Leaning From The Failure and Success Of Brands, Corporations and Personalities.
Case Study 1
Coca-Cola’s drinkable advertising; how would you feel if you could actually drink an advert.
Challenge:
Coke Zero is marketed as a zero-calorie, zero-sugar drink with the same taste as regular Coke, which distinguishes it from its sister soda Diet Coke’s distinct flavor.
Yet Coca-Cola has found that many people have pre-conceived notions of the beverage and assume they won’t like it even before taking a sip of it.
Research:
80 per cent of Millennials say they have not tried Coke Zero, but 60 per cent of people go on to re purchase it once they’ve had a taste of it, according to the company.
Objectives:
Increase penetration of the brand in order to accelerate growth. To have the campaign ready for the NCAA Final Four in March.
Strategies:
Partnering with Shazam (music identification App), Target (coupon redemption service company) and App developer to produce a Digitally-focused sampling campaign which include
Drinkable Flyers –
Coke Zero will deliver an innovative flyer that easily becomes a straw, giving any event goer the perfect tool for trying out Coke Zero. All they have to do is pull the straw away from the page and take the coupon on the flyer to a participating concession stand inside the Lucas Oil Stadium. There, they can redeem the coupon for a Coke Zero by simply presenting their coupon when ordering and enjoy the Coke Zero using the straw provided.
Drinkable Commercial —
Thirsty? Shazam to try Coke Zero. During the broadcast spot, viewers will watch as refreshing Coke Zero is poured from a glass contour bottle followed by a prompt to Shazam. They will then watch the experience migrate seamlessly from their TV to their mobile device as the Coke Zero continues to pour within the Shazam app until the glass is full, ultimately revealing a mobile coupon to redeem for a free 20-ounce bottle of Coke Zero at a participating retailer location. The Drinkable Commercial will air during national broadcasts of both semifinal games Saturday, April 4, on TBS, and the national championship game, Monday, April 6, on CBS.
Drinkable Stadium HD Video Boards –
Using the same technology as the drinkable commercial, drinkable videos will play on the HD Video Boards in Lucas Oil Stadium offering thousands of spectators the chance to simultaneously receive a coupon for a free Coke Zero on their mobile devices that can be redeemed at a participating retailer. These drinkable ads will air during the semifinal and national championship games at Lucas Oil Stadium, as well as the Coke Zero Countdown Concert at White River State Park.
Drinkable Challenge at Coke Zero™ Countdown Concert –
Throughout the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, Coke Zero has encouraged rival fans to be open to try being frenemies. At the Coke Zero Countdown Concert on Saturday, selected frenemies from opposing Final Four teams will go toe-to-toe by using the microphone in their Smartphone as a straw to see who can finish their bottle of Coke Zero from two digital screens near the concert stage. The winner will earn free Coke Zero for their team's fans in the audience.
Drinkable Interactive Mall Kiosks –
We're turning a simple Kiosk into a drinkable experience at Circle Centre Mall in downtown Indianapolis.
By “Shazaming” the ad, a phone becomes a straw that people can then use to “drink” the liquid on screen. Once the bottle is empty, the user will receive a code to redeem for a free Coke Zero at an exclusive vending machine, located on the first floor of the mall at the Washington and Illinois Street entrance.
Vending Machine Mascots —
No need to approach these vending machines — these vending machines will approach you! Throughout Indianapolis, people dressed in what appear to be authentic Coke Zero vending machines will randomly reward passersby with free Coke Zero…and some entertainment. “Our drinkable advertising is about less talk and more proof. We've created numerous opportunities for college basketball fans in Indianapolis and at home to experience the delicious refreshing taste of Coke Zero,” Mason added.
Drinkable Twitter tweet —
Consumer get a tweet from coke zero and retweet it a particular number of times to get a coupon for a free coke zero.
Sample tweet —
Coke Zero @cokezero
PSHHHT…Glup… Glup… Glup
Glup… Glup… Glup… Glup…
Fizzzzzzzzzzz…zzzzzzz…
#thedrinkabletweet
23,000-pound, 26-by-36 foot drinkable billboard —
The most literal manifestation of Coke Zero's drinkable advertising campaign is a 23,000-pound, 26-by-36 foot drinkable billboard located at March Madness Music Festival in White River State Park in Indianapolis.
