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Are you ready for the tenth, yes the TENTH, instalment of our #12SmartDaysofChristmas? Today is all about social media and marketing fails. Season of love and joy? Not today! Big brand or not, no one is safe this Christmas! See if you can remember any of these festive fails.
5: Oprah’s iPad gaffe (2012)
I’m all for a bit of celebrity brand endorsement (especially around Christmas time) but when you’re as big-a-name as Oprah with as many as 26.1m twitter followers, make sure the execution is on point. Like the time she tweeted about loving the Microsoft Surface… via Twitter for iPad. Awkward. When this took place in 2012, Microsoft had apparently spent $1.5 billion enlisting a string of celebrities, including Oprah, to help market their latest products in a bid to rival Apple. Safe to say this endorsement kind of backfired, as no matter how much Oprah endorses Microsoft products on social, including that she bought 12 as gifts, it would appear that she would still prefer to use Apple products. I wonder if Microsoft still paid her?
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4. Poundland
Everyone loves a bit of Poundland, and if you say you don’t then you secretly do. Of course, with everything being £1 or less, you do expect the quality of some items to be compromised. However, when customers started expressing the many and varied issues with their products on social media, the world watched… and laughed. From malfunctioning products and miserable staff to misspelt cards and decorations… the customer examples became pure entertainment to the public. The social fail here is that Poundland felt the need to respond to customers by saying ‘Hi’ before their name, therefore ensuring every single one of their followers are able to see the conversation. Why, just why? And Poundland’s standard carbon copy response to every tweet made it more comical. Sorry Poundland, you know we don’t expect a lot from you, but thank you for giving us some laughs this Christmas.
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3. Coca-Cola white cans (2011)
One of the most iconic global brands, known for their red branding, took a new approach to their packaging in their 2011 Christmas campaign. In aid of raising awareness and money for Polar Bear charities they turned 1.4 billion of their famous red cans of Coca-Cola to white. However, even though polar bears were also present on packaging and advertisements, consumers were confused as to what they were actually being sold. Many thought that these cans were diet coke as they looked too similar to its silver packaging, and accused Coca-Cola of ‘tricking’ them. Although, perhaps the blame could be placed on the consumers here for not reading the label correctly, outrage sparked on twitter, with diabetics claiming they had bought and consumed the product by accident, not realising it was regular Coca-Cola. Some consumers even said they thought it made the soda taste different. Shortly after the campaign was launched, the red cans were brought back in, in order to stop all the confusion. That was the first time Coca-Cola have changed from their iconic red branding, and I doubt they will be doing it again anytime soon.
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2. UPS – delivering late, ruining Christmas (2013)
When you’re a delivery company, you really only have one job: To deliver the goods on time. It seemed UPS couldn’t keep up with the high demand over Christmas which resulted in many packages being late or not delivered at all. Backlogs occurred meaning many customers were left without presents on Christmas day, delivery men were forced to work long hours and some packages were damaged. Many outraged customers took to complaining on the UPS Facebook page. Some even declaring UPS ruined their holidays and they were the Grinch that stole Christmas. ‘Santa’s helpers’? Maybe not.
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1: WKD, being WKD
Plenty of brands try to be leftfield and controversial within their marketing approach, and there have been many that have made my jaw drop. But none so more than this one.
As you can imagine, there were more than a few complaints from members of the public.
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WKD of course played it down, blaming it on their ‘WKD side’ but apologised as soon as they saw the amount of complaints, and removed all posters. In response to the public reaction they did announce that they will be making a donation to the RSPCA. Well, it’s the least you could do, but some may say it’s a little too late.
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Missed or want a recap of our previous 12 Smart Days? Head over to our 12 Smart Days of Christmas page where you’ll find fresh Christmas shopping intel and information. Merry Christmas!