Social madness

Private Eye reports this week the absurd extent to which brands will use social media. Apparently, someone at Millets, the outdoor retailer, decided to promote their instore promotion by jumping on Arsenal football club’s hashtag symbol for their new signing, Mesut Ozil. His distinct eyes  provided the tenuous link for Millet’s marketing department.

“#askozil Does our 20% off offer not just make your eye bulge with disbelief”

No doubt someone at Millets thinks all publicity is good publicity but apparently Arsenal fans were angered in such large numbers that the tweet was deleted.

I struggle with the whole concept of commercial brands trying to inveigle themselves into their consumers social space. On rare occasions this works but only when the entertainment value is such that it is worth spreading. But the vast majority of social media activity is quite simply rubbish, fatuous and naive attempts to engage consumers with a brand agenda which consumers don’t share. Why? Simple,  consumers just don’t live in the way that marketing departments imagine.

Take Camelot, also cited in the same Private Eye article. They spent £25K in agency fees and another £20K on a prize for consumers to send in a video of themselves singing a song from Camelot’s new advert. 26 entries later indicates how far away  Camelot and their agency are from their customers’ reality.

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