The billboard appears to magically dispense ice-cold Coke Zero from a massive contour bottle through 4,500 feet of straw tubing that spells out “Taste It” before carrying the caramel-colored liquid to a free sampling station on the ground.
Results:
The amount of people who have redeemed their coupons at Target to get a free Coke Zero has been way above benchmark.
About a 25 per cent redemption rate, this is kind of crazy for coupon redemption.
Over 155,000 fans sampled Coke Zero.
To get a compilation of the most successful and failed PR case Studies from 2014 to 2016 contact me on 08077932282.
Case Study 2
THE RISING SUN RISES; How The Bank of Baroda rebranded and gained relevance.
The Challenge
By late 2004 the banking landscape in India was changing rapidly. The competition was becoming intense and new entrants with innovative banking service with appealing brand image were rapidly attracting customers from the old banks. And as infrastructural development gets to suburban communities commercial activities boomed in many of these communities and the surrounding towns.
The population of young customers was also soaring and they are trendy and technically savvy. Many of this young generation’s financial transactions were done online.
Bank of Baroda's response
Since the success of any product, service, business, organization or even individual is base on being perceived as UNIQUE and APPEALING.
The 97 year old bank of Baroda under the leadership of its Chairman, Dr Anil K. Khandelwal decided to undergo an 'adaptive change' by rebranding itself to be relevant to the new emerging trend in the market.
Objective
To position the bank as India's National Bank with International Standard (in term of being technologically savvy and delivering of innovative services).
Strategies
1) Logo
The old logo had blue letters of Bank of Baroda on a yellow background and a hand overlapping a wheel.
This logo was created in 1908 during the industrial and agriculture age.
The new logo, with two `B' letters overlapping each other spring out from the rays of sun at the lower left corner and the logo has a halo effect representing the sun.
The sun in the logo was also branded as the 'Baroda Sun'. This brought a sense of pride in the people as the sun is a respected symbol.
2) Brand Ambassador -
It initially had India’s former cricket team captain- Rahul Dravid as its brand ambassador (2004-07). As an icon in India, Rahul Dravid epitomized stability, sincerity and substance which in a way complemented to the Bank of
3) Expansion -
Bank of Baroda expanded aggressively from over 200 in 2004 to over 300 branches in 2005.
The bank also targeted Indians abroad by establishing its operations in countries with larger population of Indians like Maldives, Sri Lanka, Singapore, UAE, Yemen, Russia, Kenya, China, Malaysia, Thailand and many other countries.
Rapid integration of business with the technologies through core banking solutions, i-banking, and host of other facilities has established Bank of Baroda as the foremost PSU bank in the country.
4) Business Lines -
The bank has divided its operations in 6 distinct business lines-
I. Corporate Financial Services,
II. Personal Financial Services,
III. Business Services,
IV. Treasury,
V. International Operations
VI. And Rural Banking.
5) Positioning –
The Bank wants to be perceived as the No 1 National Bank with an International Standard. Especially in the area of technology and customer service.
The bank is aggressively focusing on becoming No. 1 in each of the 6 segments in Strategy 4 through the effective communication of the bank's “value proposition” which includes
a. Free Debit card to the children above 15 years of age only.
b. Special gifts on opening of account. (The value of gift in any case will not exceed Rs. 250/-).
c. Free Internet Banking Facility available.
d. Free issue of Banker cheques / Demand Drafts through account for purchase of prospectus and deposit of application forms for entrance examination or admission to any course payable to concerned institute / college.
e. Hassle free education loans.
5) Brand Communication and Celebrities Endorsement.
Using strategic selection of celebrities and effective communication to build brand equity for the bank through
a. Continually organizing hosts of seminars nationally and internationally- latest being Basel II.
b. TV, Radio and Online Advertisements.
c. Creating a sense of pride in the people by embarking on 'The Baroda Sun' campaign using celebrities that are popular among the target audience.
“Think the Sun is a much respected symbol and calling it ‘the Baroda Sun’ created a sense of pride in people. In fact, we went to the extent of branding the Sun itself” said Dr. Anil K. Khandelwal, Chairman & Managing Director, Bank of Baroda in 2006
Results
1) Many Indians especially those abroad became proud of the statement *'The Baroda Sun'* as it symbolizes the pride of Indian.
2) The bank's customer base grew from 25 million in 2005 to 29 million by 2007.
3) The bank's branches worldwide crossed 2000 in 2007 from just above 300 in 2005.
