Last week I wrote a post about my disdain for bad marketing. I had to vent about the nature of the marketing industry and the less than creative advertising being thrown into technology mediums. The other reason for the post was to research the active listening component of any marketing/communications department or company. More on this later…
One of my examples was Fandango.com. Fandango has an ad campaign built into the Comcast system where they deliver ads to you while you watching, reviewing, and searching for on-demand content. I had the opportunity of viewing a Fandango ad every single time I watched a movie review. It became annoying.
However… the story shifts focus when the CMO of Fandango posted a comment on my blog post. See below.
Granted… this feeds my narcissism and I would like to assume the Fandango team values my blog because I am the best person ever…. and have a massive following.. and I am a thought leader.
OMG.. blah blah blah…Not true..
It is simply that Fandango is listening and may actually care about what is being posted about their brand… whether about an ad built into the Comcast system or their website!
Ted Hong had no reason to know about the error in the frequency cap with Comcast. It is a small error in an otherwise huge ad campaign and structure. However, he has built a system to respond to negative comments (whether posted by him or not) and they speak human! I found a true marketer – a listener and a storyteller.
A couple of questions to ponder:
- Is this a Fandango problem or a Comcast problem?
- Should Comcast respond to my previous blog post? Do they have a reason to respond?
- Is there anyway to measure whether my opinion matters to the Fandango brand? Do they care? Should they care?
- How do you value a response on negative commentary? Is there an ROI model?
- Other thoughts and opinions?
Pam Tidrow
Kudos to Ted Hong for being responsive! That is precisely what social media marketing is about – interaction between the brand and its consumers. So many marketers simply take their strategies from other mediums, slap them onto social media and call it a day, all the while being very proud of themselves for "adapting" to the newest facet of marketing. Social media marketing is a whole different animal, and it's encouraging to at least find a few brands and marketers who recognize that with a new medium comes the need for a renovation of marketing styles.
jeremy kean
Big shouts out to fandango for that response. Too many businesses want to put a social media marketing plan together to increase business and reply to only compliments, but to see a company use this media channell for dealing with compliants is huge for my business. Thanks Kyle i am using this example in my next piece on reputation management
kylelacy
Perfect! Let me know when the post is live.
Amos Haffner
Props to Fandango and you for the post, Kyle.
Anon
3. I measured. Turns out your opinion doesn't matter and they don't care.
kylelacy
I measured my ability to care about your response… What do you think was the outcome?
Davina K. Brewer
There is value to a negative issue response, just knowing someone hears your pain is a step in the right direction. How do you measure it? Money, time to study what's the deal breaker and maybe it's the response to the negative issue that retains the customer.
I got a reply to a tweet once from Uverse which wasn't even directed @ them, but last week's post about their deplorable phone support – crickets. Listening is big. Listening to complaints and feedback, it's a free focus group.. why wouldn't you? Responding to them all may be cost prohibitive, and maybe it doesn't benefit Comcast or Uverse to reply to our posts. But Fandango, by replying, I may give my iPad app another whirl, keep them in mind next time I'm headed to the movies. FWIW.
Mike – Indianapolis
Good job. For some reason, this triggered a tangential memory of a blog called comcastmustdie.com. It's funny and yet sad that some corporations can be so oblivious. If you haven't see this site, I'd suggest checking it out. I'm not affiliated with the site in any way.
Ted Hong
Regarding ROI, Jeffrey Hayzlett the former CMO of Kodak once described his views on negative online comments about his brand by saying something to the effect that he views it not in terms of postivie ROI, but negative ROI (return on ignoring). He's not going for brownie points for responding, but rather he believes there is significant detriment if he does nothing.
I certainly can't respond to everything, but you seemed rational and asked a reasonable question, so I didn't mind replying. I also really did appreciate the fact that you pointed out something that was helpful, which I likely would not have known about otherwise.
Carry on….
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