This story happenned when our guest was just newly working for a brand, selling luxury watches for men. Divya Patel, a PPC Specialist, was handling the PPC service of the brand. Join Divya & Our Beloved Host, Morgan Friedman, on a new episode of your favorite podcast: Client Horror Stories!
At that time, the brand was going to launch a YouTube campaign and Divya offered to create the ad assets for them since she had been with the brand from the very beginning. She was there to help the clients with the brand message, tone of voice, and everything about branding.
The client ended up declining her offer and telling her that they were going to sort the video out themselves so that they could focus on the campaign. Still, Divya and her team briefed the client on how the video should turn out. They were expecting the video to showcase the watch that they’d be launching.
One day, as Divya walked into the office, she stumbled upon her manager, who was really upset, and the rest of the team was gathering around a computer. Turns out, the client had already posted the video on YouTube without telling them.
To their dismay, the video was the complete opposite of what they expected and what they had discussed in the briefing. Instead of men wearing and showcasing the watch, women in lingerie were there for some reason, and the video wasn’t focusing on the watch, which was the product they were trying to sell.
That’s not all. Divya Googled her client and she discovered her client’s name plastered on UK’s biggest tabloid negatively, something about how the video was degrading to women.
Divya and the team ended up being utterly disappointed and upset. They felt that all the work they had been putting into the brand was just thrown out the window. When they approached their clients about it, they found out that they were really happy with it because they believed that bad publicity is still publicity, so it was going to be a good way to put the brand’s name out there anyways.
Thankfully, Divya and her team were able to get through this issue. Watch the episode to learn more about how they solved the problem and the steps they took moving forward.
