Should advertisers pause social media campaigns in the wake of a major event?
Tamara Littleton
Executive Chair and Founder of Social Element agency, Co-Founder of crisis simulation company Polpeo. Fellow of The Marketing Society, Campaign & Drum CEO of the year, WACL Member, Involve Top 100 LGBT Exec 🏳️🌈
This is a question our clients were grappling with last week after the events at Capitol Hill. Our advice was to pause advertising. Other agencies recommended a business as usual approach.
Here’s why we advised our clients to hold off on marketing.
When a major incident takes place that rocks people as much as this did, you need to do a quick risk assessment, and read the room. Do people really want to hear from your brand right now, or could that marketing message wait a few days?
Often when there’s a major event, particularly a politically divisive one, a brand’s social media channels are hijacked by people using them as a platform for their own views. An ad agency might think more about the topline message, but social media is all about the interaction, and it’s in the comments where polarising conversations happen. Social posts can be a lightning rod for opinion and brands need to anticipate how their audiences are likely to engage, both positively and negatively.
That’s not to say that a brand should always step away from controversy. Far from it. There are some occasions - for example standing up for human rights, equality, diversity and justice - when a brand absolutely should get involved in the conversation, and address a difficult issue head on, but only when they have something to add, and when they have permission to speak. Sometimes a brand has to stand its ground on a decision it’s taken that reflects its values. We’ve seen brands recently having to justify why they include masks in advertising (or in the case of Southwest Airlines, why they don’t), for example. Cadbury’s got a torrent of abuse from homophobes over its ad showing two gay men sharing a creme egg, and the brand is 100% right to stand firm on that.
But an event like the Capitol Hill riots? Its ripples were felt around the world. Unless there was a brand out there with a related, relevant response, it was our view that - just for a few days - marketing messages could wait.