Turning a twitter crisis into PR gold

Turning a twitter crisis into PR gold

The Brief

The online car site webuyanycar.com had a mixed reputation with the public when prankster Jamie Jones decided to stage one of his social media wind-ups at the expense of the brand. A hoax letter claiming webuyanycar.com had refused to buy a child’s Little Tike plastic car landed the company in the middle of a twitter storm as people thought the company simply couldn't take a joke.

Social media loves a brand bashing and the letter was retweeted over 28,000 times in 24 hours by people assuming webuyanycar.com were the ones in the wrong. So our brief was clear, set the record straight and turn the crisis into an opportunity.

Think

Webuyanycar.com is a brand with personality and a sense of humour.

Feel

This is a trusted brand and one with heart.

Do

Give webuyanycar.com my consideration the next time I am selling a vehicle.

Results

Fighting fire with fire, in just 72 hours we created webuyanyTOYcar.com - transforming the attack on WBAC into a CSR campaign that highlighted its relationship with charity partner Brake.

Through webuyanyTOYcar.com, WBAC would offer the first 100 Little Tike owners who visited local branches the chance to offload their models. For every Little Tike they received, they would donate £10 to Brake.
The campaign launched with a six second advert...with a difference. Playing to the twitter community, we produced a clip, starring a two year old boy and girl, cutely mirroring the WBAC three step process 1) Get an online evaluation 2) Book an appointment 3) Visit a branch and make the sale.

Premiering this ad on twitter, we purposely engaged the ‘haters’ with a creative campaign packed with humour and personality, turning the tables on the prankster to win favour and support.

News story about the activity created

11 million

opportunities to read about webuyanycar's sense of humour.

Toy car video reached

one in six

twitter users

Positive mentions of the activity dominated P1 of Google, increasing trust in the brand and cleaning up its digital footprint.

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