Comments on: How Saatchi & Saatchi’s Toyota social media disaster unfolded

By: DigitalMLab

DigitalMLab — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:25:10 +0000

Nice article.

I think you have touched on a much bigger issue of agencies learning digital on clients time.

Traditional agencies still have a long way to go and having 1 digital resource does not suddenly make an agency a digital specialist.

There are many cowboys and this is just one of probably many examples where agencies are selling a digital concept without having the background experience to deliver on it.

This should be a note of caution to many.

By: That Toyota ad: The Creepy Calamity « Ideas in Motion

*That* Toyota ad: The Creepy Calamity « Ideas in Motion — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:12:27 +0000

[...] be easy to point a finger at technology and talk about the impracticalities of the internet but Mumbrella succinctly explains that ‘In the end, it wasn’t social media that created this disaster for the [...]

By: Remarketables 1.12 | Blog | design mind

Remarketables 1.12 | Blog | design mind — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:38:56 +0000

[...] PR Disasters: Apple Tablet Confirmed?, No, You Mistranslated Us!, Saatchi & Saatchi [...]

By: How Saatchi & Saatchi’s Toyota Social Media Disaster Unfolded « Social Media at Work

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:19:21 +0000

[...] Burrowes says Saatchi & Saatchi demonstrated that you actually need to understand social media before you start. You can’t start learning on the client’s time. Read his full commentary is at Mumbrella. [...]

By: dictamus

dictamus — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:16:39 +0000

The problem here isn’t that they didn’t understand social media, although they sound weak in that too, the problem is that unreconstructed sexism is still very much in evidence throughout marketing and advertising, and in those areas you will bump into misogynists at every turn.

You can only imagine the porn-addled brains which thought this nasty little film would be found acceptable by the general public. They need lessons in respecting women, but that probably isn’t going to happen any time soon.

By: The rules of social media | Bulletpoints

The rules of social media | Bulletpoints — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:05:10 +0000

[...] will be mistakes, probably at the expense of a client, but there will be successes too. Advice and rules can only go so far, the trick is to be brave and [...]

By: Aneliesa

Aneliesa — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:26:05 +0000

NEVER!!! be impressed by deceived females who think disgusting filth is a bit of a laugh!!! I will NEVER buy that brand of car EVER and I will NEVER support them in any way whatsoever!!!

By: Running with Scissors » Blog Archive » Looking forward to 2010 and beyond

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:55:53 +0000

[...] agencies are still trying to grasp the power and potential strategic applications. See Motrin and Toyota. With countless blogs, and tens of millions of people using social networks such as Facebook, [...]

By: Looking forward to 2010 and beyond : BCAMA marketline

Looking forward to 2010 and beyond : BCAMA marketline — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:50:12 +0000

By: The best social media campaigns of 2009 | Articles | Content Formula

The best social media campaigns of 2009 | Articles | Content Formula — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:24:04 +0000

[...] companies, each one running competing campaigns. These pitches varied in quality, but undoubtedly the worst came from Saatchi & Saatchi. This campaign, which consisted of a badly-run Facebook page and little else, asked users to create [...]

By: Social inexperience sinks Toyota campaign « FCEdge Powerful Marketing Communications

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:55:03 +0000

[...] Social inexperience sinks Toyota campaign A Saatchi & Saatchi campaign for Toyota backfired after the company launched a user-generated film competition — then picked as the winner a video that many saw as deeply insulting to women. Picking through the debris, Tim Burrowes argues that neither the agency nor the marketer understood the basics of running a social-media campaign. “It wasn’t social media that created this disaster for the brand — it was the lack of social-media savvy,” he writes. Mumbrella.com.au (Australia) [...]

By: sven

sven — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:57:17 +0000

Mike, that is such crap. As an aussie who lived in the US’s most liberal city, San Francisco, for 2 years, i can tell you that the US is waaaaaay more socially and politically conservative than Australia. The question is not whether it could run on late night TV – it probably could in most western countries – but whether society on the whole would find it offensive. And western societies do find the puerile voyeuristic/incestuous overtones offensive. If this ad ran in the US there would be an enormous uproar – and not just from the religious right

By: Stuart

Stuart — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:39:57 +0000

Mike – that just proves it. America really is the global moral drainage pipe.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:38:02 +0000

duh! you guys are Ausies… this all makes sense now. For the states its not that edgy could even run on late night TV.

By: Luci Temple

Luci Temple — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:35:23 +0000

@SchadenFreude

Actually, there ARE people who understand social media. Like, the people who use it, just for starters.

The key reason why advertisers (and even some PR people) get it wrong is because they have the wrong mindset. The Advertiser model is about “broadcast” : you control the content, you control the context, the message is one way from you to the audience.

Social Media is about building relationships: the audience (participants) have input, can alter the message, can alter the context, and ultimately they control what happens. It is up to them whether your message gets to go viral based on whether you have something that is of value to them, in which case they will pass it on. If you’re not genuine, if you reek of being a snakeoil salesman, you’ll not be ignored – you’ll be lamblasted.

Your comment that no one knows how to handle Social Media simply shows how self absorbed the advertising industry is. There is a world outside advertising that is using social media to achieve great things. Go read a few books about it and you’ll quickly learn more than Saatchi evidently does.

A few of the many possible titles to start you off:
“Connected Marketing” by Kirby & Marsden
“Marketing to the social web” by Weber
“The new rules of marketing & PR” by Scott
“Fans Friends & Followers” by Kirsner
“Socialnomics” by Qualman
“Inbound Marketing” by Halligan
“Permission Marketing” by Seth Godin
“Social Media Marketing for Dummies”…

I might add, the fact that you’re posting anonymously further indicates something about your (lack of) understanding of social media. Credibility is gained by being honest and transparent, two things the advertising industry is not well known for.