Eric Gehler SEO Richmond Virginia

Twitter, Motrin Video and Moms

On Saturday November 15 a firestorm erupted on the social network twitter.  Several Mommy Bloggers took offense to a video campaign on the Motrin website. The ad campaign was about “Baby Wearing” and was put together in a rather offensive and insensitive way.  Obviously the ad agency “Taxi” didn’t consult nor use a proper focus group before pitching the campaign to Motrin. Nor did the people at Motrin question the 20 something voice over for the video or the ‘intention’ of the marketing message.

Even worse the Ad campaign was also during the “International Baby Wearing Week”, which apparently was their target focus.  Too bad they didn’t consult at least a few mothers first for their opinions.

Sometime around Saturday a few simple twitter messages about the now “#Motrinmoms” and their opinions of the offensive Ad campaign were send to Twitter Friends.  These Twitter friends sent the messages to their Twitter Friends and so on.  By Early Sunday morning 1000′s of twitter messages, blog posts and a firestorm of viral boyocott of the Motrin brand began.  The hash mark “#MotrinMoms” as used in twitter messages became a call to action and battle cry among the Mommy Super group network of Bloggers and Micro Bloggers.

One thing everyone should know and realize, when Mom’s not Happy, No one is. We learn this as men, we learn this a kids, but apparently some Corporate Executives and Ad Agency are just coming to the rationalization and learning as well.

It’s Sunday night and the Mommy Network is still in full force.  It’s Sunday night and the Motrin Corporate executives, PR people and Ad Agency most likely don’t have a clue to the Viral Nature and Brand negativity that has occurred and continues to occur.

Over coming public opinion, as well as negative publicity in the eyes of the consumer is not an easy fix. The amount of Motrin that got washed down the toilet this week and the amount of Ibuprofen being re-purchased from other brands this week is not yet realized. It will be realized by Motrin come Monday morning.  It will be too late.

This is a valuable lesson in marketing, know your target audience, but most important guard your brand and realize the power of “Social Media”.  It the ad agency, corporate executives, PR people or even the It Department of Motrin followed their Keyword “Motrin” they would have been aware of the spike of negative branding and viral natural of the negative message. They could have made a move as early as Sunday to remove the offensive video and offer the public apology. They could even take it one step further to insure that all future Ad messages would be presented to a truer Focus Group of mothers and moms rather than demographic data.

Remember when Mom’s not happy, No one is, and when Mom’s have the ability to Blog, Twitter, and connect to the internet in a viral basis, it’s best to keep MOM HAPPY or else.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out for Motrin, but it is one giant headache and Public Relations Snafu that should have been adequately caught and dealt with sooner, if only the powers that be understood the power of “Social Media” and for that matter Twitter.

You can see more about the story at:  Parenting Help Me – Twitter Moms and from the Twitter Search for #motrinmoms and another good overview Here.

Learn your lessons people.  Beware of the Viral Social Nature and watch your Brand name. A Google alerts created and a  Twitter Search term coming to you hourly via any of the twitter tool could save loads of headaches.  I guess that many won’t be taking Motrin for their headaches anytime soon.  At least not the majority of the #MotrinMoms or Twitter Moms.

Tisk Tisk.

Update: Many are speculating that the ad was done the way it was to intentionally cause and uproar and create a viral buzz. SORRY, the ad agency in question “TAXI” is not the best on the block and have had other screw ups in the past, that didn’t turn out to be marketing genius, rather it was marketing blunder. So no benefits of the doubt or excuses are granted on this one.
Twitter Moms + 1 Million
Motrin Sales – 1 Million $ a month…