The marketing team at Kelloggs had a bit of a nightmare at the weekend after it took the decision to push an incredibly poorly thought-out tweet to support its ‘Give a Child a Breakfast’ campaign.
The tweet enraged a number of the brand's followers, with many pointing out that the tweet suggested that they would only be donating breakfasts to vulnerable children if they received enough publicity. Not good. There was absolutely no way Kellogg's could turn this round into a positive situation, so it attempted to defend itself with an apology. Unfortunately, this just seemed to make people even angrier.
Christmas advertsThis week saw the annual roll-out of the Christmas advert, with the hotly anticipated John Lewis ad breaking hearts around the country. Its wonderfully twee ‘Bear and the Hare’ ad caused tears to be discreetly wiped away in offices around the country.Not only has the advert spawned a number of ‘alternative endings’ (including the ending of Watership Down, which I can’t watch because it’s far too barbaric), it has led to the discovery of the most patient man on the internet, John Lewis himself.Unfortunately, it would appear that the retail chain failed to secure the @JohnLewis Twitter handle, having to settle for @JohnLewisRetail instead. But, it turns out @JohnLewis is in use by a man from Virginia in the US. He gained almost 5,000 new followers in one day after the release of the John Lewis Christmas advert, and patiently replied to each of the tweets wrongly directed at him about the Christmas ad.
It was nice to see someone take the unexpected Twitter activity in their stride for once, instead of getting mad and shouting at people. GO JOHN LEWIS ESQ!
YouTube vs GoogleIt’s not just Kellogg's that everyone seems to be kicking off at this week, as YouTube and Google+ are getting their fair share of wrath as well.YouTube has rolled out a new comments system, which uses Google+ and means that if you don’t have a Google+ account, you can’t comment. Even YouTube’s co-founder Jared Karim has slammed the new system, taking to his blog for only the second time in eight years to ask: “Why the fuck do I need a Google+ account to comment on a video?”Google introduced the new comments system in an attempt to improve the quality and relevancy of YouTube hosted discussions, but it doesn’t appear to have gone down very well.
Twitter Custom TimelinesThis week, Twitter introduced custom timelines, its new service giving people more control over what they see. Custom timelines allows you to create your own (gasp!) timeline, by naming it and choosing the tweets you want to add to it. Think of them a bit like lists, but with more content from more people. Each timeline is public and has its own page, making it easier to share so others can follow along in real time. Handy for those exciting moments, everything from sports games to elections to the latest episode of Downton Abbey, you can create what you like.
Snapchat turns down Facebook offerSnapchat recently turned down an offer for a whopping $3bn from social media giant Facebook. The photo sharing service is apparently being wooed by a number of other investors as well, but its 23-year-old co-founder is not interested in selling the app until at least early next year. He’s apparently hoping that Snapchat’s numbers will have grown enough by then to justify even more monies. I can’t help but feel that young Evan Spiegel might be being a tad optimistic with his hopes for Snapchat’s increase in users, but I’m willing to be proved wrong. I feel like this is a bit like that bit in Deal or No Deal when they’re offered a deal with the banker, and Evan has thought about it, and said ‘No deal, Noel.’
