Courtesy of Jordan Williams’s blog.
I love twitter. I do. It is a window into what a group of people are feeling/thinking at a specific point in time. As a result, marketers and CPG Brands can gain insights into how customers are responding to a product and campaign by monitoring Twitter. But like most tools, its strength is its weakness. The problem with Twitter is it gives people an opportunity to skip over the part where they sit with an idea or experience. Twitter is immediate. It is a first reaction. But sometimes that first reaction isn’t a clear indicator of how a brand/product is received. Compound the problems of an immediate response with the “everyone thinks he/she is funny on the internet” problem, and you’ve got an even bigger kink in your data stream.
Relying too much on Twitter could lead a brand to drop an advertising campaign prematurely. The potential for bad data is why you need to know when to ignore Twitter.
I really hope the outcry on Twitter after the Honda Civic commercial (featured below) doesn’t dissuade Honda from pursuing this advertising campaign. Yes, some people didn’t “get” the monster. But there is a difference between a bad ad and an ad that wasn’t meant to target you.
• “What’s up with this new honda civic commercial? What is that thing supposed to be?”
• “W.T.F. is the hairy character in the Honda Civic commercial??”
• “What the fuck is this hairy-where-the-wild-things-are looking creature doing driving in the Honda Civic commercial?”
• “Why the Fuck is there an ewok in the Honda civic commercial?”
• “The new honda civic commercial w/the furry critter scares the absolute shit out of me guaranteeing i’ll never buy a honda.”
• “What is this MONSTER in this Honda commercial?! Its fuckin disturbing”
• “WTF? Why is there a giant creepy Gremlin in the new Honda Civic commercial?”
• “What the fuck was that furry troll in the Honda commercial???”
• “Ew wth??!! there’s like this ugly furby looking thing on a Honda commercial.”
• “Just saw a commercial with a big, hairy, ugly thingy dancing and prancing around town. Who thought that would make me buy a @honda civic?”
• “That was a fuckin Ferbie on that Honda commercial. *freaks out*”
• “I’m pretty sure that honda civic commercial with the beast is a metaphor for fat chicks that own cars.”
And perhaps most disturbing of all:
• “I love the pink toenail monster in the honda civic commercial. I’d hit that.”
This specific ad is great because it positions this Honda Civic as a cute, hip, fun car for young women. Rather than use an actress that might isolate some audiences, Honda uses a fury animal, a move that only further aligns the car with “adorableness.”
Airing on Glee, this ad is clearly targeting a younger segment of the population. I am curious how many of the critical tweets came from the people the ad was trying to attract. I also wonder, how many people who Tweeted against the ad saw the other 3 ads from Civic. Or how many who did, don’t get that Honda is trying to show audiences there is a civic for everyone. Most importantly, I how people who Tweeted feel about Civics 24 hours after the ad.Ultimately, sales are the metric that determines a successful ad. But if I were a betting man, I’d say this series will have an impact on sales. I just hope Honda doesn’t abandon the campaign because of some restless thumbs.
Check out more articles like this one on Jordan Williams’s blog.
