Actually, as it was quoted: “We now have indisputable proof that online marketing,
YouTube and Twitter and all that it encompasses is meaningful and has arrived,” said Gene Grabowski, chair of the crisis and litigation practice at Levick Strategy Communications. “We are seeing real consequences to a mistake. If [social networks] didn’t matter, you wouldn’t see this type of reaction from J&J or consumers.” [Advertising Age (11.17.08)]
This is in response to the Motrin ad campaign that implied moms carried their babies as fashion accessories. In short, Kathy Widmer summed it up this way: "...we missed the mark and insulted many moms. We didn't mean too...but we did."
Twitter moms that were offended (and had many followers) collected their outrage and Katja Presnal posted them on YouTube. (61,705 views as of this posting) Motrin pulled the ad this past Sunday.
Two interesting things I see here:
The obvious is that a storm of activity in the social networks brought the legendary marketing machine at J&J to pull an ad and admit a mistake--
"We are listening to you, and we know that's the best place to start as we move ahead. More to come on that. In the end, we have been reminded of age-old lessons that are tried and true: a) When you make a mistake - own up to it, and say you’re sorry. b) Learn from that mistake. That’s all... for now. "
Which brought Gene Grabowski to announce in AdAge the arrival of the social media we've all been asking the companies to listen to and respect.
But the second thing I see here is that the ad was actually up for several weeks before it was noticed by Jessica Gottlieb in LA and she began her tweets. That started the snowball. it points to two things: a) the influencer model still works online and b) you don't know when these things will creep up on you. The internet is not always immediate, so monitoring is very important. You can alleviate this, though...or at the very least mitigate your risk.
I've always talked about the social media spaces as being "free" focus groups. A lot of market researchers will say that the social media space is not "statistically relevant," doesn't have a "proper control group," and things like that. But what would it hurt if J&J knew who some influential moms were (hell, they could have just went to Twitter Grader on this one and skipped the complicated influence rankings of social media folks)? Could they have run some spots by them to get their opinion? Chances are they would have caught this, and probably would have gotten good "press" from those they approached as being mindful of the online community.
Maybe now that "Online Marketing, YouTube and Twitter Have Arrived" they will next time. I hope you do too.
More to come...
