A recent on-air outburst by Mark Esterhuysen, a 702 newsreader, lead him to become an overnight sensation. His outburst was contributed to anything from insanity to the most controversial resignation ever and was also described as career suicide. But was it really?
Did he go on this rant out of pure frustration and used his opportunity of being on live radio wisely? Did he do this to draw attention and make a name for himself as a controversial and opinionated radio personality in the hope of following in the footsteps of the likes of Mark Pilgram and Gareth Cliff? Or did he really commit career suicide?
At this stage, public opinion seems to be that he was only saying what most of us were thinking anyway and most individuals are applauding him for this and, although some are questioning if it was truly necessary to swear so much, others believe that this is exactly what caused the huge impact. Additionally, with an initial 3568 followers to a growth of 453 on Twitter within a matter of 24 hours, I would say the impact has been tremendous.
However, some opinions on answerit.news24.com include that he is an “Attention seeking twazzer, he wanted his 15 minutes of fame and he got it. Silly, childish little boy” and “Certainly not very high ambitions. He was quoted as saying ‘all I ever wanted was for Gareth Cliff to read my blog’. That would be the pinnacle of success…?”
A Marketer’s Perspective on this:
Let us ignore the question of why he did what he did and have a look at the impact it made, and what marketers can learn from this.
Firstly, the incident took place at 1 am, a time that most media strategists would not consider for advertising their brands. This incident has proven that a truly impactful, unexpected message can take place at any time and that it can reach your market virally anyway. A Brand that applies this often is Nando’s. Their ads are usually only aired once or twice and their posters are only up for a day before somebody complains about them and they are removed by the ASA. However, by the time this happens, they have already made their rounds on the Internet by members of the public, through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or blogs.
Secondly, and this is widely known, but a reputation that takes years to build can be destroyed in seconds. Although, it is uncertain whether in the curious case of Mark Esterhuysen he intended to build his reputation with this outburst or if it was truly an act of insanity based on pure frustration; the rule still applies. It takes years of hard work and sometimes countless efforts to own a specific space in the minds’ of your audience and all this hard work can be instantly ruined by a silly mistake. There are many examples like this that are easy to find with a simple Google search, try it out with the keywords “car recall”.
So, in this world where incidents that take place in the early morning hours can spread like wildfire through the interconnected network that we take for granted every day, how can one ensure that the reputation that they worked on for years stays intact? Well, in my opinion you should use this interconnectedness to your advantage and constantly keep an eye out for what is being said about you. Consumers no longer only share their opinions with friends and family around the braai, but share this with the rest of the world.. And we all know that it is easier to share a bad experience than a good experience with your peers online. Therefore, keeping a close eye on what is being said about you and analysing the impact on your brand, makes a huge impact in terms of maintaining brand health. This can easily be done with the use of Online Reputation Management tools.
So, if you are planning on doing something outrageous, unexpected or shocking, or you are just interested to see what is being said about you, make sure that you contact saidWot for a free trial as your first port of call.
