Risk detection and brand protection

Protecting the reputation of a leading consumer packaged goods manufacturer

Overview

The world’s largest CPG company faced its second media crisis in three years with online claims that its product was causing harm. Both times, LiveWorld spotted the crisis and helped the brand team develop and deploy a response strategy.

Challenge

A highly regarded diaper brand faced a full-on social media crisis that threatened its reputation and sales. Throughout social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, rumors began to quickly circulate and gain traction that the company’s new product was harming the health of babies and small children. These misinformed claims were an exact repeat of the same crisis the brand faced three years earlier, which had been investigated and fully dismissed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The company wanted to avoid harm to its entrenched brand name, along with the loss of sales and brand goodwill that could accompany these claims.

Solution

In 2010 and again in 2013, our team of more than 60 global moderators quickly noticed the brand rumors began to bubble up and spread. The crisis began on a Sunday and within minutes, our long-time moderation manager for the brand realized that these rumors were an exact repeat – with “claims” copied and pasted word-for-word from online forums years before. We immediately notified company executives.At the same time, the LiveWorld team began implementing the crisis response plan developed in conjunction with the brand in 2010. We quickly reached out to consumers on Facebook, Twitter, and online forums to address and refute these claims. As a result, this crisis quickly burned out. We used social media to convey that the diapers were extremely safe, didn’t cause harm, and were vetted by the CPSC. This was made possible with our industry-leading listening tools to measure social media properties

Results

Because of our proactive and consultative approach to brand protection and online moderation, the brand’s reputation emerged unscathed. We continue to monitor online discussions of the brand to be able to identify, report, and respond to any potentially damaging conversations in social media channels if they appear again.