Most of us have seen or at least heard about the recent Coldplay Kiss Cam incident. After significant online-fallout-resulting resignations of the CEO and head of HR, the company’s decision to release a short video featuring actor (and Coldplay front man Chris Martin’s ex-wife) Gwyneth Paltrow as a cheeky temporary spokesperson is considered by some to be a savvy marketing maneuver —leveraging the Coldplay connection and viral memes to redirect attention to their data-automation offerings. And yes, it succeeded in generating massive visibility and positive brand sentiment.
Amongst whom, though? Coldplay fans? Possible buyers of Astronomer’s products? I would wager that most of the online attention was not from software platform buyers. AI-using trolls certainly took advantage of the situation to bolster their own followings, though.
As a crisis management strategy, the move fell flat. The company delayed more than 50 hours before making any public response, letting speculation and rumors quickly go viral. And fill the vacuum they did. Lighthearted diversion doesn’t fix underlying governance issues or rebuild trust with stakeholders. A more effective crisis strategy would first have been to respond to acknowledge the event, within hours, not days. Second, address the incident in the context of company values and policies. The company should have been fast, transparent and sensitive to the unintended victims of all the viral attention (like the children). It should have quickly communicated the steps it was taking to address the event and changes being made to prevent it from happening again. And rather than giving the story “legs” with a snappy video, be quiet and let the trolls move onto to the next scandal.
