As expected the Superbowl produced another media target for the yearly event and this time it’s the insurance company, Nationwide, who’s a victim of their own making.
In a NBCnews.com story on the event (also covered by most every other news site), “Nationwide Explains Depressing Super Bowl Ad“, Nationwide claims that the advertisement was meant “to start a conversation, not sell insurance.”
They go on to state that, “The sole purpose of this message was to start a conversation, not sell insurance”.
Come on…seriously. The ultimate goal and sole purpose of the ad was to sell insurance as a result of the “conversation”.
The intention was clearly to generate consumer trust and respect by raising awareness of dangers around the average home that can threaten and even take the lives of kids. But to downplay that they weren’t trying to sell insurance is bogus. It was in no way a secondary or tertiary attempt to sell insurance. It was the primary attempt – even with those results delayed as they might be.
If they didn’t think they would sell insurance, and a lot of it, we seriously doubt they would have run one of the most expensive ads of the year.
Of course, they probably planned this far enough in advance to be ready for some feedback. They have a web site at MakeSafeHappen.org that explains their “movement” with a few links to their social media sites. And they should be commended for making the attempt to provide useful info even while using it as a positioning tool in the minds of prospects. We don’t have a problem with any of that.
It’s just that they blew the delivery of the message because they didn’t do a better job of communicating the details at that particular place and time. And that’s a very common occurrence for companies who unexpectedly step into a hot pile of you-know-what and get slapped and kicked around after a new marketing and advertising push goes bad.
Did Nationwide expect some backlash? Probably. They would have to be incredibly stupid to not think a commercial with that much exposure wouldn’t generate some flashback. In fact, being controversial was probably part of their plan which justified the message to begin with.
So they were expecting complaints while at the same time feeling confident in their survival. After all, it’s just a commercial, right? they can just apologize, keep the awareness and publicity generated as a result of the effort and parlay it into increased brand positioning.
Is reputation repair needed?
In reality, this all played out pretty much as Nationwide expected it would. It was a soft message that had a probability of fading away like these things do with time. But it also goes on their unerasable record and that is one of the issues they must continue to be very aware of.
They obviously have to wait before stepping into another similar pile and they probably need to avoid creating any more of those piles for quite some time – especially until after they grow a few fields of fragrant roses first. But to run out and shove rose bushes in the ground could also be interpreted as an effort to kiss up and make good on their flub.
Again, it’s not likely a big flub, but more of what they were expecting. But anytime you knowingly or suspiciously rub public opinion the wrong way, you usually need to back off a bit, let the dust settle and pick it up again after things cool off.
Sure, Nationwide needs to follow through on those who went to their Make Safe Happen web site and made inquiries or comments through that point of contact. But frankly, they might want to hold off on running any commercials telling us they are “on our side” unless they are prepared to keep the controversy stirred up bit longer.