Qantas displayed right ingredients for social media success. No, really

Yesterday, Qantas crashed and burned on Twitter. A competition using the hashtag #qantasluxury was hijacked by thousands who made sport over the airline's recent industrial and mechanical problems.

"Hardened PNUTs [people not using social media] will see it as evidence of why social media is just not worth the risk," advertising and social media consultant Vaughn Davis told NBR.

"All they'll see is a brand being mocked, and that mockery making headlines."

"I see it differently," said the former Y&R creative director.

"Social media's great strength is that when done right, it humanises brands. Part of that is sometimes making mistakes. And more often than not, honestly dealing with those mistakes can build deeper and better customer relationships than any TV ad or billboard."

If there's a recipe for social media success, Qantas has shown it's got the ingredients, reckoned Mr Davis: "The heart to keep trying when you're up against it. The balls to risk getting it wrong. And the brains to know how this stuff works. OK, maybe this one could have used a pinch more brain, but that's human, and that's what social media is about."

Band plays on
Other commentators canvassed by NBR were less forgiving.

"In my eyes it was the social media equivalent of a band continuing to play to an audience insistent on throwing tomatoes and jeering to get off the stage," said creative strategist and social media specialist Jen Corbett.

The airline should have appreciated there was still "tension in the air" after its recent troubles.

"If Qantas was listening to public sentiment, it would have understood it was too soon to start a promotion - let alone one that so blatantly tried to be outwardly positive without addressing issues at hand," Ms Corbett said.

"They were asking for trouble, because all it did was make people feel that their voices were being ignored even more so than before."

Qantas carried on, when it should have aborted the campaign and admitted misjudgment. 

"People would respect that. Users want to be heard more than anything else. And they want to be given permission to vent. Qantas needed to reach out and engage people about all these unresolved issues but instead they continued to ignore that. That's the height of arrogance is it not?"

Internal disconnect?
Communications consultant Kate Woodruffe struck a similar theme.

"A strong connection to business strategy and empathy with the target audience - in this case, the customer -  sit at the heart of any good communications campaign," Ms Woodruffe said.

"The #QantasLuxury Twitter campaign appears to have been developed in isolation from, or in spite of, the reputational issues currently impacting the brand."

Whether this was caused by an internal disconnect between corporate affairs and marketing, or simply a blinkered continuation of business-as-usual, only Qantas will know, said Ms Woodruffe.

"The results speak for themselves."