McDonald’s handled this by ultimately pulling the hashtag.  Rick Wion, McDonald’s social media director said:

“Within an hour, we saw that it wasn’t going as planned.  It was negative enough that we set about a change of course.”

But there is something to be learned from McDonald’s misfortune.  Social media marketing can be guided, but only to a certain extent.  This could have happened to anyone, as social media marketing depends so greatly on consumers, stakeholders and the company.  It is how you respond that will define your company.

While social media marketing can unveil consumer grievances, it also allows for a way to reach individual consumers to solve problems.  With Twitter, McDonalds had the opportunity to reach out to each person who complained using the hashtag.

A great example of using a company Twitter account to resolve consumer complaints is JetBlue airlines, explained in The New York Times article, “How to Fight Back When your Flight is Canceled.”  After suffering from constant flight cancellations, consumers turned to Twitter to express their frustration.  JetBlue offered support through social media and followed-up on specific consumer problems to make sure they were solved.  JetBlue used social media to reform what would have been poor consumer sentiment.

The back story is that for “business reasons” the company decided to discontinue their “ultra” product, known for its high-flow absorbency. Over the past year, users of o.b. ultra were finding it harder and harder to locate their favorite tampon, until it was
eventually gone from shelves all together. Enraged and upset, o.b. ultra fans created an “I want my o.b. ultras” facebook page, (which I believe you have to be a true fan to like), and created a website to collect signatures. Now that’s a dedicated customer base.

Realizing that they had made a mistake, the folks at Johnson & Johnson (makers of o.b. tampons), announced that they would be bringing the product back next year. But just to show that they were truly sorry for their misguided ways, they also created an apology video, which can be personalized, and is overly dramatic and hilarious.

Kudus to the o.b. tampon folks for admitting they made a mistake and then doing something to let their customers know that they count.

Click here to watch your own personalized apology video.

Lately however, there has been a growing contingent who is getting a little sick of the pink ribbon. And I have to admit, I’m one of them. This month we are inundated with the color – from NFL players wearing pink gloves and shoes, to celebrities wearing pink on the red carpet to the fountain in LOVE Park spouting pink water – our landscape is saturated with pink. Of course I support breast cancer research and awareness, but I also feel that we are all very aware of it. What I’m not aware of is whether the fight against breast cancer is progressing.

Apparently, I’m not the first to feel this way. Groups such as Breast Cancer Action in San Francisco and the National  Breast Cancer Coalition in Washington, DC have created campaigns demanding more action. The head of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, Fran Visco, in a recent e-mail to her membership, called for a “solution,” such as the development of a breast cancer vaccine, rather than just more hope. “We have to stop celebrating breast cancer awareness months and begin pushing for the end,” she wrote.

Amen to that.

Another element of the awareness campaign that barely makes sense to me is the Facebook meme that happens this time of year. Last year it was women telling everyone where they like it. “I like it on the floor,” “I like it on the couch,” “I like it in the closet …,” with the “it” being their purse. The previous year women were declaring their bra colors to show solidarity for the cause.

What does this have to do with breast cancer awareness exactly? Nothing.

I’m not ready to proclaim a boycott to everything pink, because these campaigns do raise billions of dollars each year for the cause. What I would like to see is more messaging about what is being done. What progress have we made? How are the millions wearing pink this month really making a difference, if at all? Over 40,000 women will die from breast cancer this year in the US. Let’s start drawing attention to prevention and progress in the fight… now that we’re all aware.

We have seen time and time again that people resort to social media to check out what’s going on and who else is talking about it. While it is an effective way to spread false information, it is also an extremely efficient way to get information fast. It is so fast that it is possible to see a tweet about the earthquake before you feel that same earthquake.

This was my first time experiencing a social media melt down, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. It was a little shaky at first, but then I enjoyed the ride. My phone wasn’t working initially, so I just sat back and followed the hashtag #earthquake. Twitter was chirping away during the crisis.  Just check out this awesome map that shows all the tweets from the time the quake hit through 30 seconds after.

Social media gives people the information they can’t get anywhere else, including rumors, lies, personal accounts and jokes, such as photos of quake casualties like water bottles and lawn chairs. If there were real casualties, there would not have been any humor in the situation, but since this is the East Coast, we were lucky and yes, a bit dramatic.

The entire West Coast is cracking up over East Coaster’s shaking in our shoes over a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. However, that’s why I live in Philadelphia and suffer through four seasons including the seismic snow storms and wicked hot summers; I don’t want to live in fear of earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados or wild fires.

Now excuse me, I have to go prepare for Hurricane Irene.

At Maven, we are always looking to promote our clients in new and creative ways.  And when there is no “breaking” news to announce on behalf of your clients, a good PR firm will find ways to create their own.

Salon Vanity by Edmondo Blando on the 10! Show

Excel Physical Therapy and Fitness and Salon Vanity by Edmondo Blando, are two consumer clients whose clients include many brides-to-be looking to gear up for their big day.  Since June is the most popular month of the year to get married, we thought why not pitch a targeted broadcast segment focusing specifically on weddings? With broadcast coverage in mind, we approached the NBC 10! Show with the idea of launching a “wedding special” featuring both clients. The producers loved the idea of putting together a show about the hottest trends in weddings in the hottest month to get married. With a tight time line of three weeks, wedding special feature grew from two segments into an entire hour-long program dedicated to the hottest wedding trends – everything from flowers, dresses, dances, hair & makeup, wedding planners, fitness, food and more with an audience consisting entirely of brides-to-be. Maven and the NBC 10! team divided and conquered the show and all of its various components.

