A list of some very memorable mistakes and what your marketing department can learn from them.

2. Intro
Okay.
It
happens.
We
all
make
mistakes.
When
you’re
a
business,
small
or
large,
there
are
risks
to
marke5ng
and
adver5sing.
And
when
pu<ng
your
name
out
there
as
a
business
it
becomes
significantly
more
important
to
make
sure
your
message
and
methods
are
well-­‐planned
and
even
more
carefully
executed.
Otherwise,
you’ll
end
up
like
New
Coke
or
Crystal
Pepsi
—
a
marke5ng
train-­‐wreck
from
which
people
just
can’t
avert
their
gaze.

3. THE BAD

4. Mobile Marketing Fail
There’s
actually
a
site
dedicated
to
mobile
marke5ng
fails.
Check
out
this
par5cular
one:
hKp://mobilemarke5ngfail.com/2011/10/05/iloop-­‐showcases-­‐super8-­‐mobile-­‐fail/
SMS
campaigns
can
be
a
great
driver
for
business,
but
you
have
to
make
sure
that
the
followup
is
as
strong
as
the
ini5al
outreach.
In
this
example,
iLoop
forces
a
download
on
the
user,
they
clearly
haven’t
considered
if
the
content
is
to
be
viewed
on
a
mobile
phone
or
a
tablet,
the
delivered
content
is
poorly
created,
and
they
send
a
text
to
the
user
asking
for
informa)on
that
they
already
have.
Fail
ra4ng:
3/10

5. Facebook Marketing Fail
There’s
been
a
lot
of
debate
about
the
merits
of
adver5sing
on
Facebook,
but
no
company
should
fall
into
the
“bait
and
switch”
method.
Case
in
point:
Source:
hKp://epicmarke5ngfails.blogspot.com/2012/04/facebook-­‐marke5ng-­‐fail.html
This
is
a
Facebook
ad
for
a
den)st.
It’s
safe
to
say
that
quite
a
number
of
those
likes
were
for
the
OKawa
Senators,
not
the
dental
studio.
Doing
this
just
proves
that
you
have
liKle
or
nothing
of
value
to
actually
adver5se.
Fail
ra4ng:
5/10

6. Email Marketing Fail
Email
marke5ng
is
a
great
way
to
stay
in
contact
with
consumers
and
offer
special
promo5ons.
However,
email
marke5ng
is
a
tool
that
can
be
used
for
great
evil,
as
shown
below:
Source:
hKp://www.aimclearblog.com/2012/05/08/email-­‐marke5ng-­‐hall-­‐of-­‐shame-­‐3-­‐classic-­‐fails-­‐to-­‐avoid/
First
of
all,
this
campaign
is
way
too
aggressive
–
mailing
every
two
days
is
akin
to
spam.
Not
to
men5on,
they
sent
the
same
person
an
email
en5tled
“Does
She
Like
to
Travel?”
as
well
as
“ The
Sundress
You’ll
Wear
All
Summer.”
The
recipient
is
a
male.
Fail
ra4ng:
5/10

7. THE RIDICULOUSLY BAD

8. e QR Code Fail
There
seem
to
be
more
ways
to
do
QR
codes
wrong
rather
than
there
are
ways
to
do
them
right.
When
used
correctly
they’re
a
wonderful
way
to
interact
with
a
web-­‐savvy
audience
who
might
not
be
in
front
of
the
computer
24
hours
a
day.
However,
keep
in
mind
that
those
who
use
QR
codes
are
indeed
web-­‐savvy.
See
if
you
can
figure
out
what
is
wrong
with
this
picture:
If
you
can’t
tell
because
the
leKering
has
been
blurred
out,
this
is
an
email
sig
with
a
QR
code.
What’s
wrong?
Well,
in
order
to
use
the
QR
code,
the
user
would
have
to
print
the
signature,
scan
the
computer
with
a
smartphone,
or
scan
a
smartphone
with
a
smartphone.
Not
par5cularly
useful,
bro.
Not
to
men5on,
if
somebody
is
reading
an
email,
they
likely
are
already
engaged
with
the
internet
as
it
is.
Fail
Ra4ng:
6/10

