Mac-and-cheese shipwreck

Kraft Foods decided to play on an old game for a marketing approach and utilize Twitter to deliver and grow the message and outreach to get people talking about macaroni and cheese. The details to their social game went something like this: Anytime two people individually use the phrase “mac and cheese” in a Tweet, they would each get a link pointing out the “Mac and Jinx.” The first one to click the link and give Kraft his or her address received five free boxes of Kraft’s macaroni and cheese, and a T-shirt.

This is a modern update of the game where whenever two people said something at the same time, you’d blurt out, “Jinx, buy me a Coke.” Kraft’s campaign replaced the soda with “mac and cheese” for their new “Mac and Jinx” Twitter campaign. According to Mashable, Kraft had developed a new game to get the phrase “mac and cheese” trending on the social networking site. This all sounds creative, right? And they did get some great results and attention for this campaign, but this campaign seemed to take a turn and shipwrecked.

As their campaign grew momentum, it seemed that “mac and cheese” started to trend a topic on Twitter, and when you clicked on the topic, you would see Tweets like this:

Kraft confesses, “we use genetically engineered bovine growth hormone” #food (link to the mac and cheese press release here)

or what about this Tweet from someone famous—Alyssa Milano, who has 1,403,372 followers, posted this Tweet:

“If you buy/eat any Kraft products, please read (link inserted with information about Kraft’s food process).

Then from this Tweet followed another one from @WootLive,

“wonder why Kraft wants you to tweet about mac and cheese? It’s to bury the news that they use GMO bovine growth hormone in their “food.”

This shipwreck has made some people permanently lose their appetite for mac and cheese. If you allow random people the opportunity to Tweet your keywords, be prepared to do damage control if any of your company’s less-than-shining moments get sung to the internet ocean.

Dr. Pepper and that porn video shipwreck

A marketing agency won the Dr. Pepper UK account from Coca Cola and started out with a good idea by developing a Facebook application that gave consumers the chance to win £1,000 if they allowed the brand to take control of their status updates. It launched in May as part of Dr. Pepper’s “What’s the Worst That Could Happen?” campaign. The status updates were randomly generated and ranged in degrees of embarrassment. The worst unfortunately did happen however, as one particularly offensive update ended up on the profile of a 14-year-old girl. It read, “I watched 2 girls 1 cup and felt hungry afterwards.” If you’re not familiar with it, 2 Girls 1 Cup is possibly one of the most notorious internet porn videos out there and understandably the girl’s mother (who happened to be on Mumsnet.com) was rather upset to find her daughter searching online for the clip to see what it was. The campaign was pulled immediately and the marketing agency was left with some real explaining to do, and a reputation for being out of control and untrustworthy.

OK, really—how do big box marketing agencies get these accounts, and furthermore, who in the world in these agencies actually approved this concept? It is truly mind blowing.

Toyota shipwreck

Toyota marketing created some kind of off-the-wall alternate reality game, whose foundation was that you were being stalked by an unhinged criminal who sent you threatening emails saying that he was coming to your house, backed up by things like MySpace profiles, and even angry bills from hotels he trashed on the way, having given your name as the payment contact. A woman didn’t realize that these were a marketing prank and thought she was being stalked, got scared, lived her life in fear, and then sued. Toyota’s defense? The woman had taken some online survey in which the fine print gave them permission to send her “marketing and other communications.” Make sure your marketing is transparent so your audience understands your message.

Habitat shipwreck

Habitat, an interior design brand from the United Kingdom, made the decision to use the Twitter hashtag functionality to drive users to its products. The manner in which it was executed, however, turned out to be a high-profile, epic fail. The intern given the responsibility for tweeting exploited the controversy over the Iranian election by using the hashtags #iranianelection and #mousavi, which was not well-received by Twitter users. Habitat was accused of piggybacking on popular topics to market their products, and clearly did not take time to understand their chosen medium and the rules of engagement, or the responsibility that goes with speaking in the voice of your brand.

This story drives the point home that you have got to have your social media policies and procedures in place to tell representatives what they can and cannot do online. Why would you want to tie your brand in with a controversial, political topic, anyway? That is branding suicide.

Murphy-Goode wine doesn’t pick a winner—another shipwreck

Murphy-Goode Winery thought they had a clever idea to promote their wines to a younger, internet-savvy audience. They decided to do what they referred to as a “star-search” for a new “spokesperson,” and call them a “lifestyle correspondent,” using the power of the internet to select the winner, build awareness, buzz, and of course the ultimate goal—goodwill. Applicants were asked to create and post a video to YouTube, explaining why they would make the best candidate. Murphy-Goode encouraged fans to vote on their favorites, and the winery promised to first select 50 finalists, bringing the top ten up to Healdsburg for a final set of interviews.

