Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Motrin Moms: Social Media Fail Whale

Sarah Evans is the director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. She also authors a PR and social media blog.

The inaugural celebration of International Baby Wearing Week also serves as a platform for the Motrin brand's launch of their new ads (below) targeting what else, "baby wearing moms." Touting the tagline "we feel your pain," the Motrin IB ad in particular takes a snarky approach towards moms who carry babies in a pouch or sling.

And on the surface at least, the company accomplished the ultimate in outreach goals:

1. Reach target audience
2. Get them to engage in dialogue about your brand
3. Find way to track message and outreach

The Wrong Move

Sounds great, right? Wrong. While the ads are the number one discussion trend on the microblogging platform, Twitter (Twitter reviews), the overall grade? A great big "Fail Whale".

Avid Twitter user and mom, Jessica Gottlieb is the originator of the conversation via her Twitter network. The dialogue (and overwhelming outrage) is growing exponentially. Already there are thousands of comments on #motrinmoms and almost all are negative with many saying they will no longer use the brand name product.

 

It took only a few short hours to go viral. Katja Presnal, founder of SkimbacoLifestyle.com and LadybugLandings.com, wants Motrin to know that the ads themselves are giving moms headaches.

Presnal says, "Moms have brains, don't treat us like that and learn to market for us. We spend 75% of our families' money."

http://mashable.com/2008/11/16/motrin-moms/

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