4) Bank of Baroda won the SPJIMR Marketing Impact Award in 2007.
5) Bank of Baroda won the “Best Bank – Global Business Development (Public Sector)” & “Best Bank – Overall (Public Sector)” Award in Dun & Bradstreet at the Polaris Financial Technology Banking Awards 2014.
6) The bank was ranked 21st amongst Best Indian Brands 2014 in Brand Equity –by The Economic Times
7) According to the 2014 data, the bank of Baroda is ranked 801 on *Forbes Global 2000 list*
8) According to the open source Wikipedia, Bank of Baroda has *5493* branches in India and abroad, and 10,441 ATMs as of Sept, 2016.
PR Lessons
i) Constantly monitor the changes in your market to quickly detect change in trend:
Bank of Baroda discovered that the next generation of bank customers will be youths so they positioned the bank to appeal to this emerging market as a UNIQUE bank with international touch.
ii) Invest in knowing your audience:
The Bank knew its next generation of customers is trendy and technologically savvy so the bank presented itself as a modern and technologically savvy bank too.
iii) To create viral brand awareness, your brand communication must have a deep nexus with the emotion, belief or ideology of your target market:
'The rising sun of Baroda' or simply 'The Baroda Sun' symbolizes the emergence of India as technology and innovation power house (especially software engineering) resonate well with the youths. It also provokes National pride (Bank of Baroda is owed by the government of india)
iv) Change comes with disruption, it is inevitable but the change you set in motion by yourself will be less painful compared to the one the market forces on you:
Bank of Baroda embarked on a rebranding exercise before others were forced to take action when the market was about to face them out. And this is why I am fond of saying “an individual, brand or organization that refuses to move with the light of change will definitely remain in the darkness of irrelevance”.
Case Study 3
How Domino's Managed a Viral Video Nightmare
The Crisis
On April 13, 2009, the Domino's Pizza corporate office received a notice from Consumerist.com that it had just posted a video to its site that Domino's should know about. In the video, two Domino's store employees were seen joking around as they contaminated customer food orders with unsanitary stunts such as sticking cheese up their noses before adding it to a customer's sandwich. They then posted the video to YouTube.
Domino's learned of the video after it had been posted to YouTube and several other sites, including The Consumerist, which was courteous enough to inform Domino's within an hour of its posting.
It was a nightmare for Domino's and a reality shock for many corporations that now see just how quickly and easily the digital world can help turn respectable businesses into unsuspecting victims.
How Domino responded:
Over the next several days, Domino's took the following steps:
1) Identifying and taking action against the culprits.
The company started by capturing digital images of the two employees' faces from the video and distributed a message to all US locations seeking help in identifying them by name. Upon confirming their identities and pinpointing the location, it then contacted the storeowner and requested that they be fired.
Having no way of knowing at the time whether the video was a hoax, the company contacted the Health Department and local police to file charges against the two culprits.
2) Getting the video removed.
The company's social media team immediately contacted YouTube to ask that the video be removed since it was in violation of several of the site's guidelines.
YouTube responded that it would pull the video only at the copyright owner's request; it considered the woman who had filmed her coworker to be the rightful owner.
After identifying her from the digital stills, and minutes before she turned herself in three days after the filming, a company representative met the copyright owner and her lawyer on the steps of the local police department with a letter that authorized YouTube to remove the video. Under her lawyer's recommendation, she signed the letter.
3) Responding to public queries
Domino's decided it best not to go public with a press release or news conference right away. It knew that by making a public statement, anyone hearing of the issue for the first time would become intent on seeing the original video, thereby encouraging its spread. Instead, it responded to those who approached the company about the story.
It also communicated with those forums that had either posted the video or hosted conversations about the issue. In each case, it drove home that this was something done to the company, not something the company itself had done inappropriately.
Ultimately, it became clear that the buzz was starting to spread through chatter on Twitter, so the company responded with a posted statement on its website and by entering the conversation on Twitter and directing users to that post on its site. Soon afterward, video views on YouTube grew to half a million.
4) Fighting fire with fire
Three days after the original incident, Domino's posted its own video to YouTube. The video, which used no script and was simply filmed using the Communication
Department's flip camera, featured company president Patrick Doyle addressing the issue, calmly and sincerely venting his anger and reiterating how sacred the company holds its customers' trust.
