360DigitalInfluence

8 Responses to “Words of Advice to Motrin: In a Crisis, Medium Matters”

1. Martin Ringlein Says:
   November 17th, 2008 at 8:01 am

   This seems to be one of those classic situations where a group of men and a group of women (women who either have never been pregnant or don’t use the carrying device in question) worked directly on this campaign.

   The piece was very condescending; this coming from a man! Situations like these are easily accounted for … just simply have a test base of the target audience, the “moms”; show that test base the piece and get reaction.

   Often times people take the web for granted, thinking that everything can be put up without traditional testing and modified quickly and easily. I am unaware of the agency behind the creative strategy, but I suspect it was not Motrin’s traditional agency but instead a “new media’ agency that put this together — one that forgets the message and focuses too much on the “conversation”.

2. Sarah Marchetti Says:
   November 17th, 2008 at 9:15 am

   Martin- Actually the campaign was TV, print and online, so it isn’t a case of slapping something on the internet. Several sources have said that Taxi is the agency of record for Motrin. They are a full service advertising agency. I think that the concept of it could have worked, but the execution was poor. They were trying to sympathize with moms, but the tone just didn’t come off right and was condescending instead of “in the know”. They didn’t capture that insiders view of a mom’s life that they were going for.

3. Yianni Garcia Says:
   November 17th, 2008 at 12:19 pm

   Companies can contact Twitter and work with them to claim their brand’s name if it has already been taken, specially if it has sabotaged and it’s being used for making jokes and negative comments. I believe Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, has helped a colleague with this issue before. His Twitter handle is @biz.

4. Sarah Marchetti Says:
   November 17th, 2008 at 12:43 pm

   Thanks Yianni. That’s helpful information.

5. robin seidner Says:
   November 17th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

   I think these responses are so “careful,” and will be ignored by such a vocal group because they are still relatively impersonal and “from the brand”.

   Yeah, ok, apologize, but it seems so impersonal. Also, telling us that you’re parents too seems somewhat disingenuous. You’re trying to sell product, and that will cloud your thinking, even if you are a baby-wearing mom or dad. Create a consumer council? Maybe. How about a Friendfeed room, ala the Pepsi Cooler, to get feedback AND stimulate discussion in a more streamlined environment? How about instead of freaking out, instilling some kind of sense of humor? How about if the folks at Motrin stop taking themselves so seriously and poke some fun at themselves?

6. Sarah Marchetti Says:
   November 18th, 2008 at 10:25 am

   Robin- I disagree that the tactics are careful. For a brand that doesn’t have a social media presence, getting a Twitter handle and joining the conversation would be quite revolutionary. The brand issued a press release and sent e-mails to bloggers as their crisis communication strategy. This doesn’t reach people where they are reading about the issue except in the case when bloggers post their response as an addendum to their post on the issue. If someone stumbles across, this on Twitter, YouTube or Google, the brand should ensure that their response is right there next to the negative information. Makes it easy for people to see that the corporation’s point of view on the issue without losing their attention. I do agree with you that using a sense of humor could be helpful in their response.

7. Ogilvy PR 360 Digital Influence Blog » Blog Archive » Mom Bloggers React to Octuplets Says:
   February 5th, 2009 at 12:55 pm

   [...] with the Motrin Moms crisis a few months back, the reaction against Suleman shows that a social media community can amplify [...]

8. The Hyper Local Social Media Crisis | Media Badger, Social Media Consultants Says:
   January 7th, 2010 at 3:21 pm

   [...] emphasis on Social Media crises is focused towards large brands – JetBlue, United, Motrin etc., and there’s plenty of them. But what about the small local business? You’ll have [...]