Did Zomato learn a lesson, or did it get away with its pun on cuss words?

Dec 5, 2017,
Updated Dec 5, 2017 6:27 PM IST

Cuss words always get a lot of attention. And that's exactly how online restaurant guide and food ordering app Zomato started its outdoor ad campaign where MC stood for mac and cheese and BC was butter chicken. Obviously, Twitter would not have let this one go and was all out with outrage, calling it crude and cheap.

Zomato apologized quickly and acknowledged in their tweet, "that we've learned a lesson." Not albeit without a joke here too. They started offering "10% cashBaCk on your next order". Notice the B and the C in upper case and they had the last laugh.

It all seemed a part of the plan. Before any ad campaign there is always a lot of internal debate and they would have realized the potential of the ad to grab some eyeballs. "The timeline of the offensive creative was probably expected to be two days post which it would get a reaction and they would issue an apology. But within that short span they got more bang for the buck!" says Tina Garg, founder and CEO - Pink Lemonade Communications. A smartly executed digital campaign it was. As a millennial brand they experiment with tongue-in-cheek campaigns, some work and some rub the wrong way. But, what is common is the eyeballs they are able to garner. The ultimate aim of any social media campaign is to build brand recall. "Social media strategy is all about getting a place in the sun and figuring out different ways to get it," says Vivek Bhargava, CEO, DAN Performance Group. What helps is that digital mediums offer brands scope to play with multiple personas across social media platforms to figure out what is working for them.

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Cuss words always get a lot of attention. And that's exactly how online restaurant guide and food ordering app Zomato started its outdoor ad campaign where MC stood for mac and cheese and BC was butter chicken. Obviously, Twitter would not have let this one go and was all out with outrage, calling it crude and cheap.

Zomato apologized quickly and acknowledged in their tweet, "that we've learned a lesson." Not albeit without a joke here too. They started offering "10% cashBaCk on your next order". Notice the B and the C in upper case and they had the last laugh.

It all seemed a part of the plan. Before any ad campaign there is always a lot of internal debate and they would have realized the potential of the ad to grab some eyeballs. "The timeline of the offensive creative was probably expected to be two days post which it would get a reaction and they would issue an apology. But within that short span they got more bang for the buck!" says Tina Garg, founder and CEO - Pink Lemonade Communications. A smartly executed digital campaign it was. As a millennial brand they experiment with tongue-in-cheek campaigns, some work and some rub the wrong way. But, what is common is the eyeballs they are able to garner. The ultimate aim of any social media campaign is to build brand recall. "Social media strategy is all about getting a place in the sun and figuring out different ways to get it," says Vivek Bhargava, CEO, DAN Performance Group. What helps is that digital mediums offer brands scope to play with multiple personas across social media platforms to figure out what is working for them.

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Did Zomato learn a lesson, or did it get away with its pun on cuss words?

Zomato quickly tweeted an apology. Not albeit without a joke here too.

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Did Zomato learn a lesson, or did it get away with its pun on cuss words?

Zomato quickly tweeted an apology. Not albeit without a joke here too.

RECOMMENDED

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