Pret's social team engage in rap battle with customer over bad wrap
Social media can often throw up a myriad of hurdles for brands when annoyed customers voice their grievances for the world to see. And while restitution commonly takes on a formal and apologetic approach, Pret A Manger recently illustrated a more creative approach when it engaged in a rap battle with a customer.
The food chain was messaged on Twitter by 25 year-old Tom Dodds from Oxford who tweeted them asking “What did your chef put in the Chef's Special crayfish and avocado flatbread ? Tastes like my daughter’s sandpit.”
What did your chef put in the @Pret Chefs Special crayfish and avocado flatbread ? Tastes like my daughters sandpit.
— Dodds (@DoddsHHQ) January 6, 2016
Pret’s social media team promptly replied asking for Dodds to DM them before offering him a free lunch and from there things took an unusual turn.
After thanking them for the gesture Dodds threw in a reference to Jay Z and Kanye West’s song ‘Niggas In Paris’ when he added “That Fish Cray”.
Obviously clued up on one of the most popular hip-hop songs of the last decade, Pret got in on the action and replied ”I've got 99 problems but the fish ain't one” in reference to Jay Z’s track ‘99 Problems’.
Another of the songs sourced during the rap battle was Notorious BIG’s ‘Juicy’ which Dodds referenced when he wrote “It was all a dream, I used to read turbot magazine. Goldfish, cod and anchovy in the limousine.”
The exchanged went back-and-forth and included song references from Taylor Swift, Adele and Dizzee Rascal.
Speaking to Mail Online, Dodds tipped his hat to the effort made by Pret when he said “the exchange was on and off for about two hours so kudos to the busy Pret team”.
A spokesperson for Pret said “having fun with our customers is a big part of what makes us tick - both in our shops and on social media”.
Other differing approaches which Pret has taken with its social channels include its marketing approach for the Christmas period. Shunning traditional Christmas marketing tactics, Pret instead dedicated its marketing channels and digital media budget to the five charities it works with via the Pret Foundation Trust.