Guns N’ Roses / Dr Pepper drama: Where do we go now?
This story hits home for me on many fronts: At SoftCoin, we executed multiple interactive promotions for the Dr Pepper brand over the course of several years. Dr Pepper Snapple Group has a great group of folks with a lot of passion for their business. They embrace interactive marketing in a big way. DPSG is also a DemandTec customer. And I happen to really like GN’R (my high school rock band covered a few of their tunes!)
This story is a painful, yet important reminder about the power of viral marketing. Long story short, DPSG ran a wildly attractive, time-bound consumer offer for a free bottle of Dr Pepper due to GN’R releasing their new album, Chinese Democracy. The registration site apparently couldn’t handle the rush and lots of consumers became upset. Guns N’ Roses is now threatening a lawsuit against DPSG, arguing that this misstep has damaged the release of their new album. We’ll see how this sorts out in the coming weeks.
I can’t speculate why the server crashed, or what could have been done differently. But this saga underscores just how powerful the groundswell of consumers can be with an attractive promotional offer. Social networks can compress campaign awareness from days to minutes. Literally overnight, a campaign can “go viral” and take on a life of its own. Use this reality to your advantage, but wherever possible plan your interactive for massive scale.
