A small blunder here, a tiny oopsy daisy there, and the occasional, oooooooh, oh no-type of mistake.
Well, fam, c’est la vie. But, the best part? Other marketers have their fair share of trip-ups and some of them actually talk about it. We love when they do ’cause that means we get to talk about it, learn, and get better at what we do.
Marketing is all about catching consumer attention. But today, iMPACT is honing in on the brands that wildly missed the mark with their social media goals.
Grab the popcorn and learn from these cringe-worthy stories.
1. The United States Air Force jumps head first in on the Yanny/Laurel trend. The frustratingly mind-blowing phenomenon had consumers and brands alike vocalizing which version they heard (it’s Laurel btw). Anyway, the US Airforce drew a line, then cannonballed over it by pairing the death of others with the not-to-be-taken-seriously trend. They tweeted and quickly deleted:
“The Taliban Forces in Farah city #Afghanistan would much rather have heard #Yanny or #Laurel than the deafening #BRRRT they got courtesy of our #A10. Read more: https://t.co/pTxpG3X6Uipic.twitter.com/vLbCg94P3w”
Which…went over as well as you’d imagine.
2. Trying to remain relevant, Snapchat keeps stoking flames and not in a good way either. The social platform has been trying to compete with Facebook and Instagram’s brand-friendly advertising. And, they’re doing a terrible job. For a game called Would You Rather, an ad asked users if they would rather slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown….
3. Starbucks, you threw us for a copywriting loop. We have no idea what the major coffee brand was trying to get at. In a social media ad for the Blonde Espresso drink, the copy read,
“Introducing Starbucks Blonde Espresso. Who says espresso has to be intense? We have for 43 years. But We’re Starbucks Coffee Company. So we did the exact opposite.”
We have zero ideas on what this is supposed to mean.
The takeaway here – Get others to look over your work! Give that third party what you plan to show the world and find out exactly how they perceive it. And work with that perception.
