Social media can turn good advertising bad

Research from The University of Melbourne suggests that the sentiment of conversations towards a brand in social media can have a dramatic effect on its advertising efforts.

Results showed that consumers were more likely to perceive an otherwise brilliant ad as sinister and deviant if they have been exposed to negative evaluations of the brand, effectively rendering expensive advertising efforts more harmful.

Dr Coker from The University of Melbourne says “For a company that is already on the radar of consumers, this means that extremely well crafted - and expensive - advertisements can evoke Sinister Attributions in consumers.  The consumer’s reaction is often ‘I hate this company for trying to talk me into liking them’.  

This research suggests that gauging sentiment towards your brand in Social Media is now even more important in helping you decide how you should engage your consumers, and help stop making things worse by spending money on ads which will not resonate with your audience.

BP, currently under fire for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has provided a clear cut example of this by taking out a $50M advertising campaign to defend its efforts to control the spill. The campaign was rolled out following the trending of the anti-BP sentiment in Twitter as well as number of viral videos mocking its efforts. The ad campaign was ensued by a backlash in social media prompting President Obama to publicly criticize the campaign.