Excel Physical Therapy and Fitness on the 10! Show

In addition to our two clients, Maven secured fabulous wedding consultant Vinnie D’Adamo of Kaleidoscope Solutions to cover wedding planning trends, and high end bridal boutique Bridals by Danielle to showcase the hottest wedding dress trends for the season. We outlined the segments, developed key messages for guests, media trained the spokesperson and practiced run-throughs with all our segment guests to ensure the show was flawless.

As well as conducting the orchestra of semi-live television (the 10! Show is taped at 10am as if live but then plays as is at 11am), Maven was charged with filling the 50-seat audience entirely with brides-to-be and assemble a gift bag for each. We ended the bride search with a waiting list 15 brides deep and a very excited studio audience. In addition, gift bags for the audience turned out wonderfully with a value of more than $500 each.

The icing on the wedding cake was a special giveaway to one lucky bride in the audience. Maven was able to secure:

A three-day/2-night Luxury Included® Honeymoon to any of the twelve Sandals Resorts with locations in Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia and the Bahamas. The lucky couple’s Luxury Included® stay includes lavish accommodations, all meals, including gourmet dining and anytime snacks, premium brand beverages, daily & nightly entertainment, an array of land and water-sports including snorkeling and scuba, gratuities, and transfers to and from the resort designated airport.

The excited Sandals Resorts' winner!

The brides had no idea about their chance to win this special getaway when signing up for the show, but they were thrilled to find out! The winner was thrilled and Maven basked in its once in a lifetime Oprah-inspired moment.

Watch our clients’ segments below as seen by the estimated 27,000 daily viewers of the 10! Show. Maven placed the videos of their segments on their respective websites and facebook pages and made sure people saw how great they were and are! We owe the 10! Show team and everyone who helped out a HUGE thank you! Please visit the websites of those who donated to the gift bags at the end of this post. In addition, you can find more behind the scenes photos on Maven’s facebook page.

Everyone was elated with how the wedding special turned out, especially and most importantly, our clients, who were thrilled with the exposure the segment provided.

Gift Bag Contributors:

Sandals Resorts

Beke Beau

Bellezza Veils

Brandywine Valley Talent

Bridals by Danielle

Byers’ Choice, LTD.

Carl Alan Floral Designs

Carolina Pad

Chic Gems

dressy.com

Elegant Events

Excel Physical Therapy and Fitness

It’s in the Stars

Kaleidoscope Solutions

Larmon Studios

Marriott Philadelphia West

Philadelphia Marriott Downtown

Pictures by Todd,

Priscilla of Boston

Proud to Plan

Queen of Hearts Weddings

Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia

Sabrina Ann

Sagets Formal Wear

Salon Vanity by Edmondo Blando

Silver Image Photography

Spell it Out

Stella & Dot

But what about the more serious, and sometimes violent, effects of the immediate connectivity of social networking? 140 characters or a viral Facebook invitation allows for little information and organization, but  excitement translates very well.

Recently, a couple of blocks from the Maven offices, a ‘flash mob‘ (which isn’t as risque as it sounds) assembled in The Gallery, a small Center City mall. The group of 150 high school aged kids didn’t dance or pillow fight, which would have been adorable. They instead ended up ransacking Macy’s department store and running ammuck. Supposedly the mob was organized in the spirit of the massive snowball fight that also occurred. But in true Philly fashion, the friendly fire turned into a wildfire.

Like any new technology or fad, it can be used for good or evil, mostly depending on the intentions of its participants. With so many on social networks and its potential growth, I just hope no one take it too far and ruins it for the rest of us, especially when my commute and day could be unexpectedly brightened by a dancing flash mob! I am also eagerly awaiting day when a criminal’s defense is “twitter made me do it.”

How then do you attempt a viral campaign with chance of success?  Is there a formula to follow?  Dan Goodswen proves that there is definitely precedent to follow.  For the film industry specifically, there are aspects of certain campaigns that seem successful.  For films, it seems that if the viewer is questioning if something is true or not “the buzz” increases.  Call us conspiracy theorists, but examples like Blair Witch Project, Fight Club, and the Dark Knight fit the mold. Toeing the line with the ‘is it real?’ question creates hype.  Thinking outside the box is not necessarily better.  The Da Vinci Code tried games and puzzles on the internet, a campaign deemed too ambitious to be successful.

Now, viral videos are less underground.  We wake up to infectious and creative videos featured on the Today Show, videos are forwarded to our inboxes, and websites like Digg and Stumbleupon tell us what people everywhere are looking at.  What is so great, is that if your campaign is good, there are people tweeting until they are blue in the face fingers, and people will hear about it.

It is easy to connect youtube videos with viral campaigns but what else is out there?  Hershey’s used sponsored house parties, luring nearly 150,000 guests.  HBO series True Blood created fake beverage ads and a vampire-human dating site, causing viewership to grow 66% over the course of the first season. (Source:  http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/135/spread-the-word.html)

These numbers are impressive, no doubt.  Back to deciphering a formula, the answer for one constant success story is still at large.  The only consistency appears to be that any successful viral marketing campaign needs to ‘go big or go home’ in this pass/fail grading system.