With New York in the throes of Social Media Week, a few of us stopped by one of the more unique events last night, The SUXORZ. The premise is simple: people do dumb things. Some of those people even represent brands and do so in the embarrassingly public realm of social media. The SUXORZ gave us the worst social media campaigns of 2009 – a refreshing deviation from conversations of emerging platforms and social media ROI. More than anything, this was a crash course in common sense.
The distinguished finalists – as chosen by the panel of Caroline McCarthy, BL Ochman, Steve Hall and Ian Schafer – included the following (click on each for full story):
Charmin: Times Square + Portable bathrooms + $10,000 to capture “family friendly video from the restroom space” = social media TMI. While exciting, for round one, they came in No. 2.
Old Spice: No one likes deodorant residue – no one likes a close-up even more. Old Spice gets a no-no for grossing out consumers worldwide with viral videos and songs that left people feeling dirty.
Queensland Australia: Paying someone to live on an island and blog about their experience certainly sounds like the “best job ever,” until you get stung by a jellyfish…
Toyota: Crisis communications at its finest. In the face of serious product recalls that are concerning consumers, Toyota has promptly said… nothing.
Ryanair: An airline employee thought it wise to cut down a blogger via email simply because they were pointing out a flaw they found on their website. That’s a quick way to get your 15 minutes of fame.
Gawker/Bloodcopy: Gawker blurred the lines between advertising and editorial when it “acquired” a vampire blog called Bloodcopy. Problem is, this was just a stunt for HBO’s True Blood, and some fell for it.
InsidetheBCS: Anyone who follows college football knows the BCS system is flawed. The BCS organization took this flawed argument and made it even more visible on twitter! Angry fans unleashed.
Time Warner: While competing companies like Comcast have made a name for themselves with their helpful social media customer service, Time Warner has gone another route: squatting on the username TimeWarnerCares. Fail.
Agent Provocateur: This lingerie brand embraced social media full force, received wide acclaim for it, and then stopped all together weeks later. As they say, social media is a commitment, not a campaign
HabitatUK: Use hashtags wisely, my friends. This furniture brand blamed an intern for using the Iran election as a way to get more “brand awareness” on twitter.
Twitter Billboard: An Alabama news station decided to connect with its audience by airing tweets on a highway billboard. Problem is, some tweets caught drivers’ attention because of their rather graphic nature.
Needless to say, these “memorable” campaigns certainly got people talking. The winner (or is it loser?), you ask? Well, the honorable mentions went to Old Spice, Ryanair and Time Warner while ultimate victory was claimed by the Twitter Billboard. Large brands misusing social channels got people riled up, but nothing could trump the naivety of running an unmoderated live twitter feed on a 40 ft billboard. As your mother always told you – think before you speak. The executives that thought this was a good idea missed an important step: they didn’t think.
One thing that panelists and moderator Henry Copeland agreed on is that social media is starting to grow up. The ’09 finalists were nowhere near as catastrophic as the 2008 field. It looks like brands, for the most part, are beginning to realize what works and what doesn’t in the social media space.
Look forward to another year full of social media blunders to make the SUXORZ 2011 even more entertaining. Just try and stay off this list.
{ 2 trackbacks }
Comments on this entry are closed.