In posting the video response, Domino's used the word "disgusting" in the video title—just as had been done with the original video—so that the new video would come up first when users searched for the original. The company then posted links to its video on Twitter and on its Facebook page wall.
Results
Within three hours of posting the company video response to YouTube, views of the original video surged to over one million. And for the first time ever, on that day only, search queries for keyword "Domino's" surpassed those for "Paris Hilton."
The company-posted video also quickly propelled the story into mainstream US news, then global media, starting with the BBC and working its way onto Chinese National
Television, then Australia and Peru—markets where Domino's doesn't even have stores.
A company analysis reckoned 60 million media impressions.
Although the company's video response triggered widespread awareness, it also served to change the story in the company's favor.
For the 100,000 people who first saw the [employee] video, the story was 'look at these disgusting people at Domino's.' Then it became 'what is Domino's doing about it?' When we posted our video, the story morphed into 'how can companies protect themselves in
a YouTube world,' with Domino's cited as a company who is handling this crisis,"
McIntyre said. “Since then, the company has been contacted on multiple occasions by other organizations seeking advice on how to prepare themselves for similar crises.
Lessons Learned
a) Line up your ducks ahead of time
Although every crisis is unique and no protocol will fit every occasion, it pays to follow the Boy Scout mantra and always be prepared, particularly in a world where social media and the Internet enable things to spiral at the speed of light.
It was fortunate for Domino's that it already had a social media team in place to respond as needed, and well-trained staff throughout the company able to quickly take up the tasks at hand. It was also advantageous that senior management had consented to trust its people to do what was right and not hold things up with boardroom-style meetings.
b) Build deeply rooted customer loyalty.
Perhaps most importantly, Domino's had already- established, deeply ingrained customer loyalties that worked to countermand consumer doubts even before the issue had been resolved.
"People will do a mental balancing act of 'here's this video, but here's my personal experience with this brand,' and 99% of them said, 'man, that's screwed up.' They saw it for what it was, that the target of derision should be these two people and not Domino's," McIntyre observed.
c) Respond swiftly but wisely and Use the same medium for your initial response.
Do what you can to curb the propagation By initially responding only within the forums where the story was already unleashed, Domino's was able to keep the issue somewhat
manageable until it had a better understanding of what had happened and could begin taking steps to rectify the situation.
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Case Study 1
Coca-Cola’s drinkable advertising; how would you feel if you could actually drink an advert.
Challenge:
Coke Zero is marketed as a zero-calorie, zero-sugar drink with the same taste as regular Coke, which distinguishes it from its sister soda Diet Coke’s distinct flavor.
Yet Coca-Cola has found that many people have pre-conceived notions of the beverage and assume they won’t like it even before taking a sip of it.
Research:
80 per cent of Millennials say they have not tried Coke Zero, but 60 per cent of people go on to re purchase it once they’ve had a taste of it, according to the company.
Objectives:
Increase penetration of the brand in order to accelerate growth. To have the campaign ready for the NCAA Final Four in March.
Strategies:
Partnering with Shazam (music identification App), Target (coupon redemption service company) and App developer to produce a Digitally-focused sampling campaign which include
Drinkable Flyers –
Coke Zero will deliver an innovative flyer that easily becomes a straw, giving any event goer the perfect tool for trying out Coke Zero. All they have to do is pull the straw away from the page and take the coupon on the flyer to a participating concession stand inside the Lucas Oil Stadium. There, they can redeem the coupon for a Coke Zero by simply presenting their coupon when ordering and enjoy the Coke Zero using the straw provided.
Drinkable Commercial —
Thirsty? Shazam to try Coke Zero. During the broadcast spot, viewers will watch as refreshing Coke Zero is poured from a glass contour bottle followed by a prompt to Shazam. They will then watch the experience migrate seamlessly from their TV to their mobile device as the Coke Zero continues to pour within the Shazam app until the glass is full, ultimately revealing a mobile coupon to redeem for a free 20-ounce bottle of Coke Zero at a participating retailer location. The Drinkable Commercial will air during national broadcasts of both semifinal games Saturday, April 4, on TBS, and the national championship game, Monday, April 6, on CBS.
Drinkable Stadium HD Video Boards –
Using the same technology as the drinkable commercial, drinkable videos will play on the HD Video Boards in Lucas Oil Stadium offering thousands of spectators the chance to simultaneously receive a coupon for a free Coke Zero on their mobile devices that can be redeemed at a participating retailer. These drinkable ads will air during the semifinal and national championship games at Lucas Oil Stadium, as well as the Coke Zero Countdown Concert at White River State Park.
