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How to fail a marketing campaign · The Galaxy of Marketing

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  Let's be honest, we all love gossiping and trash
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  -talking sometimes. So, as a good host and marketer,
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  I got to deliver, which means that today we're
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  discussing huge campaigns that dramatically failed.
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  It's time to become a little bit of Sheldon Cooper
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  and fill in the air with unsolicited advices
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  to huge brands. Welcome, marketing explorers!
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  My name's Olga K, I'm a marketing major and
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  your buzzkiller for today. And without extra
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  words, let's get our brains to do some marketing
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  brainwork. We will hear about three failed marketing
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  campaigns among different industries to save
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  your own from such a fate. And the first is Valentino's
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  AI Slop. If you carefully listened to the previous
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  episodes, you probably understand why. But let
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  me remind you anyway, since I'm in a buzzkiller
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  role for today. Valentino is a giant luxury fashion
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  brand that emphasizes high -quality craftsmanship,
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  impeccable quality of materials, and elegance.
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  The main designer, Valentino Garavani, is known
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  for his incredible collections. He dressed up
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  royalties, celebrities and top -tier fashion
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  people. And all of that forms a public perception.
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  Simply saying, the vibe of the brand that creates
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  expectations and the fanbase. It is a powerful
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  instrument of any established brand. But it's
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  also its curse. Because whenever companies are
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  trying to step out of that image, public backlash
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  immediately follows. In that specific case, Valentino
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  launched an AI campaign demonstrating handbags
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  and the brand itself. The vibe, the happy people
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  and all of that stuff. If you didn't see it,
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  I recommend you do it right now. You will immediately
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  understand why it's among the fails of the year.
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  Good? Saw it? Great. The problem was immediate
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  and obvious. The quality of visuals and editing
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  were disastrous, and some of them, particularly
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  those where human norms and bodies were mixing,
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  gave a sense of disgust and unease. Now, turn
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  on the marketing part of the brain. What is AI?
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  From a public point of view, AI has long been
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  promoted as a cheaper and quicker alternative
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  to human craft. So not only did it enrage customers,
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  it also went against brand values and brand image.
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  How does it sound that a giant luxury fashion
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  house with millions in income uses a McDonald's
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  -level promotion staff? Not very good, I imagine.
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  Probably the brand was hoping to appeal to younger
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  customers through acceptance of new technologies,
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  but technological excitement does not help when
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  the quality is bad and messaging is contradictory.
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  It sparked a new wave of criticism whether AI
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  should be used in luxury industry promotion at
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  all. Even though it didn't help find the answer,
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  the brand learned from its mistakes. For the
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  next ad in collaboration with Vans, Valentino
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  took photos of real models from the runway, received
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  their consent, and transformed it into surrealistic
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  videos using AI. Maybe it wasn't the perfect
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  solution, but at least it suited much better
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  to the brand, and it didn't create any negative
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  reaction except for very minor comments. What
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  do you think about it? Seriously, write down
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  your sauce on paper not to lose them, because
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  our fashion show is coming to an end, yet a bigger
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  high -stakes race begins. Now it's time to move
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  on to the most disgusting controversial marketing
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  campaign in the global arena – Copy Nothing by
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  Jaguar. Just to realize how important that campaign
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  was for marketing world, we dedicated an entire
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  university class to analyze it. It also seemed
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  to be one of the debunks to common opinion that
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  all publicity is good publicity. But why? And
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  was it really a failure? It all began in 1930s.
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  The founder of Jaguar, known at the time as Swallow
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  Sidecar Company, wanted to create affordable
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  car with luxury design. The company initially
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  produced motorcycle sidecars, but like a politic
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  after elections, changed and switched to producing
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  cars. And from the very first model, SS Jaguar,
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  it was a huge success. Later, when it took on
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  a racing path, cars became famously known for
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  speed, elegance, grace and innovative novelty.
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  But golden time has passed, and by early 2020s
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  Jaguar was perceived as a heritage brand that
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  is great, but technologically no longer interesting.
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  When German carmakers launched semi -luxury and
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  luxury models, Jaguar lost its competitive advantage
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  and got stuck as a company and as a brand. No
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  innovation, no luxury perception, and no customers.
