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Archive for the ‘ Marketing Mess-ups ’ Category

A little conversation helps

Check out our Head of eCRM, Gianfranco Cuzziol’s interview about cross-media experiences and his upcoming presentation: “The art and science of being social” at the Fusion Marketing Experience event in Brussels.

Posted February 23, 2011 11:07 am by Oliver 0 Comments

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Marketing Mess-Ups VIII: Red Bull stoops to ‘wide-boy tactics’ to boost sales

Not strictly a digital mess-up but we feel this is worth sharing. A document leaked to Marketing Magazine this week has revealed that Red Bull had planned to carry out some decidedly dodgy field marketing techniques in Wetherspoons pubs this month, following the loss of their contract to supply the chain to US rival Monster Energy.

Posted October 29, 2009 2:36 pm by Alex Horner 0 Comments

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Marks & Spencer admit they made a boob-boo

Victory was declared for large-breasted ladies with too much time on their hands this morning when Marks & Spencer ran the above ad in all the major newspapers. We’re sure you’ve read the coverage all over the news this week but to summarise; M&S decided to charge £2 more for bras sized DD and above due to higher manufacturing costs, a woman representing a group called ‘Busts for Justice’ created a facebook group that attracted 14,000 members and the attention of the press, M&S initially refused to lower the prices. Well, now they have. And they’re reducing the cost of ALL their bras by 25% for a fortnight.

Posted May 8, 2009 9:08 am by Alex Horner 0 Comments

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Marketing Mess-Ups VII: Dominos accidentally gives away 11,000 free pizzas

Vouchers. They’re all the rage in these days of recession, especially when it comes to restaurants. And word has it that takeaway pizzas are one of the biggest growth sectors as people choose to save money and order in rather than head out to a jazzy restaurant.

Posted April 9, 2009 10:52 am by Alex Horner 0 Comments

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Marketing Mess-Ups VI: Belkin hires people to write positive reviews of their products online

Oh deary me. Belkin has just been caught out attempting to hire people to write positive reviews for their products on Amazon.com. They have at least done the right thing though by quickly responding to the issue with an apology and removing any suspect reviews. Quite how they didn’t think this would get out is beyond us.

Posted January 19, 2009 12:46 pm by Alex Horner 0 Comments

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Marketing Mess-Ups V: 3M’s Viral Stealing

3M are widely regarded as one of the most innovative companies in the world thanks to Scotch Tape, Post-It notes and more. Sadly this ethos doesn’t seem to have been carried over to their marketing as part of a new viral campaign housed on YouTube ‘borrows’ an idea that’s been floating around the interwebs for some time. In December 2006, employees of an American company decided to cover a co-worker’s Jaguar in Post-It notes as a prank, photograph it and upload the evidence onto the net. Cue much buzz from social media sites such as Digg and even a spot on ABC news. Fast-forward to spring this year and 3M decides they want to use the image as part of their new ‘1,000,000 uses’ campaign. They contact the original photographer and ask for his permission. He responds with a quote for the use to which he receives a reply explaining that they’d rather not pay. He lowers his price. No response. Jump to now and the image above and to the left appears in POS displays across the states. And now the story is all over the blogosphere and back on Digg. Tsk Tsk.

Posted September 17, 2008 12:34 pm by Alex Horner 0 Comments

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Marketing Mess-Ups IV:

So Sprint are launching a new campaign touting the benefits of their ‘iPhone killer’ Samsung Instinct. Direct comparisons to competitors are dangerous at the best of times (and Apple are one of the worst offenders). The reason this is such a mess-up though? It’s to do with their other ad that compares the speed of loading a webpage on the Instinct vs. the iPhone. The Instinct is a clear winner thanks to its 3G. Only problem is, the 2nd generation iPhone will have 3G and comes out in June which is…yep, the same time as the instinct. Best do your research next time, guys.

Posted May 8, 2008 1:11 pm by Alex Horner 0 Comments

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Marketing Mess-Ups III: Cockatoo Ridge Wines’ suggestive billboard

We don’t think it’s particularly funny to begin with and apparently, nor did the model, Erin McNaught. Read more

Posted April 14, 2008 10:56 am by Alex Horner 0 Comments

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Absolut waste of time?

The ‘In an Absolut world’ website has me intrigued. Other than running incredibly slowly and somewhat resembling a Playstation game circa 1995 (the lack of anti aliasing is so apparent that much of the text is illegible), I just wonder how many consumers would really ‘get it’. Absolut are innovative, they like new ideas. So far so good. But really, how many people in their target market will take the time to browse a site like this? And what will they take away from it? Oh, everything launches in pop-ups too – great for us Firefox users.

Posted March 12, 2008 11:33 am by Alex Horner 0 Comments

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Marketing Mess-Ups I: Best Buy’s secret intranet

Whilst we can’t condone such deceptive behaviour we have to admit that Best Buy’s secret intranet tactics are very crafty. The pages (which are only accessible from within stores) mimic exactly the normal Best Buy site but with one crucial difference: the prices. Hapless consumers looking to bag a bargain they’ve spotted online are instead presented with an inflated price instore. When they try to show assistants the online price, the secret intranet is used instead. Claims such as “But I swear I saw it on the site cheaper than that” aren’t going to hold much sway when the fake price is in front of them onscreen. Hideously dishonest? Yes. Somewhat cunning? Perhaps. Of course, the real reason they’ve been honoured in our mess ups is because they got found out. Never a good idea.

Posted March 20, 2007 2:00 pm by Alex Horner 0 Comments

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