Belo Medical Group knew what it was doing when it recruited the very de rigeur advertising agency Gigil Group to develop their latest campaign. Known for its viral attention-grabbing video ads that more closely resemble arthouse shorts, the leading aesthetic clinic knew that whatever Gigil came up with would elicit strong reactions. And elicit strong reactions they did—except of course, as we all know, for all the wrong reasons.
As soon as it was posted on Belo’s social media accounts on August 10, the #PandemicEffect commercial was universally panned online. Many felt the ad was in poor taste, as the real #PandemicEffect was less about failing to feel beautiful and more on losing jobs and loved ones. Others denounced the ad’s decision to uphold outdated beauty standards and portraying women with plus-sized bodies and body hair as ugly.
In response, Belo quickly deleted the video ad in less than 24 hours. Still, the damage has been done. The overwhelmingly revolted reaction to the commercial brings about a learning opportunity: not just for the creative team involved but for all of us marketing and advertising professionals. What does the #PandemicEffect snafu teach us about effective marketing strategy and how to carefully craft a campaign message?
The science backs it up: studies find that ads that evoke pleasant feelings consistently resonate with consumers more than negative, neutral, or information-based commercials do. In fact, positive-based messaging can strike a chord in consumers and is most likely to translate into positive beliefs and attitudes towards the brand. It may be tempting to go for scare-tacting messaging in order to elicit a strong reaction, but positive ads in the long term are still the best ploy for a brand to strengthen and maintain its relevance.
Times and cultural norms have changed, and the way people talk about beauty nowadays has become more inclusive and empowering as opposed to the oppressive standards of yore. The Belo ad might have benefitted from lengthy focus group discussions or even social listening, at least just to get a handle on how their desired customers discuss beauty online.
A great example of a campaign that had a perfect handle on how women feel about beauty is Dove’s 2013 “Real Beauty Sketches” digital ad. The company ran with an empowering message on how women are more beautiful than they perceive themselves, and the results speak for themselves: the ad won the Titanium Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and achieved 4.6 billion media impressions. But more important is the campaign’s lasting impact on the brand: nowadays, when people think of Dove the brand, they equate it to inclusive beauty that empowers and encourages.
How would you have improved Belo’s #PandemicEffect video ad? Chime in the comments below!
I always enjoy working on a new project.
Part of the excitement is talking to the client, understanding their vision, and then collaborating with the Brevo team to make it happen.
Sometimes, however, things don’t always go as planned.
The client might be erratic and change lanes halfway through. Or, as was the case with one particular client, we dropped the ball and fumbled our way to a favorable conclusion.
Our end-product didn’t match what we pitched the client. We managed to finish and deliver, but we had to settle for being content with less than stellar output.
It never happens, but it did.
I’d like to share with you some details of a project that faltered and the hard lessons we learned from the experience.
The Gig
The project was an extensive report for a reputable corporation. We won the project on the strength of our pitch which, we were told, was superior to our name-brand competitors.
We wowed the client with our concepts, unique visual approach, and the pedigree of our writing team. We won the project, got stuck in, and then things never quite went to plan.
By the time we crossed the finish line, nerves were frayed, the client was frazzled, and we were left wondering, “What happened?”
Here’s where we faltered.
1. No champion
The project had no champion. Which is silly, because we ALWAYS have a champion — someone to lead the project, start to finish. Instead, several voices were involved in the project, but with no clear leader as the project lead assigned was hindered by not being given the guidance they deserved.
This led to confusion and, when problems began to rise, team members assumed someone else would handle them. But no one stepped up. Consequently, things began falling through the cracks. In fact, the lack of a clear leader is what led to a myriad of other problems as the project progressed.
Next time we’ll clearly assign a project lead and let them lead. When several strong voices are involved in a project, it may initially be smooth sailing but with no clear leader, it runs the risk of becoming a ghost ship, tossed to and fro on the high seas.
2. Poor communication
No leader led to inconsistent communication — lots of voices and talk, but no one marshalling everything into a seamless whole.
What’s more, we only had one face-to-face meeting with the client — ONE. We normally meet clients on a weekly basis but found ourselves relying mainly on emails for primary communication.
This is not ideal, particularly when details are everything. The client was responsible for providing all the data but they faced their own internal challenges; it was our job to guide and make things easier for them. We failed.
The client deserves regular face-to-face attention, if not in person, at least via video conferencing and voice calls. By not meeting them regularly, we missed out on crucial interaction, deep dives, and sharing of information.
What we should have done is conducted regular meetings with the client. That would have helped with direction, clarity, and expedition of data/materials.
3. Imperfect time management
We had 8 weeks of dev time, which is tight but certainly doable if managed correctly. Unfortunately, the lack of project leadership meant that schedules weren’t managed properly, and endless revisions began to pile up.
Following a debrief with the client we were informed, they believed the revisions they were sending across were assisting us rather than hindering the design team.
They were happy with the output being produced but we were getting lost in what they actually wanted, leading to tighter deadlines which is never ideal for quality output.
It felt like a reservoir waiting to burst, cracking against the weight of multiple edits, updates, and adjustments. As the deadline tightened, we failed to adapt and found ourselves scrambling to plug holes in the dam.
Next time we’ll beorganised from the get-go.We have the tools, the skills, and the experience to handle complex projects. But we succumbed to disorganisation.
4. Poor people management
We had the manpower to handle the project but didn’t properly organize ourselves. Consequently, we ended up being unable to provide adequate creative staff to handle the work.
We eventually had to pull a freelancer on board to help us. This isn’t unheard of, of course. But because it was last minute, it led to a less-than-desired outcome: a report that didn’t feel like Brevo’s signature form.
Lesson learned: Organise yourself.
5. Lack of accountability
The lack of leadership, weak planning, and poor communication could have been solved if we had proper accountability in place.
As CEO, I had an opportunity to act on the red flags. I didn’t. I could have stepped in to troubleshoot the situation. I didn’t. We had a chance to meet our original vision but instead, we floundered.
Problems can go unnoticed in an environment where everyone trusts someone else to help when things get crazy. But in this case, no one was around to help. And i should have been more proactive in getting on top of the situation.
Personally, I will be more discerning of red flags and be a lot more present in situations that are going south.
Summary
The project was delivered to the client’s satisfaction. But not ours. We know we could have done better. We know we could have elevated the project. We certainly shouldn’t have let things run the way they did, somewhat haphazardly and without a rudder.
The silver lining lies in the important lessons learned along the way. I take more away from my failures over my successes. We will be more accountable, more attuned to the warnings of a project about to burst.
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