Over 2,000 people applied, and more than 900 videos applications were posted on YouTube. Thousands of votes were cast, with ex-TechTV and Revision3 host Martin Sargent the clear winner. His submission received 6,600 votes, more than three times as many as the second place video, and more votes than the next four or five candidates combined. But when the winery finally announced their top 50 candidates, Sargent was conspicuously absent from the list. Across the web, it quickly got ugly. First Sargent’s fans started lambasting the Murphy-Goode Winery, and then his influential friends picked up on the injustice. Popular web host Leo Laporte told his 136,000 listeners about the travesty, as did Digg founder Kevin Rose (who has 1,061,379 Twitter followers to date). Kevin followed that up by spending nearly 10 minutes talking about the issue with his co-host Alex Albrecht on the popular Revision3 show, Diggnation. The story ended up getting nearly 2,400 Diggs, which was enough to put it into the top 10, where it was seen by a significant fraction of the site’s 39 million monthly unique visitors.

There was more negative chatter around the internet—a lot more. And instead of improving the winery’s perception among internet-savvy drinkers, the opposite appears to be true. Search for “Murphy Goode” on Google, and you’ll find two of the top ten results are negative stories about the failed campaign, with headlines that say “Murphy-Goode’s job contest turns sour,” and “Murphy-Goode says #1 spot isn’t good enough to make top 50.” And nearly a third of the 122,000 search results for Murphy Goode are, in fact, negative stories spawned by the Martin Sargent debacle.

If you run a brand video contest, you must be publicly honest and transparent about posting results especially when the video views were posted publicly.

DKNY shipwreck

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) staged an anti-fur protest on clothing brand DKNY’s Facebook fan page. Thirteen different users changed their Facebook profile photos to block letters and posted in quick succession on the DKNY’s Page to spell out the words “DK Bunny Butcher” in protest of the brand’s use of rabbit fur. Dozens of supporters have since taken to the page to voice their disdain for the LVMH-owned company’s practices, reaching many of the page’s 200,000+ fans in the process. In addition to the Facebook protest, PETA has also held demonstrations outside of Donna Karan’s New York offices and events she has hosted, as well as retail outlets carrying her design. Surprisingly, the posts are still up.

Makeover salon victory

When co-owners Matt Buchan and Alex Garcia decided to buy and make over a hair salon in Seattle, Washington, which they renamed Emerson Salon after Ralph Waldo Emerson, they decided that the internet would be an important focus for their business. Little did they know that two years later, 75 percent of their business would be sourced from Facebook, Twitter, and their blog. Their social branding is apparent from the second that you hit their website. They have links to all of their social profiles, links to all of their stylists’ social profiles, their blog feed, and a button where users can book their next hair appointment online. Even more impressively, after booking an appointment, a user can share their appointment with friends on Twitter or Facebook. Since introducing social media into the mix, traffic to their website has more than tripled.

Liberty Bay Books victory

For Suzanne Droppert, the owner of this independent bookstore located in Poulsbo, Washington, that specializes in Scandinavian and nautical books, social media seemed to be a natural outlet because she was already known as a thought leader. Droppert began experimenting with social media after attending an educational seminar early last year. The presenter absolutely insisted the attendees join Twitter immediately. Droppert believes it is important to stay connected with online social conversations regarding your business’ space. She stays abreast on books, travel, food, and local events via her store’s Facebook and Twitter pages. She also uses the company blog and YouTube channel to keep the community up-to-date on book signings and in-store events on.

In the end, Droppert’s goal is to share views, ideas, and conversation with her customers and the authors who visit her store. Her social media efforts, which are an extension of her genuine interest in her customers, led to a growth in sales, as well as a growth in genuine connections with her customers.

Whole Foods victory turned shipwreck

Whole Foods has had an extremely active presence with social media from day one. They embraced all of the top social sites, with over 1.2 million followers on Twitter and more than 100,000 fans on Facebook. There is no doubt that Whole Foods has benefited from its active presence in social media. Unfortunately, years after building a strong following and interaction outlet, Whole Foods has seen a more negative example of the power and influence of consumers using social media.