Drinkable Challenge at Coke Zero™ Countdown Concert –
Throughout the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, Coke Zero has encouraged rival fans to be open to try being frenemies. At the Coke Zero Countdown Concert on Saturday, selected frenemies from opposing Final Four teams will go toe-to-toe by using the microphone in their Smartphone as a straw to see who can finish their bottle of Coke Zero from two digital screens near the concert stage. The winner will earn free Coke Zero for their team's fans in the audience.
Drinkable Interactive Mall Kiosks –
We're turning a simple Kiosk into a drinkable experience at Circle Centre Mall in downtown Indianapolis.
By “Shazaming” the ad, a phone becomes a straw that people can then use to “drink” the liquid on screen. Once the bottle is empty, the user will receive a code to redeem for a free Coke Zero at an exclusive vending machine, located on the first floor of the mall at the Washington and Illinois Street entrance.
Vending Machine Mascots —
No need to approach these vending machines — these vending machines will approach you! Throughout Indianapolis, people dressed in what appear to be authentic Coke Zero vending machines will randomly reward passersby with free Coke Zero…and some entertainment. “Our drinkable advertising is about less talk and more proof. We've created numerous opportunities for college basketball fans in Indianapolis and at home to experience the delicious refreshing taste of Coke Zero,” Mason added.
Drinkable Twitter tweet —
Consumer get a tweet from coke zero and retweet it a particular number of times to get a coupon for a free coke zero.
Sample tweet —
Coke Zero @cokezero
PSHHHT…Glup… Glup… Glup
Glup… Glup… Glup… Glup…
Fizzzzzzzzzzz…zzzzzzz…
#thedrinkabletweet
23,000-pound, 26-by-36 foot drinkable billboard —
The most literal manifestation of Coke Zero's drinkable advertising campaign is a 23,000-pound, 26-by-36 foot drinkable billboard located at March Madness Music Festival in White River State Park in Indianapolis.
The billboard appears to magically dispense ice-cold Coke Zero from a massive contour bottle through 4,500 feet of straw tubing that spells out “Taste It” before carrying the caramel-colored liquid to a free sampling station on the ground.
Results:
The amount of people who have redeemed their coupons at Target to get a free Coke Zero has been way above benchmark.
About a 25 per cent redemption rate, this is kind of crazy for coupon redemption.
Over 155,000 fans sampled Coke Zero.
To get a compilation of the most successful and failed PR case Studies from 2014 to 2016 contact me on 08077932282.
Case Study 2
THE RISING SUN RISES; How The Bank of Baroda rebranded and gained relevance.
The Challenge
By late 2004 the banking landscape in India was changing rapidly. The competition was becoming intense and new entrants with innovative banking service with appealing brand image were rapidly attracting customers from the old banks. And as infrastructural development gets to suburban communities commercial activities boomed in many of these communities and the surrounding towns.
The population of young customers was also soaring and they are trendy and technically savvy. Many of this young generation’s financial transactions were done online.
Bank of Baroda's response
Since the success of any product, service, business, organization or even individual is base on being perceived as UNIQUE and APPEALING.
The 97 year old bank of Baroda under the leadership of its Chairman, Dr Anil K. Khandelwal decided to undergo an 'adaptive change' by rebranding itself to be relevant to the new emerging trend in the market.
Objective
To position the bank as India's National Bank with International Standard (in term of being technologically savvy and delivering of innovative services).
Strategies
1) Logo
The old logo had blue letters of Bank of Baroda on a yellow background and a hand overlapping a wheel.
This logo was created in 1908 during the industrial and agriculture age.
The new logo, with two `B' letters overlapping each other spring out from the rays of sun at the lower left corner and the logo has a halo effect representing the sun.
The sun in the logo was also branded as the 'Baroda Sun'. This brought a sense of pride in the people as the sun is a respected symbol.
2) Brand Ambassador -
It initially had India’s former cricket team captain- Rahul Dravid as its brand ambassador (2004-07). As an icon in India, Rahul Dravid epitomized stability, sincerity and substance which in a way complemented to the Bank of
3) Expansion -
Bank of Baroda expanded aggressively from over 200 in 2004 to over 300 branches in 2005.
