Global Marketing News – 19th November 2015
Virgin Media Tweet is serious lesson in social media blunders
An unfortunate Tweet by Virgin Media has provided a serious lesson in social media blunders and how to recover from them.
Virgin Media had posted a promoted Tweet featuring a picture of a rifle’s crosshairs along with the message “On the hunt for a new telco?” causing a massive backlash amongst Twitter users who pointed out the insensitivity of such a message in the aftermath of the tragic shootings in Paris which left around 130 people dead.
When Virgin Media realised their mistake, they removed the Tweet and publically apologised for any offence caused.
The Tweet was originally posted on 3rd November, over a week before the terrorist attacks took place.
It highlights how important it is to keep an eye on past and scheduled promoted posts on social media and pause any campaigns if a national or international tragedy takes place that could cause the post to be interpreted in an upsetting way.
A spokesperson from the social media agency Chunky Media provided advice to any companies that find themselves having inadvertently posted inappropriate content, saying: “The important thing to do is just go in and pause things and reassess. Remove it, apologise and move on.”
WhatsApp is top social platform for Spanish women
Research by internetAcademi has revealed that WhatsApp is the most popular social media platform amongst Spanish women, ahead of Facebook.
The study looked at which social media sites women in the country had visited in the previous week, and found that 71% had recently used WhatsApp, way ahead of Facebook which was visited by only 20% of women in the previous week. No other social media site surpassed 3% weekly usage.
Spain is not the only country where WhatsApp is reigning supreme. The social messaging app is also the most popular social destination amongst both genders in Brazil and teenagers in Germany, as well as beating Twitter into second place, behind Facebook, in Mexico.
Social media is popular in Spain, with an estimated 60% of internet users in the country being a member of a social network.
Ghana to improve cyber-security
The government in Ghana has pledged to improve cyber-security in the country.
It has set up a taskforce called the National Computer Emergency Response Team which it said will tackle cyber-crime and help protect children online.
Exactly how this will operate in practice in unclear but the government stressed that improved communication between private internet companies and the authorities would lie at its heart.
Internet penetration is currently low in Ghana, with just 20% of the population using the internet according to data from Internet World Stats, making it a market with huge future potential.
Pepsi abolishes global marketing procurement department
The global drinks company Pepsi has abolished its global marketing procurement department.
The move will result in redundancies and is also expected to impact on the global brand’s relationships with its agencies.
Earlier this year, the president of Pepsi’s global beverage group predicted that “the agency model [was] going to break”, with a big shift in the industry resulting in many companies ditching their agency partners to work with content producers instead.
Hyatt Regency launches Indian marketing campaign
And finally, the international hotels giant Hyatt Regency has launched a marketing campaign targeting India.
The campaign has been called “Make The Most Of Being Away”, a different tagline to the one used in the US, which was “It’s Good Not To Be At Home”, due to the greater importance of home and family life in India.
At its core is a social media campaign whereby guests can choose one of 5 free gifts upon their arrival at the hotel.
They will be given a card saying the name of their chosen gift, and will then have to upload this to Instagram along with the hashtags #GetCarded and #AtHyattRegency in order to receive the free gift.
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Cal O'Connell
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