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  No wonder it caused panic among stakeholders
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  and directors. But panicking is not something
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  a company can afford. Jaguar halted the whole
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  production and launched a huge rebounding effort
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  to be perceived as an innovative all -electric
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  car brand. They connected it with an original
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  philosophy of the founder, who once claimed that
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  a Jaguar must be a copy of nothing. That is where
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  the campaign name comes from. An idea was great
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  and very inspirative Jaguar, but the campaign
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  caused a very mixed reaction for several reasons.
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  The first is confusion, caused by the lack of
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  preparation. Yes, they did create a lot of mystery
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  and anticipation, which played well for a company.
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  A forgotten brand became a topic of the discussion
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  and generated a lot of buzz in social media.
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  But when the campaign finally landed on the brand's
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  page, the initial reaction was rather negative.
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  One study found that 42 % of respondents in the
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  UK and US reported disliking it, against 30 %
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  of those who actually liked it. The central problem
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  was confusion. People did not understand why
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  Jaguar made this transition and what was the
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  goal of it. The next problem was probably no
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  less severe than the previous one. And that was
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  that a campaign so drastically differed from
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  the likings of their previous fanbase that one
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  of the executives said that they probably are
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  to lose 85 -90 % of their fanbase. Crazy numbers
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  considering low sales and need of investments.
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  And the third is a marketing problem. Again,
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  the central goal of any for -profit campaign,
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  unless it's a very genuine advocation for a greater
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  good, which is incredibly rare, is to generate
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  profit. And funnel is similar for almost everyone.
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  Attention, engagement, positive perception, interest
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  in the product, sales. Jaguar handled the first
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  two extremely well. Attention was beyond their
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  expectations. Engagement too. But all of the
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  rest was incredibly problematic. I must admit
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  that the campaign increased awareness and interest
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  among its new target audience by 20%, and Google
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  searches among wealthy customers increased by
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  24%. That is good, but initial reaction in social
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  media was so negative that it shifted focus from
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  the brand to the campaign. You're probably wondering
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  why is that a problem since the campaign generated
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  attention anyways. But the thing is that instead
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  of discussing how cool the brand is, how cool
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  their new direction is, and what are the potential
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  benefits of it, people started discussing why
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  the brand did so anyways, and how terrible the
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  ad was, and how terrible everything was. And
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  that created an initial negative barrier. It
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  is not some kind of a term, but that's what I
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  noticed from my personal experience. Whenever
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  there is a campaign and there is a lot of negative
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  reaction on it, people who start watching it
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  anticipate something bad. And instead of looking
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  at an ad, perceiving it as they would on their
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  own, they start looking for something terrible.
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  And they are looking for it and they are fighting
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  it. So preparing audience for the new campaign
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  and rebranding is crucial. Jaguar Copy Nothing
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  taught marketers an important lesson. Brand must
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  communicate its goals clearly, even when they
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  use a mystery anticipation reveal strategy, because
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  confusion leads to a lot of problems. Oof, that
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  was a lot. I think we can move on to the last
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  example, shall we? That is a small but crucial
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  example. Adidas and Boston Marathon emails. Back
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  in 2017, Adidas decided to send congratulations
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  to Boston Marathon athletes, saying congratulations
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  on surviving the Boston Marathon. If we take
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  this phrase out of context, it sounds like you've
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  trained hard and run at your best until the finish
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  line. Congrats on this accomplishment. Sounds
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  good. Outside the context, because three years
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  prior to that there was a tragic event during
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  which some participants passed away and about
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  200 people got injuries when a bomb blew off
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  near the finish line. At least three survivors
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  participated in the marathon in 2017. Backlash
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  was immediate and severe. Brent quickly deleted
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  mails and apologized. So mind the wording, my
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  fellow marketing crew, because even something
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  that sounds well from a community perspective
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  must also sound nice. in the broader context.
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  Let's go over a small recap. Lesson from Valentino.
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  Unless there is a rebranding, a good campaign
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  sticks to brand values and image. Lesson from
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  Jaguar. Clarity is more important than empty
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  buzz. Lesson from Adidas. Check the brand message
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  in broader context to avoid public backlash.
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  Because it's always good to double -check and
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  avoid needing to apologize rather than doing
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  something bold and then apologizing to the entire
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  world. What are you thinking, my marketing explorers?
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  I hope that you liked it, so thank you for joining
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  and don't forget to follow to add up checked
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  and verified info to your marketing knowledge.
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  Hear you in two weeks as usual.