Media in the New Millennium

posted by Doyle

In another example of social media giving near-instant — and not flattering, to say the least — feedback to a traditional media campaign, the makers of Motrin today might be looking for something to alleviate a big headache.

The makers of Motrin executed an ad targeted at “babywearing” moms — moms that wear their young children in slings — noting that Motrin might just be the thing for the pain that can come from such a strain (full disclosure, the ad was down before I was able to watch it, so I’m paraphrasing). Within hours, many members of the Mommy Blogging community on Twitter took the drugmaker to task, resulting in the
takedown.

Blogger and PR consultant Katja Presnal, who writes at www.skimbacolifestyle.com, had already noted more than 60 bloggers taking issue with the ad on Sunday evening and had posted a video collage of Twitter comments. Katja was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.

Katja, first tell us what sparked such an outrage? Although my kids are teenagers now, I can remember some tired backs from carrying themthrough the mall when they little. How did Motrin miss the mark?

I guess I could ask you if you used a sling to carry your children? The sling actually makes it easier to carry a child and it is much better for your back than carrying a child without a sling. Also, while Motrin’s ad might be not entirely right that babywearing is “fashionable” but it in fact has almost become like a movement or lifestyle among some moms of today. While many types of moms use slings, and I’m sure the ad was a spot on with somebody, it wasn’t for me. I am a big believer of attachment parenting, and I wanted to carry my babies in a front carrier or sling for the closeness and for the benefits of the closeness. One of the things I also believe is natural living and breast feeding – the babywearing mom is much more likely to also be a nursing mother, and an ad recommending medicine for a nursing moms just doesn’t feel right.

Motrin’s a big brand with, I’m guessing, a sizable research budget. In this case, it seems it may have failed them. How could they have discovered this possible backlash before creating and airing the ad?

They should have used a better test group and better experts to really know who their target market was. For example, I’m sure they didn’t expect these babywearing moms to be extremely tech savvy and attacking them online with viral boycotting campaigns. In one word, they underestimated their target market and that would have been easily fixed by using help of real life moms. They should have just done more research before even designing the campaign and then used a larger test group to hear their opinions.

It seems they took the ad down from their Web site — or their Web site crashed from the attention. If they took it down, do you think that was the right move?

Absolutely. The sooner they took it down the better, and the ad was taken down from their website in about 24 hours since the talk among moms online started, it indicates that the word of moms online is powerful and that they listened. I heard from the Vice President of Marketing for McNeil Consumer Healthcare that they are also running print ads, and unfortunately it was too late to pull those. She sent an email to me and a few other mommy bloggers and also said they  “take… feedback seriously and will take swift action with regard to this ad.” This shows that they care what moms have to say and they are open to a conversation.

What do you recommend they do now? What’s the best way to recover?

Now they have realized what kind of power social media and mommy bloggers are – now they should figure out a way to work it in their advance. It is not going to be easy, and it will take more than a few nice emails for moms to forgive, but I think there is a possibility to turn this into something good – if the company wants to. And when I say they should “work it in their advance” I mean that they should reach out to moms and do their next marketing campaign maybe with the help of real moms, just like what Walmart is doing currently with their Eleven Moms campaign.

When they show for moms they truly care about them and want to offer them support and help, moms will respond. A new campaign made with big bucks is not going to fix it – the solution requires something with a more humane and personal touch – the company and brand becoming part of the community.

Many thanks to Katja for taking the time to provide us with her perspective. You can read more from Katja on her blog.

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