Meet #motrinmoms, the latest symbol of the power of social media. They created an uproar through twitter and blogs about a Motrin ad that presented babies as an “accessory”.
Motrin executives pulled the ad in two days and offered up an apology. Powerful stuff, no doubt. The viral nature of the uproar proved that this is indeed a new age of “collaborative marketing”. In this case, the people spoke and spoke loudly. To Motrin executives’ credit, they listened to the feedback and reacted rather swiftly.
No question, the sentiment towards Motrin was negative during this ordeal. However, the question now is what was the “business” impact of what transpired? According to Compete Pro, Motrin’s website had a 10X increase in traffic. My colleague at Ascentium, Anil Batra, wrote this more detail analysis on the #motrinmoms phenomenon.
Certainly, more people know about Motrin now than prior to the hoopla. So, I’d like to pose a survey on what you believe was the result from this incident.
Here is the controversial Motrin Ad.
John, you missed a choice(or I did). I think it will have a positive impact on brand, but no real change in sales. Maybe it’s just me, but I always call ibuprofen “Advil”, it’s just the brand I buy. I didn’t even think of Motrin. But since the controversy I’ve had Motrin popping into my head in the pain reliever context.
Just my 2¢
John, very good point. I’ve heard others say that as well. I guess that would be a write in vote.
Ok, I’ve adjusted to poll to include, “positive impact on brand, but no real change in sales”. Thanks for everyone’s input.
i suspect that the increase in traffic were mom’s and others looking for the offending piece. hopefully they didn’t find the piece when they landed, but instead found the company’s apology – and their take-away was, at minimum, neutral…and that on the positive side they think that the company took responsibility for their actions, has a better understanding of “mom’s” and will never make the mistake again. i’m reminded of the Tylenol scare a number of years ago and how Tylenol handled that.
David Ross
VP, ACD
EvoLogue