,” and “Your next aquatic adventure starts here.”
Meanwhile, Hurricane Harvey was bringing catastrophic floods to Texas and Louisiana.
Whenever disaster strikes, you should always pause for a bit, just in case. If Airbnb had only spared a few minutes to read about what was going on, then they wouldn’t have had to face backlash over their email. If it seems like bad timing, then you could hold off releasing your ad campaign for a few months.
Additionally, if you’re creating content relevant to current events, you need to tread carefully. You might think you’re raising awareness about something when in reality, you’re capitalizing on it to promote your brand.
In 2017, Mark Zuckerberg thought it would be a good idea to raise awareness of Puerto Rico’s devastation by Hurricane Maria and also talk about the aid Facebook was providing them. However, he did it in such a strange way—he presented it through a VR app that showed off Facebook’s technological prowess and smiling avatars more than the actual destruction behind them.
Don’t use other people’s catastrophes to blatantly promote your brand. It’s not going to get you far.
4. Prevent Sabotages
Having your audience involved in your marketing campaign may seem like a great idea as it helps build relationships with them. However, you need to prepare yourself for pranksters, trolls, and other people who may jump in and turn it into something ugly.
Walkers is a snack food manufacturing company in the United Kingdom. In 2017, they partnered with footballer Gary Lineker for a social media campaign where customers submit their selfies for a chance to win Champions League tickets. Simply use the hashtag #WalkersWave to submit your entry.
Unfortunately, their PR team failed to go through all submissions. Some of the “selfies” featured were of serial killers like Harold Shipman and Fred West, sex offender Jimmy Savile, and dictator Joseph Stalin.
So, if your campaign involves user submissions, prevent blunders like this by auditing before release.
Conclusion
Marketing campaigns involve a lot of research, and you need to stay on top of things from development to launch. Always read the room, know who you’re marketing to, and review your content. Also, it’s okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them—these companies certainly did!
Need help with advertising? We’re a digital marketing agency in Los Angeles that can give you a second opinion! Contact us at info@drivetrafficmedia.com or at (310)341-3939 today.
Check out the related article here: https://www.drivetrafficmedia.net/los-angeles-social-media-agency-can-craft-brilliant-campaign/
