Zara's Unfortunate Campaign Timing

Chris Norton 0:00

Okay , so we've covered what went well . Now let's get into the entertaining stuff .

Will Ockenden 0:03

This is the fuck-ups bit Luckily not ours other brands .

Chris Norton 0:07

I mean , we haven't got long enough for ours , okay . So Zara ? Okay , sorry to the marketing team at Zara , but Zara get a lot of things right . They've had a few things where stuff's gone wrong . And this Zara campaign , if you didn't see it . So what it was was a campaign that they had various models stood up showcasing various products and there was mannequins on the floor and in the shot with missing limbs , arms and feet , and it was filmed In their defense . It was filmed in July , which was prior to any outbreaks of war in 2023 .

Chris Norton 0:44

But the campaign came out and obviously , israel and Palestine war happened , and just as the news coverage was happening , the two didn't sit very well together . So it wasn't deliberate from Zahra's perspective , but unfortunately it just didn't land correctly on social media . So the Spanish fashion brand was accused of being tone deaf . Following the launch of the latest campaign , within a few days , zahra removed the campaign and issued a statement clarifying that the photos were conceived in July , as I said , prior to the current Israel-Palestine war . I mean , this is just a . I think this was probably a great campaign , but they just got the timing of it wrong . This is when you've got to really think about what you're putting out . We advise a lot of clients on this , don't we ? Because what works today might not work tomorrow .

Will Ockenden 1:29

So if you've got a campaign in the bag , I mean it's a little bit like the M&S . Palestinian thing yeah the M&S burning Christmas hats campaign , and this , in my view , underlines the importance of involving PR people . When you launch a marketing campaign , you know , and the chances are , this marketing campaign was led by marketing but PR who typically have a pretty good handle on what's going on and they've got a pretty good barometer on the current sort of state of public opinion , what's happening in the news agenda they may have spotted this .

Will Ockenden 2:02

So I think that really reiterates the importance of having that kind of lateral understanding about what's going on in the news agenda .

Chris Norton 2:06

They may have spotted this , so I think that really reiterates the importance of of having that kind of lateral understanding about what's going on in the news agenda and to say that it didn't land well is an understatement , because media intelligence firm karma reported a sharp decline in brand sentiment for zara um . Negative negativity surged 76.4 percent , while positivity dwindled to four percent and prior to the incident to the incident , negativity was down to 13% . So basically , forward plan , as Will was just saying there . Forward planning is good . It's not just up to marketing design , it's also get your PR teams involved and make sure you 100% yeah , because Marks Spencer was a good example as well of something that was just badly

Nike's Mary Earps Kit Controversy

Chris Norton 2:43

timed .

Chris Norton 2:43

Our second example that we've got here is Nike and the Mary Earps saga . What did you think of this , Will ?

Will Ockenden 2:51

Well , a bit odd really from Nike . I mean , when you talk about the sales , well , I'll let you explain it , but it was a bit of an own goal . Excuse the pun for Nike , wasn't it ? Nice , nice , Do you like that Smooth ?

Chris Norton 3:05

Can we have a goal celebration in there ? Anyway , uh , mary erps , england , goalkeeper for the , for the ladies , uh ladies , england goalkeeper , brilliant sports personality of the year , nike decided that her goalkeeping kit wasn't going to be produced . Um , this caused her to , uh , this caused mary to send uh bob , basically post something on social media saying that she was hugely disappointed and it was a bit hurtful . Cue social media outcry , people saying why can't we buy her kit ? Nike backtracks allegedly close brackets , and then Nike made the kit available and it sold out like rapidly overnight . So , yeah , you're right , a bit of an own goal . What do you think Will ? Where could they have improved that ?

Will Ockenden 3:48

Well , I mean , this transcends marketing and comms , doesn't it ? I mean it's an operational decision . I mean , I wonder why they didn't decide to produce the kit , and did they fail to see the kind of support that Mary had , you know , after ? She was one of the true heroes of the tournament , wasn't she ?

Chris Norton 4:07

She was , and she's not scared to put her head above the parapet either . She provided a link to a petition on changeorg that started calling for Nike to release the goalkeeper shirt , and it got more than 150,000 signatories . Fair play to her for doing that . And then the third and and final one , this was this is quite

Bud Light's Transgender Partnership Backlash

Chris Norton 4:26

a shocking one . So this is bud , the story of bud light . So , if you don't know about this , in april 2023 , dylan milvaney , who's transgender , promoted bud light on her social media platforms as part of a planned partnership . Her content received transphobic backlash from consumers and calls for bud boycott . So people were calling to to buy , boycott the brand , which is very strange , and this got a botched response from bud , which was a vague statement from the ceo that failed to hit the mark and offer any support to dylan at all . It alienated the lgbtq community , um , and so every so basically , you had people boycotting the brand from both sides of the argument .

Chris Norton 5:06

And this has resulted in a drop in revenue for Bud of 15% . That is the world's biggest beer and it went from the US's number one beer to second place . That is a bad day in the office .

Will Ockenden 5:19

I mean , it's hard to imagine how they could have got it more wrong , isn't it ? I mean , first of all , working with a trans influencer brilliant , particularly if you're a brand like Bud , which inevitably in the States , has got an awful lot of kind of Trump-supporting right-wing drinkers , if you think of any drinks brand at all in the States .

Will Ockenden 5:36

So , great , they're being a bit more progressive . But then there's this total disconnect between what the marketing team are doing and the views of the chief exec . And this , this kind of inability to this um , this refusal to back dylan in any way with this kind of vague um cop-out statement , was , uh well , a complete clusterfuck really . And it's and they've paid for it , haven't they ?

Chris Norton 5:55

don't pull any punches there . Well , that was great .