Every brand wants to stand out and make a strong first impression. But it’s possible to go viral for the wrong reasons, and when you do, the backlash can be swift and severe. While competition is fierce and every brand wants to appear unique, unsuccessful marketing campaigns prove that there are other factors to consider besides how to get attention.
Unsuccessful ad campaigns don’t necessarily mean an unsuccessful brand. Even the biggest companies in the world can cause epic marketing failures. The good news is that as a brand on the rise, you can learn from their mistakes and avoid some common marketing pitfalls.
Here are some of the least successful marketing campaigns of all time, some from global giants and some from small enterprises that got more attention than they bargained for.
The Unsuccessful Marketing Campaigns
Wonkagate
‘Willy’s Chocolate Experience’ promised children all the magic of Roald Dahl’s famous chocolate factory with slick AI-generated marketing materials. But the reality was very different. Guests paid up to £35 for the “immersive” experience that event planning company House of Illuminati held in Glasgow. When they showed up with their families, they found a warehouse sparsely decorated with a few unimpressive props and backdrops. Organisers put the event on pause just hours after opening as angry guests demanded their money back, and a photo of actor Kirsty Paterson playing a “sad Oompa Loompa” went viral on social media.
Pepsi and Kendall Jenner
Pepsi ran into controversy in 2017 for a promo starring Kendall Jenner. In the advertisement, Jenner joins a protest march and walks up to the front of it. She hands a police officer a can of Pepsi as a peace offering, and everyone applauds when he drinks it. People roundly criticised Pepsi for trivialising civil rights movements like Black Lives Matter, and the company issued an apology and pulled the ad within 24 hours.
Gap logo redesign
In 2010, iconic clothing brand Gap replaced its 20-year-old logo with a new one featuring the word “Gap” in bold lettering and a blue square in the upper right-hand corner. While the rebrand was Gap’s attempt to be “modern, sexy and cool”, it was significantly less popular than the timeless and recognisable logo that Gap was famous for. Web users ridiculed the change online. It even inspired a site called ‘Crap Logo Yourself’, and Gap reverted to their former design.
Burger King Women’s Day Tweet
On International Women’s Day in 2021, Burger King UK tweeted, “Women belong in the kitchen”. They followed this up with two subsequent tweets: one that said “if they want to, of course,” and another announcing a new women’s scholarship program for culinary arts. While the aim was to highlight gender inequality in the restaurant industry and encourage more women to pursue careers as chefs, many saw it as a tone-deaf attempt to use sexism as clickbait. Some Twitter users didn’t even make it past the first tweet, and after a wave of backlash, Burger King issued an apology.
Dove’s body wash ad
In 2017, Dove released a three-second video on Facebook showing three women of different ethnicities, each removing a shirt to reveal the next woman. While the goal was to celebrate diversity and show that Dove’s body wash is for every woman, the ad was branded racist for depicting a black woman seemingly transforming into a white woman after using the body wash.
New Coke
In 1985, Coca-Cola reformulated its famous beverage after blind taste tests revealed that customers preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi. However, customers rejected New Coke vehemently, boycotting the drink and at one stage bombarding the company’s switchboards with nearly 10,000 calls a day. Coca-Cola had positioned itself as “the Real Thing” for years, and the brand overplayed its hand by also trying to be the “new” thing. Coca-Cola’s new taste didn’t align with its brand identity, which relies on familiarity and nostalgia. After a fierce backlash, the company reverted to its original flavour.
Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover
Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has been a masterclass in poor social media strategy. Since rebranding the site to ‘X’, the social media platform has lost 71% of its value. Elon Musk’s many mistakes include changing an iconic name and logo to something nebulous and forgettable, introducing a confusing “blue check” system that involves paying for a tick and letting trolls run rampant.
Why These Marketing Campaigns Didn’t Work
Most marketing campaigns fail because they’re out of touch with audience expectations or don’t communicate with their audiences properly. Some common threads running through these unsuccessful marketing campaigns include:
Insensitive messaging
Many of these campaigns used social issues for attention and clicks, neglecting to read the room and appearing insensitive. It’s important to stay true to the values of your audience as well as your own brand values. Addressing social issues like racism and sexism requires an empathetic approach and more than a surface-level understanding of the issues.
Delayed responses
When a brand takes a long time to respond to consumer complaints, it can make them look apathetic and leave members of the public feeling unheard.
Over-promising and under-delivering
Setting your customers up to expect a high-quality experience and delivering an underwhelming one will always hurt your reputation. House of Illuminati’s ‘Willy Wonka’ experience is an example of that on a grand scale.
Consulting consumers before making changes
People are excited by new products and prospects, but they also like familiarity and tradition. Coca-Cola and Gap forgot that the warm, familiar feelings their brand evokes help to sell products and the saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
What to Learn From Unsuccessful Marketing Campaigns
Approach sensitive issues carefully
If you’re going to engage with social issues, take an empathetic approach and make sure you consider your audience’s values. Using controversial or “edgy” messaging in an attempt to get attention is more likely to backfire than not.
Have a diverse team
Having a marketing team from a range of different demographics and backgrounds helps bring a range of fresh perspectives to your campaigns.
Communicate clearly and reassuringly
Open and honest communication is so important. Make sure your products and services accurately reflect what your brand offers and communicate honestly with customers. Make sure you can deliver what you promised.
Know your target audience
One of the main reasons marketing campaigns fail is a lack of understanding of the target audience and their expectations. Before making any dramatic changes to your brand, make sure you get plenty of customer input: poll or interview your target demographics, and always keep your most loyal customers in mind when making any major changes.
Establish your core values
As a brand, establish what your values are and stick to them. Make sure all of your content aligns not just with the expectations of your audience but with your own deeply held principles.
Have a solid marketing strategy
Working with a creative or marketing agency will help you put your best foot forward when it comes to your next campaign.
Things to Avoid In Marketing Campaigns
There are several common reasons why marketing campaigns fail. Some of the most common include:
Misguided objectives
Marketing campaigns that fail often have either too many objectives or one objective they’re not approaching properly. The best marketing campaigns are built around a single objective: more traffic, new leads or increased brand awareness. Your marketing objective is the measurable outcome that tells you whether or not your strategy has been successful, and a more focused approach will increase the likelihood of that.
Unclear positioning
Your marketing campaign should be clear about what you offer your customers, how it can benefit them, and how you differ from your competitors.
Weak calls to action (CTA)
Without a clear and persuasive call to action, you won’t motivate your target audience to progress along the sales funnel and make a purchase.
Lack of consistency
A marketing campaign or product inconsistent with your brand identity makes you look less trustworthy and tarnishes your brand reputation.
Neglecting customer loyalty
Customer loyalty is a powerful force. Retargeting is an effective way to nurture relationships with existing customers, and retargeting ads are 76% more likely to be clicked than the regular kind. While acquiring new customers is important, it’s easier to keep an existing customer engaged than acquiring a completely new one.
Create Successful Marketing Campaigns with Anchor
As a full-service creative marketing agency, Anchor Digital’s marketing campaigns help you achieve your objectives while staying true to your brand strategy. Our approach is genuine, strong, clear and consistent, reflecting your core brand values.
Our strategy services include workshop facilitation, brand strategy, brand positioning and customer and market research. We also focus on performance that covers all aspects of digital marketing, including PPC platforms like Google and Facebook Ads.
If you want to reduce the chance of unsuccessful marketing campaigns, get in touch with the Anchor team. We’ll help you become even greater at what you do.
