YouTube & Domino's: It Could Happen to You

Last week, Domino's had to deal with a PR nightmare when two of their employees filmed a disgusting prank and then posted it online. In a few days, the prank had circulated widely over the Internet and Domino's was dealing with a potential marketing and PR disaster.

We all understand the world's greatest intellects are not likely to be found working in the back room kitchens of places like Domino's. We also understand that every restaurant chain in America does the best they can to hire and train good people and then provide them with the tools and systems to generate consistent meals that will satisfy their customers. Lastly, we also understand that things can go wrong in those kitchens and that no system is ever going to be perfect. Mistakes can happen and, while we don't like it when they do, we can also be understanding, especially if they are dealt with in a very positive way. In fact, sometimes, dealing with a mistake in an exceptional way can create one of the most positive brand experiences possible.

What we don't understand is when idiots decide to do something incredibly stupid, record it, and then, thinking it's incredibly funny, they decide to post it on the Internet for the world to see. That's what happened to Domino's. It's bad enough that these videos get exposed so easily on places like YouTube, but they eventually generate millions of PR impressions when the story hits the newspaper and the network news programs. TV news, in particular, can't resist showing us videos like these, because they are both disgusting and fascinating at the same time. And, then it becomes a spectator sport to see how the targeted company responds.

Domino's seems to have responded quickly and well to this episode but the damage was done. What are the implications for marketers everywhere because every one of us is vulnerable to something like this? You're especially vulnerable if you manage a highly visible, familiar consumer brand like Domino's.

First, realize that YouTube can be your enemy just as much as it can be your friend. Yes, you can post your own marketing messages out there, but the images that interest people the most are not these packaged corporate communications. It's the underground "behind the scenes" scandalous images that capture attention, become viral and get widely circulated. As a marketer, you must image your worst PR nightmare and then develop a marketing and PR contingency plan to deal with it. You must be ready because if something like this occurs to your brand, its impact moves at the speed of light and you can't take days to figure out how to respond and what to do. What is the worst possible thing that could show up on YouTube that could severely damage your brand or your company? Are you ready to deal with it?

Second, shouldn't YouTube be more accountable for episodes like this? As marketers, shouldn't we be talking to the YouTubes of the world about what can be done to protect businesses from this type of damage to their reputations. Do we really think it's right that two idiot employees can have this kind of impact on a company? Is YouTube doing an adequate job policing the videos that are posted to their site?

Third, anyone who knowingly inflicts this kind of harm on a company should be legally liable for their actions. It's not enough to simply fire an employee for this kind of damage. It should be illegal. That would go a long way to discourage these malicious acts.

Your Brand Could Be Hijacked - Get Ready!

In the good old days, when your company inadvertently disenfranchised a customer by some tacky bit of poor service or poor product performance, there wasn't much they could do.  The really angry customers would simply stop doing business with you.   If you were lucky, an aggravated customer would send a complaint letter or email or make a call to your customer service desk.   Customers like these were providing both incredibly valuable feedback to your business as well as giving you a chance to remedy their problem so they could continue to do business with you.   If you mishandled this golden opportunity, only the disgruntled customer generally knew about it and the worse that could happen is that you lost them as a customer.

In today's world, the downside of creating angry disgruntled poorly-handled customers is much greater.  That's because it's not just between you and them anymore.  Now, customers have the power and the ability to literally inform the world about how poorly your company or one of your brands has performed and how badly your people have responded.  

In today's world, BEWARE THE TECH-SAVVY DISGRUNTLED CUSTOMER!  They can hijack your brand.  They can dominate the Internet conversation about your brand.  All it takes is one really angry and highly motivated tech-savvy brand pirate and your goose could be cooked.

The Internet is the tool.  Anti-brand blogs and text messaging can be powerful but the real brand killer is video.  

Image the following marketing nightmare.   One of your customers records and uses their cell phone to video tape a particularly idiotic and callous encounter between them and someone from your company.   The video (because it's either funny or outrageous) finds its way on to YouTube and then starts showing up on emails and on other social networking sites.  People who may have had similar experiences with your company appear out of the woodwork and jump into the exploding and negative Internet conversation that's happening about your brand.  Your brand is being "flamed."  Are you paying attention?  Are you aware this is even happening?  Are you prepared to do something about it?  Or are you asleep at the switch as millions of dollars of your marketing investment go up in smoke?

Even if you don't experience this type of brand nightmare, there is still an Internet conversation going on about your brand.  It's happening right now.  Are you plugged into it?  Are you tracking it and using it to understand what is being said and thought about your brand?  Are you using it to gain brand insight?

You must recognize and embrace the idea that you are no longer in complete control of your brand.  Viral transmission and re-transmission of messages can propagate negative information FAST.  Is your company ready to deal quickly with information like this that gets out there? Do you have a company blog that you can use as a communication tool to combat this kind of thing?  Do you have a PR response plan ready to implement?  Is your marketing team empowered to respond FAST when these situations occur?

If you don't, you've got a time bomb on your hands.  The clock is ticking.  What are you waiting for?