Yes, in the world of Social Media IT DOES!

Need a Condom? There is an App for that!

Apparently Durex Condoms fail! No, not in real life, just in Social Media – all those using them otherwise you are fine!

We apparently now live in a world where we forget things, and we have apps to remind us off them. Seems like a large number of us naturally don’t buy and keep condoms in advance and when we do need them we rely on an app from iTunes that do this:

Description
GET CONDOMS WHEN YOU NEED THEM. WE DELIVER WHEREVER YOU ARE.
Whether it’s day or night, our professional teams deliver condoms to you quickly and discreetly.
DOWNLOAD IT NOW, SOS CONDOMS will save your date.
How it works :
LOCATE YOURSELF
CHOOSE YOUR PRODUCT
WE DELIVER TO YOU (Cash on delivery)

But we are not here to discuss the app, however, we are here to discuss Durex’s social media failure. Durex set up a campaign for people to vote on a microsite, promoted via Facebook, where people could choose the city where they would like the SOS service to be available next.

Power to the People

In an effort to empower the consumers, voters could choose any city in the world. So far, so good! But like most of you chuckling away reading this, and thinking mischievous thoughts, the voters did the same – they thought of it as a joke and their choices were just an effort to spice things up. Instead of choosing from a short list of pre-qualified city, the most requested location for SOS Condom deliveries was Batman, a city in Turkey.

With more votes than Paris, London, & New York combined!

Durex’s official comment on this was that its campaign was hijacked and the voting was suspended.

Implications of Social Media

Whilst empowering the people is a good thing, it is equally important to think through the strategies and implications of allowing 100% crowd ownership. Social Media Experts should:

1. Know their product or service and know it well enough.
2. Understand the level of power given to the crowd – because this will drive the outcomes of your marketing campaign.
3. Pay attention to details.
4. Most importantly, start with the end goal in mind when planning such a campaign.