The King is not amusing…

Since I have written my master thesis about Facebook marketing, and have also noticed an increased interest and effort in social media marketing from the industry side, I’ve been curiously following what’s going on here in Sweden, and probably taken part in way more online contests and competitions than a person with a life would and should. As already mentioned, the Ariel Fashion Shoot at least increased my attitude towards the brand by providing me breaks from a boring day of unpacking moving boxes. The latest supposed-to-be-engaging-and-thereby-boosting-brand-image contest I took part in was ‘Burger King ger alla studenter?’, a Facebook competition where users should guess the content of gradually revealed pictures, with the first to be right winning what is depicted. Unfortunately, I was not provided with the entertainment I was after, but learned a valuable lesson about mistakes that can easily be avoided when conducting a Facebook campaign:

Explain the rules properly
When looking at Buger King’s Facebook wall during the competition, a lot of the people that at least knew that some kind of competition was going on, seemed confused about the exact details. Several asked where the competition was taking place and how they could take part, not being able to find the tab that directed to the campaign site. In addition, the competition was directed to students, but the rules talked about everyone over 18, which led to additional confusion. Finally, the information about how the actual contest was conducted was rather sparse, e.g. no information was given on how the picture would successively be revealed, and more importantly, that people could still guess even though someone else had already been the fastest, which made numerous people believe they had won, which was revoked only seconds later.

Make sure your technology works
Figuring out the actual way to compete was not helped by the fact that especially in the beginning of the competition period, it was interrupted by several technical errors. When I gave the competition my first try, nothing showed in the application window where the price was supposed to be revealed, and I was close to blaming it on missing browser updates and even changed browsers, until the flood of other desperate postings on the wall revealed that I wasn’t the only one who was not getting it. Later posts indicated that this game repeated itself on other occasions, without a timely response from the admins, which leads to my next learning point.

If something goes wrong, react in time
Even during the best campaigns, unexpected problems can occur, and even though anticipating and avoiding them overall would be more advisable, it should at least be thought about how to react if the unexpected happens. Unfortunately, the team in charge of implementing the campaign seemed too busy with fixing the technical difficulties, that they actually forget to tell people what was going on. This did not only lead to numerous postings and following comments from upset participants about their frustration with not being able to compete, but also seemed to encourage them to unleash other frustrating experiences they had with the fast food chain, ranging from menu items not available in Sweden (which was by the way answered with apparently false information), to restaurants not willing to accept 500kr bills.

And if you still have some energy left: Give it a sexy name
As the ancient Romans already knew ‘nomen est omen’ and “Have you played ‘Burger King ger alla studenter?’?” just doesn’t roll as smoothly off your tongue as it could, despite the risk that people will forget the name altogether, and refer to it as ‘that Burger King thing on Facebook’ which drastically decreases searchability… and did I mention sex appeal?

I am aware of the fact, that there has been greater social media failures than this, and I know that my über-marketing standpoint is making a whopper out of a cheeseburger for the sake of exemplification, and I acknowledge that you can argue I am still mentioning the brand and creating awareness for it, but so far the campaign hasn’t really done anything for what I think about the brand, and in the end of the day (or rather night), I will still go to McDonald’s to buy my drunken cheeseburgers (which just also earned them a free mention). However, Burger King hinted at more social media competitions to come, so hopefully they’ll get it right next time.