{"id":108728,"date":"2017-10-16T08:38:16","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T08:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=108728"},"modified":"2017-10-16T08:39:47","modified_gmt":"2017-10-16T08:39:47","slug":"when-isnt-bad-pr-bad-pr-when-its-szechuan-sauce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/when-isnt-bad-pr-bad-pr-when-its-szechuan-sauce\/","title":{"rendered":"When isn\u2019t bad PR, bad PR? When it\u2019s Szechuan sauce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>McDonald\u2019s made headline news last week because of a cult cartoon\u2019s obsession with a promotional dipping sauce that was last seen in 1998. But was the lack of Szechuan sauce really a PR disaster? Or was it a stroke of genius worthy of Rick Sanchez Dimension C-137 himself?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>*Warning: this post contains references to Rick and Morty \u2013 wubalubadubdub*<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>McDonald\u2019s originally launched the Szechuan sauce for the release of Disney\u2019s Mulan, but season three of <em>Rick and Morty<\/em> drew a new focus to the \u2018delicious sauce\u2019. Rick claimed: \u2018it\u2019s what it\u2019s all about\u2019 and he doesn\u2019t care if it takes nine more series to get it back.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FXIWyYtq85E?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"760\" height=\"427\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Fans were quick to pick up the campaign on social media and this was enough for McDonald\u2019s to leap onto the good PR opportunity, gifting the show\u2019s creator a giant container of the sauce.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Holy shit. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vNEIfHTmNU\">pic.twitter.com\/vNEIfHTmNU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Justin Roiland (@JustinRoiland) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JustinRoiland\/status\/891521911460470784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 30, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Obviously, this fuelled the fanbase\u2019s desire for what was effectively teriyaki and ketchup mixed together (let\u2019s put that to one side). Keeping its PR cool, McDonald\u2019s was coy, announcing a limited-edition release of the sauce for one day only.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nFans went mad for it, camping outside McDonald\u2019s restaurant locations and travelling hundreds of miles to get a taste. And what happened? McDonald\u2019s didn\u2019t supply enough \u2013 some locations had none and many more had a measly 20 samples.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nWho the squanch believes this was anything but a carefully choreographed strategy? Are we really expected to think THE fast-food giant couldn\u2019t organise enough sauce deliveries?<\/p>\n<p>The \u2018disaster\u2019 hit headline news around the world, as people were left disappointed by not having enough of a McDonald\u2019s product. How would you feel if your product or service was in the news because people couldn\u2019t get enough of it? Probably pretty good.<\/p>\n<p>And what did McDonald\u2019s do next?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">You spoke. We\u2019ve listened. Lots more <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SzechuanSauce?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SzechuanSauce<\/a> and locations. Details soon. And that\u2019s the wayyy the news goes! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ooIrbZBsOw\">pic.twitter.com\/ooIrbZBsOw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 McDonald&#8217;s (@McDonalds) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/McDonalds\/status\/917169818725384192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 8, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s right, as an \u2018apology\u2019 it\u2019s making the sauce more widely available so fans can get it everywhere. Bravo McDonald\u2019s, bravo.<\/p>\n<p>So how can you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4ctK1aoWuqY\" target=\"_blank\">Get Schwifty<\/a> like McDonald\u2019s? Follow these simple rules:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Track mentions of your brand on and offline \u2013 if McDonald\u2019s hadn\u2019t been aware of Rick and Morty\u2019s fandom\u2019s desire for Szechuan sauce, this would have been dead in the water. Make sure you have the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/pr-software\/media-monitoring\/?clid=main_nav\" target=\"_blank\">best monitoring available<\/a> so you don\u2019t miss a single opportunity.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t be afraid to engage with your audience \u2013 speaking to fans and responding to their demands is one of the main purposes of social media for brands; get stuck in and have fun with it.<\/li>\n<li>Approach the right influencers first \u2013 McDonald\u2019s sent the product to Justin Roiland, co-creator of the show and voice of leading characters Rick and Morty. Don\u2019t know who your influencers are? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/pr-software\/media-database\/?clid=main_nav\" target=\"_blank\">Get a database<\/a> that does the work for you.<\/li>\n<li>You\u2019re allowed to have \u2018bad press\u2019 \u2013 McDonald\u2019s aced this situation by undersupplying the promotional product. There\u2019s very few ways this could have backfired \u2013 if no one had claimed the sauce then it wouldn\u2019t have mattered. You shouldn\u2019t be worried about your fans wanting more, this gives you all the power. And if the media thinks you\u2019ve made a mistake? Ride it out, all the press does is make you seem more desirable.<\/li>\n<li>Give the people what they want \u2013 McDonald\u2019s has now made moves to make the sauce available for everyone. If it had remained elusive, they could have pushed fans away. It moved quickly to \u2018rectify\u2019 the \u2018mistake\u2019 giving the fans their pay off.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>No one wants to be a PR Morty, and McDonald\u2019s has shown how easy it is to be a PR Rick. What did you think of McDonald\u2019s stunt? Let us know in the comments below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>McDonald\u2019s made headline news last week because of a cult cartoon\u2019s obsession with a promotional dipping sauce that was last seen in 1998. But was the lack of Szechuan sauce really a PR disaster? Or was it a stroke of genius worthy of Rick Sanchez Dimension C-137 himself?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":108729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7272,1109,7238],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108728"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108734,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108728\/revisions\/108734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}