The bank also targeted Indians abroad by establishing its operations in countries with larger population of Indians like Maldives, Sri Lanka, Singapore, UAE, Yemen, Russia, Kenya, China, Malaysia, Thailand and many other countries.
Rapid integration of business with the technologies through core banking solutions, i-banking, and host of other facilities has established Bank of Baroda as the foremost PSU bank in the country.
4) Business Lines -
The bank has divided its operations in 6 distinct business lines-
I. Corporate Financial Services,
II. Personal Financial Services,
III. Business Services,
IV. Treasury,
V. International Operations
VI. And Rural Banking.
5) Positioning –
The Bank wants to be perceived as the No 1 National Bank with an International Standard. Especially in the area of technology and customer service.
The bank is aggressively focusing on becoming No. 1 in each of the 6 segments in Strategy 4 through the effective communication of the bank's “value proposition” which includes
a. Free Debit card to the children above 15 years of age only.
b. Special gifts on opening of account. (The value of gift in any case will not exceed Rs. 250/-).
c. Free Internet Banking Facility available.
d. Free issue of Banker cheques / Demand Drafts through account for purchase of prospectus and deposit of application forms for entrance examination or admission to any course payable to concerned institute / college.
e. Hassle free education loans.
5) Brand Communication and Celebrities Endorsement.
Using strategic selection of celebrities and effective communication to build brand equity for the bank through
a. Continually organizing hosts of seminars nationally and internationally- latest being Basel II.
b. TV, Radio and Online Advertisements.
c. Creating a sense of pride in the people by embarking on 'The Baroda Sun' campaign using celebrities that are popular among the target audience.
“Think the Sun is a much respected symbol and calling it ‘the Baroda Sun’ created a sense of pride in people. In fact, we went to the extent of branding the Sun itself” said Dr. Anil K. Khandelwal, Chairman & Managing Director, Bank of Baroda in 2006
Results
1) Many Indians especially those abroad became proud of the statement *'The Baroda Sun'* as it symbolizes the pride of Indian.
2) The bank's customer base grew from 25 million in 2005 to 29 million by 2007.
3) The bank's branches worldwide crossed 2000 in 2007 from just above 300 in 2005.
4) Bank of Baroda won the SPJIMR Marketing Impact Award in 2007.
5) Bank of Baroda won the “Best Bank – Global Business Development (Public Sector)” & “Best Bank – Overall (Public Sector)” Award in Dun & Bradstreet at the Polaris Financial Technology Banking Awards 2014.
6) The bank was ranked 21st amongst Best Indian Brands 2014 in Brand Equity –by The Economic Times
7) According to the 2014 data, the bank of Baroda is ranked 801 on *Forbes Global 2000 list*
8) According to the open source Wikipedia, Bank of Baroda has *5493* branches in India and abroad, and 10,441 ATMs as of Sept, 2016.
PR Lessons
i) Constantly monitor the changes in your market to quickly detect change in trend:
Bank of Baroda discovered that the next generation of bank customers will be youths so they positioned the bank to appeal to this emerging market as a UNIQUE bank with international touch.
ii) Invest in knowing your audience:
The Bank knew its next generation of customers is trendy and technologically savvy so the bank presented itself as a modern and technologically savvy bank too.
iii) To create viral brand awareness, your brand communication must have a deep nexus with the emotion, belief or ideology of your target market:
'The rising sun of Baroda' or simply 'The Baroda Sun' symbolizes the emergence of India as technology and innovation power house (especially software engineering) resonate well with the youths. It also provokes National pride (Bank of Baroda is owed by the government of india)
iv) Change comes with disruption, it is inevitable but the change you set in motion by yourself will be less painful compared to the one the market forces on you:
Bank of Baroda embarked on a rebranding exercise before others were forced to take action when the market was about to face them out. And this is why I am fond of saying “an individual, brand or organization that refuses to move with the light of change will definitely remain in the darkness of irrelevance”.
Case Study 3
How Domino's Managed a Viral Video Nightmare
The Crisis
On April 13, 2009, the Domino's Pizza corporate office received a notice from Consumerist.com that it had just posted a video to its site that Domino's should know about. In the video, two Domino's store employees were seen joking around as they contaminated customer food orders with unsanitary stunts such as sticking cheese up their noses before adding it to a customer's sandwich. They then posted the video to YouTube.
Domino's learned of the video after it had been posted to YouTube and several other sites, including The Consumerist, which was courteous enough to inform Domino's within an hour of its posting.
