Picture the scene. You spend in the region of £1.5 million on an advertising campaign. You’ve seeded the ad across the web and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. You pick one of the most coveted slots on TV for it to make its debut to the world. Not just the champions league final but the first champions league final to be held on a Saturday night.
And what happens? The broadcasting channel erroneously cuts the end of the add off and your brand gets no mention whatsoever.
Everton fans might remember a similar faux pax during last year’s FA cup competition when having watched close to 120 minutes of football against their bitter rivals, they were suddenly treated to an advert to buy a popular mint brand as their team scored. Oh dear.
But is it really that bad for the brand? I’m sure the ITV chiefs will be scampering around on how to make amends to Nike. However in an age where everything on that happens on TV is scrutinized to the nth degree through the online backchannel, perhaps a ‘cock up’ of such proportions helps generate further buzz. The story would have been different 20 years ago when there was no Facebook or Twitter and everyone only had five channels to chose for. These days such things create a certain level notoriety that attract people’s attention particularly with the sheer amount of information that many are faced with. Perhaps ITV’s defence should be: “We intentionally cut the end off to create a bit of intrigue” Then again, maybe not.
Just to show there’s no hard feelings toward ITV, we’ll help in what way we can and post the clip here. Nike must be loving all this.
[Cross posted on LEWIS 360]
Eb Adeyeri - Being social 