Putting your face out there after losing it. In Australia, an entire advertising campaign starts with the CEO’s apologies after complaints received via social media. Optus, the second largest telecom operator controlled by the Singaporean group Singtel, with a turnover of 8 billion Australian dollars, 11 million customers, and over seven thousand employees, has launched “We’re on it”. To rebuild trust, the leader himself, Stephen Rue, stepped in. The company had been overwhelmed by a double reputational crisis. First, the 2022 cyberattack with millions of customers’ personal data exposed online, then in 2023, the national blackout that left over 10 million users without network access, also preventing calls to emergency services. For months, the brand was accused of poor transparency and slowness in crisis management. Thus, the unusual choice with a new communication strategy: fewer ads and more relationships. The campaign plays with caricatured characters and contemporary archetypes to break away from cold logic. Objective: to show a more conversational brand on social media.
Social media (still) under siege
Beyond the hype related to artificial intelligence, social media still represents the digital arena often under siege by barricading consumers, as the Guardian wrote. Instead of a club, there’s a smartphone with unpredictable consequences. And companies are divided between open dialogue and defensive silence. Ultimately, even today, a company’s positioning – and by reflection, its business – depends on its ability to dialogue. Not all, however, manage to grasp the value of confrontation and prefer to avoid potential reputational risks with user-generated shitstorms. Eikon’s new research “Top in social media management” monitors the Italian fan pages of 107 brands in the insurance, energy, pharmaceutical, automotive, and large-scale retail sectors. The most regulated sectors seem to invest more in formalizing their social presence. The certification attests to the overall quality of the oversight and digital maturity: energy leads with 69%. Followed by pharmaceutical and insurance at 67%, automotive at 55%, while large-scale retail stops at 53%. A progressive transformation of social media from simple informative showcases to permanent reputational environments also emerges.
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