How to avoid online campaign disasters

Image credit: Erik Lucatero on Unsplash.

Failed social media campaigns from famous and reputable brands are plentiful on the internet.

The biggest PR fails and brand disasters of the last decade

Ade Lewis  17 Aug 2018

No brand is immune to making mistakes, yet some errors are easily avoidable. Without a comprehensive social media policy and practical social media tools, companies can end up trending for the wrong reasons.

Here are five tips on how brands can avoid digital and overall campaign blunders.

Diversity cures tone-deaf campaigns

To prevent apparent traps, individuals working on online content creation should come from a diverse background. Blatant errors often happen because those responsible for curating a brand’s subject matter are tone-deaf or suffer from tunnel vision.

Prada shelves 'blackface' figurines decried as racist

19 Dec 2018

Having multiple people check the content before it’s published also helps to notice typos and grammar errors. The same applies to the use of hashtags. Do a general search to see if that hashtag is not associated with anything that goes against the brand’s values.

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I've been using @dove since I was an elementary school aged child per dermatologist recommendation. But effectively immediately, I will not purchase any more Dove products. An apology won't do, because whoever posted this ad knew exactly what they were doing. They only "regret" it because of the backlash. They will NOT be getting more of my coins. Smh. . #Repost @moniquepressley ・・・ So, apparently, with the help of Dove, we can wash this brown right off of our skin? No, Dove. Unacceptable. "Missed the mark" doesn't even begin to cover it. #racism #corporate #advertising #enough #buyblack #dove #doveracist #StayWoke

A post shared by Terinee (@terinee) on Oct 9, 2017 at 10:01am PDT

Meme your own business

Brands wishing to pivot their presence on the back of a pop culture reference or newsfeed need to have conducted comprehensive research.

They must ensure the context of the reference applies to their messaging and values as a brand.

The more, the merrier until it is not

A great way of attracting audience engagement is to create a campaign that incorporates user-generated content. This allows your target market to embody your brand and feel like they belong to the broader community.

But left unattended, trolls can set fire to your campaign – reducing your brand’s reputation to ash. The choice is simple: vet and only allow content that resonates with the brand or refrain from campaigns that rely on user-generated content.

Does influence come at too high a price?

Estelle Nagel  13 Sep 2018

Not all funny bones need tickling

Humour is a great way of endearing a brand’s values within the target audience's emotions. Funny wins big when it lands.

But not every brand can afford to be funny, let alone pull it off. Never compromise a brand’s ethics to gain a few laughs. Humour is subjective, while your intentions may be pure, you may end up missing the mark and receiving huge backlash – especially when trying to lighten up a heavy subject.

The biggest lessons brands can learn from music artists

Siphiwe Mpeta  19 Sep 2018

Brands need to learn to walk before they race

South Africa is a country with a racially-charged history. Some marketers may be oblivious as to how some cultural stereotypes, instead of landing as humorous, may come across as racist. While it is essential to have discussions from all parties around how we move the nation forward, brands wishing to get into the conversation of race need to be careful how they walk that line.

If brands miss the mark, they risk tarnishing their image by grandstanding or diminishing people’s lived experiences to a failed media campaign.

Told you'll a long time ago about @OUTsurance. This is how they see you!!! This is the only way they see us! pic.twitter.com/sQZikAqt9a

— Andile Ncube (@AndileNcube) June 18, 2017

Nike's courageous new ad campaign mixing racial politics with sport will be vindicated

Keith Rathbone  6 Sep 2018

In the digital age, being the first to publish engaging content is excellent. But getting it right is even better.

It is harder for a brand to clean up its tarnished image because they rushed to be first and got it wrong than it is to create and execute a whole well-researched campaign. The costs of not investing in the groundwork for a campaign far outweigh the price and time spent required to getting it right the first time around.