Wrong your members and they'll tell two million friends!

By Tim McAlpine

1. United Airlines broke Dave Carroll's guitar
2. Dave reported it to United
3. United acknowledged that they broke the guitar but chose to do nothing
4. Dave told United he would write three songs and post them to the Internet
5. Dave's first video has been seen more than two million times in four days and has attracted more than 11,000 text comments

Lesson: In 2009, everyone has a voice and an audience. Act accordingly!

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Comments

1) Lisa Randolph @ Jul 13, 2009
http://www.thegarlandgroup.net

I've never seen this before, so thanks for sharing it. This just goes to show to what extent consumers will go to spread the word of how wronged they feel they've been by a company. And now with the use of social media and networking sites, these messages have the potential to spread like wild fire (ie 2,000,000 views). Good post, Tim!

2) Jodi Torres @ Jul 14, 2009
http://www.cutech.com

Tim - I really liked this post - short and to the point - I am passing it on to my CUs, thanks.

3) Brent Dixon @ Jul 20, 2009
http://www.thehabdash.com

It's also interesting that this gorgeous and very creative TV spot from United - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frVP9lV_YR4 - has only 15,600 views, while "United Breaks Guitars" has, at this point, almost 3.5 million.

And as you scroll through the comments, the United ad discussion is almost entirely about the cosmetics of the spot, but not at all about the topic at hand:

"wow.. thats such a neat commercial! "

"Whoever came up with United's latest ad campaign is a genius."

"It is beautiful. "

"I love the song 'Rhapsody in Blue.' My favorite piece, actually."

Compared to the conversation at United Breaks Guitars:

"This video brings back memories of my suckish flite on united that are the worst airlines i have ever been on and they need to learn to handle peoples stuff carefully and get friendly workers"

"I live in Chicago and I have to say that the damage might have more to do with the thugs at O'hare than the airline in particular. They don't just break it, they lose it."

"So much for the customer is always right. It became obvious very quickly that these flight attendants function as teams that become tight little cliques who take up for each other, obviously against the customers in this case if not most. I was totally disgusted and wrote a letter to United and got the same treatment from their management. I now take any other airline I can get before I fly United."

Among views, comments, etc, United Breaks Guitars is the clear winner. I think it's important to point out that this video didn't only takeoff because it's "cute" or "clever" or "fun" or even because the song is pretty damn catchy (although that didn't hurt). Presentation ("Creative") and Relevance ("Context") are both key. You can't have one without the other.

The video took off because it resonated in a big way with the people who watched and redistributed it. Loads of people are willing to wave the banner for this because they've been there.

You might say it struck a chord.

I am sincerely sorry about that last line.

4) Tim McAlpine @ Jul 20, 2009

Great comment Brent. Thanks for writing my blog post for me!

5) Tony Mannor @ Jul 21, 2009
http://cuhype.com

I guess it didn't help United that I sent this to a few friends already. I don't think I have ever flown United but now, everytime I see their name, logo or planes I will not be able to not humm...

"United breaks guitars.... hmmmmm!"

Excellent catch Tim.

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