Wacky marketing stunts that failed

As a follow-up to Wednesday's article, I want to present you with some marketing stunts that didn't achieve their desired goal. These are hilarious, but the funny factor isn't the only reason I am posting these.

Marketing requires planning! Don't waste time and money doing a stunt that won't work because you didn't plan it properly. Here are a few prime examples of that:

1. Snapple

Snapple ambitiously set out to make the world's largest popsicle made of frozen Snapple juice. The problem? 80-degree weather! The 25-foot tall, 17.5 ton kiwi-strawberry popsicle melted and juice ran out of Times Square and into the streets of Manhattan. This snafu is now infamous -- but they say any publicity is good publicity? Right?

Marketing Lesson: Check external factors and come up with a Plan B.

2. Vodafone
At a rugby match, two streakers interrupted the game wearing only strategically-placed Vodafone logos. Streaking is against the law, so of course, the police got involved. The streakers were arrested before the game was over, and a Vodafone rep was forced to apologize for encouraging the unlawful action. The company ended up donating $30,000 to a campaign aimed at reducing sports injuries.

Marketing Lesson: Any marketing stunt that requires you to break the law is a bad stunt.

3. Pepsi

In the Phillipines, Pepsi has always been #2 to Coke. In an attempt to overtake Coke, Pepsi started a "Number Fever Promo" -- they offered prizes of up to P1 million to those who had bottle caps with winning numbers on them. When #349 was announced as a winner, tens of thousands of Filipinos were winners -- but Pepsi refused to pay them all, claiming that the caps did not contain the proper security codes because of a computer glitch. Lawsuits and riots ensued and Pepsi remained at #2.

Marketing Lesson: Cross your T's and dot your I's when executing a stunt like this!

4. Dell
This year, to celebrate the release of the new Dell Streak tablet, a sales manager decided to boost employee spirit and make the release a memorable event. To do this, he got a person dressed as a biker in all black (including a mask) storm into the building and gather all 400 employees in the lobby. The stunt was designed to show the Streak working with Harley Davidson, but it just made people afraid and prompted them to call the police -- especially after seeing the man carrying "two metallic objects" in his hands. To  make matters worse, the man refused to cooperate with the officers and tried to continue with the stunt. That landed him in jail. This was definitely a marketing fail.

Marketing Lesson: In this age of violence, don't make people panic.

Hope you enjoyed!