How DiGiorno Pizza survived #WhyIStayed and came back stronger than before
By Aaron Helmbrecht
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The DiGiorno Pizza case shows us how a social media loser can come back and become social media winner. Following the Ray Rice domestic abuse scandal, #WhyIStayed was trending on Twitter. The hashtag became a support forum where women shared reasons why they stayed in abusive relationships. |
Because I was pregnant and wanted my daughter to have a dad. #WhyIStayed
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DiGiorno noticed the hashtag trending and saw an opportunity to reach a large audience. They joined the conversation tweeting the following: |
#WhyIStayed You had pizza
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DiGiorno immediately received blowback in both social and traditional media. According to metrics from Sysomos and Meltwater, DiGiorno’s #WhyIStayed tweet inspired 474 negative tweets and 158 negative media headlines within 24 hours. |
Add @DiGiornoPizza to the #SocialMediaMarketing hall of shame for trying to hijack #WhyIStayed
That tweet was as completely tasteless as your pizza.
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However, DiGiorno managed the situation brilliantly. Within hours they deleted the #WhyIStayed tweet and issued the response tweet: |
A million apologies. Did not read what the hashtag was about before posting.
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The next morning they tweeted a second, more sincere and thought-out apology: |
We heard from many of you, and we know we disappointed you. We understand, and we apologize to everyone for this mistake.
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After DiGiorno’s two apology tweets, things really turned around. On day 2, chatter about the incident dropped to 145 tweets, and many of them were positive responses to the apology. |
Very impressed w/how the community manager owned her mistake & humbly apologized! It came thru very heartfelt.
Shit happens. Move on and learn from it
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By day 3, Twitter was silent on the matter. As a penance for their mistake, DiGiorno began a self-imposed social media exile and went silent on social media for the next three weeks. Soon after, DiGiorno would come back as a big social media winner. Rapper Iggy Azalea and Papa John’s got into a back-and-forth on Twitter when a Papa John’s employee posted Azalea’s cell phone number online. DiGiorno saw this and capitalized on the opportunity. |
@IGGYAZALEA delivery. smh
@DiGiornoPizza I know right!
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DiGiorno’s timely, appropriate, and genuinely clever tweet earned them a retweet from Azalea to her more than 4.2 million followers. Within 24 hours the tweet had over 14,000 retweets and 24,000 likes. What DiGiorno Got WrongIn their initial response, DiGiorno wrote that they did not read what the hashtag was about before posting. DiGiorno must have noticed the hashtag was trending on some social media monitoring software but didn’t actually read what was being posted under it. The lesson here is that trending social media hashtags never just pop up out of nowhere. There is always a story behind it that is driving the conversation. To be a part of it, you must have some type of expertise on the subject which allows you to advance the conversation. What DiGiorno Got RightDiGiorno was right to assess that this was a crisis in the making and something they must address immediately. They were right to respond with an immediate apology, buying them the time to follow up with a thoughtful public statement. DiGiorno’s initial apology and follow-up statement were both highly effective. As a PR strategy, the objective of a public apology is to appeal to the public’s sense of justice. DiGiorno accepted responsibility for their actions and offered a relatable explanation for the mistake. We have all been guilty of reading a headline and assuming we’ve come away with the news. DiGiorno’s ComebackIn DiGiorno’s big comeback with Papa John’s and Iggy Azalea we see the same principle at work that had previously worked against them with #WhyIStayed. To join a social media conversation, you must have some type of expertise on the subject which allows you to advance the conversation. DiGiorno had no business joining a conversation on domestic abuse, but a conversation about a bad pizza delivery experience is the perfect setting for DiGiorno to comment. Bottom LinePublic relations professionals have many impressive tools available to monitor audiences and capitalize on opportunities, and those tools are getting more sophisticated every day. But, at least for now, there’s still no substitute for actually reading the news and personally engaging your public. When monitoring hashtags for opportunities, the first test is to determine if the conversation is about something that your organization has the appropriate expertise to comment upon. If the answer is no, better to let it go and remember that there will always be another hashtag. |