It was a nightmare for Domino's and a reality shock for many corporations that now see just how quickly and easily the digital world can help turn respectable businesses into unsuspecting victims.
How Domino responded:
Over the next several days, Domino's took the following steps:
1) Identifying and taking action against the culprits.
The company started by capturing digital images of the two employees' faces from the video and distributed a message to all US locations seeking help in identifying them by name. Upon confirming their identities and pinpointing the location, it then contacted the storeowner and requested that they be fired.
Having no way of knowing at the time whether the video was a hoax, the company contacted the Health Department and local police to file charges against the two culprits.
2) Getting the video removed.
The company's social media team immediately contacted YouTube to ask that the video be removed since it was in violation of several of the site's guidelines.
YouTube responded that it would pull the video only at the copyright owner's request; it considered the woman who had filmed her coworker to be the rightful owner.
After identifying her from the digital stills, and minutes before she turned herself in three days after the filming, a company representative met the copyright owner and her lawyer on the steps of the local police department with a letter that authorized YouTube to remove the video. Under her lawyer's recommendation, she signed the letter.
3) Responding to public queries
Domino's decided it best not to go public with a press release or news conference right away. It knew that by making a public statement, anyone hearing of the issue for the first time would become intent on seeing the original video, thereby encouraging its spread. Instead, it responded to those who approached the company about the story.
It also communicated with those forums that had either posted the video or hosted conversations about the issue. In each case, it drove home that this was something done to the company, not something the company itself had done inappropriately.
Ultimately, it became clear that the buzz was starting to spread through chatter on Twitter, so the company responded with a posted statement on its website and by entering the conversation on Twitter and directing users to that post on its site. Soon afterward, video views on YouTube grew to half a million.
4) Fighting fire with fire
Three days after the original incident, Domino's posted its own video to YouTube. The video, which used no script and was simply filmed using the Communication
Department's flip camera, featured company president Patrick Doyle addressing the issue, calmly and sincerely venting his anger and reiterating how sacred the company holds its customers' trust.
In posting the video response, Domino's used the word "disgusting" in the video title—just as had been done with the original video—so that the new video would come up first when users searched for the original. The company then posted links to its video on Twitter and on its Facebook page wall.
Results
Within three hours of posting the company video response to YouTube, views of the original video surged to over one million. And for the first time ever, on that day only, search queries for keyword "Domino's" surpassed those for "Paris Hilton."
The company-posted video also quickly propelled the story into mainstream US news, then global media, starting with the BBC and working its way onto Chinese National
Television, then Australia and Peru—markets where Domino's doesn't even have stores.
A company analysis reckoned 60 million media impressions.
Although the company's video response triggered widespread awareness, it also served to change the story in the company's favor.
For the 100,000 people who first saw the [employee] video, the story was 'look at these disgusting people at Domino's.' Then it became 'what is Domino's doing about it?' When we posted our video, the story morphed into 'how can companies protect themselves in
a YouTube world,' with Domino's cited as a company who is handling this crisis,"
McIntyre said. “Since then, the company has been contacted on multiple occasions by other organizations seeking advice on how to prepare themselves for similar crises.
Lessons Learned
a) Line up your ducks ahead of time
Although every crisis is unique and no protocol will fit every occasion, it pays to follow the Boy Scout mantra and always be prepared, particularly in a world where social media and the Internet enable things to spiral at the speed of light.
It was fortunate for Domino's that it already had a social media team in place to respond as needed, and well-trained staff throughout the company able to quickly take up the tasks at hand. It was also advantageous that senior management had consented to trust its people to do what was right and not hold things up with boardroom-style meetings.
b) Build deeply rooted customer loyalty.
Perhaps most importantly, Domino's had already- established, deeply ingrained customer loyalties that worked to countermand consumer doubts even before the issue had been resolved.
"People will do a mental balancing act of 'here's this video, but here's my personal experience with this brand,' and 99% of them said, 'man, that's screwed up.' They saw it for what it was, that the target of derision should be these two people and not Domino's," McIntyre observed.
c) Respond swiftly but wisely and Use the same medium for your initial response.
Do what you can to curb the propagation By initially responding only within the forums where the story was already unleashed, Domino's was able to keep the issue somewhat
manageable until it had a better understanding of what had happened and could begin taking steps to rectify the situation.
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