When It’s Guaranteed To “Go Viral”Run
By: The Magenta Lilacs
Tags: Covid 19, Public Relations, Marketing, Social Media

Let us first address the elephant in the room: It is important to keep in mind that not every campaign will go viral. Marketing agencies that tell you it is guaranteed to go viral are simply overselling themselves and you should not fall for it. It is however, not impossible to increase our chances of having a viral and successful campaign by coming up with creative ideas and strategies that speak to the personalities of our audiences.

While publishers are gatekeepers of the content we produce and how it is distributed to our audiences, we are also trying to connect with real people and once the content is produced and released you cannot really control the outcome of the campaign and the people’s response to it. In this article, we will look at two campaigns that started out on a good note and ended terribly after some backlash.

1. UK Government #EatOutToHelpOut Campaign

The UK Government came up with a campaign designed to help the failing food and drink sectors during consecutive and extensive lockdowns and as the government, in position of power, it was dramatic to have contradictory campaigns from one source. The UK population described it as “misleading and contradictory”. The campaign pledged to give diners a 50% discount on food and non-alcoholic drinks on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout August in various restaurants and cafes including fast food chains like Ed’s Diner, KGC, Burger King and Pizza Hut.

Eat Out To Help Out — UK Campaign (stock images)

In as much as this initially was a noble cause, there was a previous campaign by the government after news that being fat makes Covid19 symptoms worse. To the British public this translated as “ the public should lose weight AND eat fast food to revive the country”. This implication did not go unnoticed and the Public responded scandalized on different social platforms.

Brighton Journal tweet screen grab

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged that the Government was wrong and in a statement said “It was very important to keep those jobs going. Now, if it, in so far as that scheme may have helped to spread the virus, then obviously we need to counteract that and we need to counteract that with the discipline and the measures that we’re proposing.” In the next lockdown, the pubs and restaurants were closed and this campaign was put to a halt.

2. Four Seasons Total Landscaping & President Trump

On November 8th President Donald Trump tweeted that his lawyers would be addressing reporters from the Four Seasons Philadelphia at 11 a.m. , however the hotel management quickly tweeted back that it was Four Seasons Total Landscaping, which has no relation to the hotel. Unfortunately, the tweet came down within minutes, which in PR is considered a big mistake.

Four Seasons Philadelphia Hotel response tweet.

Turns out the event was to be held in the parking of a Landscaping company, which in its response responded in an amusing way that PR specialists called “pure gold”.

Four Seasons Total Landscaping response to Donald Trump

Handling a Bad PR Disaster

a. Don’t delete any social media activity

Coward! A coward is what you will be called for erasing any evidence. On social platforms such as twitter which are somewhat a justice for the mob, it is highly likely that someone has taken a screenshot before you even delete the evidence and chances are it will bite back. The best thing to do as an individual is to own up the mistake or keep quiet and monitor the activity until you are ready to address it.

b. Appoint a response team

If you are a firm, company, business, political party or anything collective, it is good to have someone assigned to respond but also a compliance team to agree on the communication strategy should there be need for a statement to be released. If the communication is centralized, there are less chances that an individual could respond in a heat of the moment or out of emotions which might cause even more damage.

c. Laugh at yourself

Yup! you read well. Laughing at yourself makes people sympathize and see that you have practically thought about all the trolls they could throw. If you look back at the Emily Crisp campaign referred to in our previous article, you will realize that their campaign went viral for all the reasons they certainly had not fathomed or planned for while coming up with their strategy.

d. Avoid defensiveness

Whatever the case, do not be rude, defensive or aggressive in responding to a campaign gone wrong. Be diplomatic, considerate, responsive and humble. On top of a campaign gone wrong, you can’t afford to get into a heated argument with your audience.

e. Move on

Social media moves on very fast, and so should you. Don’t shy away from engaging your audience with more positive posts, deals if you’re a business and consistently conversing with the online audience in an upbeat manner. Don’t dwell on the disaster, Move On!

In conclusion, there is no such thing as 100% guaranteed successful campaign. People have different feelings, emotions and interpretations of information. While some might engage positively, some might have mixed feelings or completely opposing feelings and we must always be open to all kinds of interactions and be ready to address it accordingly and as professionally as possible.