Qantas Airlines has a lot going on these days – most notably, a recent employee strike that has caused many delays and inconveniences for its customers. Let’s face it, a strike is always going to be a public relations nightmare, and this case was no different.
What IS different is that Qantas seemingly decided to operate “business as usual” on its Twitter handle. So what did they do? They created an “innocuous” little contest encouraging followers to Tweet their dream in-flight experience, using the #qantasluxury hashtag, for a chance to win a pair of Qantas first-class PJs and a toiletries kit.
During any other time, this contest would have come and gone without much fanfare – especially given a pretty lame prize. But, due to its terrible timing, it incited many customers who were impacted by the strike to use the #hashtag and vent those frustrations. In fact, #qantasluxury quickly became a trending topic in Australia. Sadly, Qantas decided to basically ignore the onslaught of criticisms with a (paraphrased) “Keep those creative entries comin” type tweet two hours into the contest. Needless to say, the contest and the brand received a lot more attention for the incident – from both consumers and news outlets – than they bargained for.
So, what happened? Did the Qantas public relations team think that this would be a good way to get back into the public’s good graces? Are Qantas’ public relations, crisis communications and social media team operating separately? Or was this just a horribly timed coincidence that wasn’t given much thought?
Whatever the cause, it’s a great reminder that timing can literally make or break a customer relationship, a brand’s perception or, yes, a “simple” campaign. There are a lot of lessons to be learned on this one – what did you walk away with?