9. e Harpo Fail
Harpo
is
the
name
of
Oprah
Winfrey’s
produc5on
company.
To
make
a
long
story
short,
in
1999,
Harpo
promised
that
any
visitor
to
Oprah.com
could
print
off
a
5cket
that
would
en5tle
the
bearer
to
two
free
pieces
of
grilled
chicken
and
a
biscuit
at
KFC.
The
coupon
was
only
available
for
24
hours.
And
who
likes
free
chicken?
Well,
everybody
in
America
does.
Many
KFC
restaurants
had
to
close
their
doors
to
staunch
the
demand,
which
lead
to
sit
ins,
fights,
arguments,
and
more.
This
is
a
quintessen5al
marke5ng
fail.
Lesson
learned
–
always
consider
the
product
and
discount
you’re
offering.
Fail
ra4ng:
7/10

10. e Invariable Insensitive Twitter Fail
While
this
fail
was
not
part
of
a
marke5ng
campaign,
it
affected
marke5ng
nonetheless.
A
South
American-­‐based
clothing
store
called
Celeb
Bou5que
no5ced
that
#Aurora
was
trending
on
Facebook.
They
took
the
chance
to
post
the
following
Tweet
in
an
aKempt
to
hop
on
the
trending
hashtag
bandwagon:
Of
course,
they
had
no
idea
that
the
reason
why
#Aurora
was
trending
was
due
to
the
shoo5ngs
that
occurred
in
Colorado
at
the
screening
of
The
Dark
Knight
Rises.
Source:
hKp://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/07/20/celeb-­‐bou5que-­‐you-­‐freaking-­‐
morons/
Whoops.
The
Tweet
was
quickly
rescinded
and
Celeb
Bou5que
started
apologizing
for
the
mistake,
but
the
damage
had
been
done.
But
no
apology
is
going
to
make
up
for
the
hit
that
Celeb
Bou5que’s
reputa5on
has
suffered,
and
this
likely
won’t
be
forgoKen
any
5me
soon.
Fail
Ra4ng:
8/10

11. e Comprehensive Fail
This
famous
fail
was
commiKed
by
a
popular
content
delivery
service
–
Nejlix.
In
the
summer
of
2011,
Nejlix
CEO
Reed
Has5ngs
posted
a
blog
post
explaining
that
Nejlix
was
going
to
raise
prices
and
split
their
streaming
and
DVD
delivery
into
two
different
services.
Predictably,
this
set
off
a
storm
of
scathing
nega5ve
feedback
that
lasted
for
about
two
months.
To
add
insult
to
injury,
Nejlix
then
decided
to
rebrand
the
DVD
delivery
aspect
of
their
service
as
“Quikster,”
which
confused
customers
further.
According
to
inc.com,
Nejlix
lost
nearly
a
million
subscribers.
Nejlix
is
s5ll
suffering
from
the
blow.
Adding
insult
to
injury,
Nejlix’s
stock
dropped
from
$300
a
share
in
July
of
2011
to
$77
that
same
October.
Ouch.
Fail
ra4ng:
9/10

12. Conclusion
While
marke5ng
mix-­‐ups
can
range
from
faux-­‐pas
to
all-­‐out
disasters,
it’s
important
to
consider
the
consequences
of
a
marke5ng
plan
gone
wrong
during
its
formula5on.
There’s
no
subs5tute
for
shrewd
planning
when
crea5ng
your
marke5ng
campaign,
and
it’s
just
as
important
to
consider
off-­‐the-­‐cuff
messages.
But
whatever
you
do,
just
make
sure
that
your
marke5ng
campaign
doesn’t
end
up
like
a
fender
bender
on
the
highway:
something
people
can’t
stop
staring
at.

13. About
Content Equals Money
Content
Equals
Money
is
a
content
wri5ng
service
that
serves
a
wide
variety
of
clients
with
top-­‐shelf,
sharable
content.
Our
goal
is
to
work
with
small
companies
in
order
to
help
them
reap
the
same
results
from
content
marke5ng
as
the
Fortune
500
companies.
Content
marke5ng
is
truly
scalable
and
can
work
for
all
businesses
and
business
sizes!