John McKey, Whole Foods chief executive officer, voiced his opinion about President Obama’s healthcare reform initiatives. His comments were published in The Wall Street Journal. In essence, he was promoting the benefits of whole foods and claimed that by eating a healthier diet, many sicknesses and chronic diseases can be prevented. He was outspoken in announcing that the government should not have any part in healthcare reforms. His comments were controversial and upset some people. Whole Foods’ experience with social media had been extremely positive in the promotion of their brand and online exposure, but this incident is demonstrating to Whole Foods another side of social media. John McKay’s comments spurred some people to form a Facebook group called Boycott Whole Foods. Within a week, Boycott Whole Foods generated a Facebook following of over 22,000. The Boycott Whole Foods group created a blog, organizes picketing events, and is increasing its Facebook supporters by thousands every day. The group is encouraging people to spend their money elsewhere, and the community members are suggesting alternate health foods resources. This boycott has been totally driven by consumers through social media, and has elicited a public response from Whole Foods, shared via a Facebook note that reads, “First off, whether you agree with John or not, our 50,000+ team members who live and work in your communities will continue to work hard every day to bring you the best natural organic products available. We hope you will continue to give us the opportunity to serve you.” Companies can no longer do and say whatever they like without repercussions. This incidence with Whole Foods shows the power that the ordinary person has to take a stand and gain support over unpopular actions of organizations that impact the bottom line.

Would it be wise at this point for John Mackey to make an apology? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and not everyone is going to agree. He would do well to stand up and engage or talk with his online community by either doing webcasts every now and then to show a different side of him, or at least to start building or rebuilding relationships. To ignore it will just make it grow.

Will it Blend? victory

Blendtec increased its sales dramatically by running the often humorous “Will it Blend” Videos on YouTube, blending everything from an iPhone to a sneaker. Their fans continue to grow exponentially every day, and although this campaign was started several years ago, it is still extremely viral and has traction today. This campaign consists of an ongoing series of infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders, especially the Total Blender. In the show, Tom Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempts to blend various unusual items in order to show off the power of his blender. Dickson started this marketing campaign after doing a blending attempt with a box of matches. At some point during the blending process, a subtitle appears stating whether or not the particular items are safe to blend at home. Golf balls, marbles, cell phones and cubic zirconia, for example, are not safe. These show the subtitle “Don’t try this at home.” On the other hand, credit cards, ice, and a McDonald’s Extra Value Meal^® are safe to blend. These show the subtitle “Please try this at home.” While the item is being blended, Dickson is smiling and waiting for the process to end. When it does, Dickson frequently warns viewers not to breathe the smoke or dust that results when blending unsafe items by saying, “Don’t breathe this!” At the end of each video, the contents are emptied out onto a work top, at which point the subtitle, “Yes, it blends!” appears.

One of the most famous Will it Blend? creations is the “co-chicken,” which is half a chicken (cooked, usually rotisserie) blended with 12 fluid ounces of Coca-Cola (without the can). Although the show’s example was blended with the bones (and thus was disclaimed as unsafe to eat), a boneless version was made on NBC’s Today show and served to Meredith Vieira.

Lifespan victory

Lifespan used Twitter to proactively reach out to patients and their family and friends who were visiting its hospitals. Their goal was to engage in personal conversation to build loyalty and be aware of what was being said about them, and have that serve as an extension of the strategic marketing plan. More often than not, the comments posted about the hospitals were positive.

Shortly after establishing their Twitter accounts, they started using Twitter’s terrific “search” function to look for any mentions of their hospitals. If someone Tweeted that they were “visiting mom at Rhode Island Hospital,” for example, they’d Tweet them directly and wish them all the best, in a very personal tone. Keep in mind these “conversations” can be read by thousands of Twitter users. The responses they received to these direct Tweets were amazing. First, the person is surprised that the hospital is actually on Twitter. Second, they express sincere appreciation that they took time to message them back in a personal way.

One of their facilities, Newport Hospital, had an ongoing Twitter conversation with a man whose mother had been in the ICU and finally released. He couldn’t thank the hospital enough—not only for the care she received, but also for the concern they expressed on a personal level through these Tweets.

Addressing negative issues can also be accomplished through this new medium. One woman Tweeted that she was late for her appointment because she couldn’t find her way around the very large, urban Rhode Island Hospital campus. They responded that indeed, it can be confusing, apologized for the inconvenience, and sent her a link to a campus map on the web, saying she could contact them anytime. Her appreciation was clear in her responses.

United Linen victory

Not all social media success stories come from large, global companies. United Linen, a professional uniform and linen laundry services in Oklahoma, effectively used social media and continues to grow its business and interact with customers. The company leverages a blog on its website to provide customers with posts and videos on everything from ordering linens for major holidays, to the company’s winter delivery schedule. United Linen is also extremely active on Twitter, posting several Tweets throughout the day to promote new blog content, ReTweet others’ relevant content, and engage with followers. The small B2B company boasts more than 1,600 targeted followers, which can equate to a substantial amount of business and exposure. The company has reported an increase in sales due to their social media efforts.

The power of social media is yet to be grasped by many individuals and businesses around the globe. Hopefully this book brought to light not only the importance of connection online but how you can really utilize social marketing to bring your brand forward and build lifelong, life-changing relationships into your center of influence.