He was the banker turned latest internet superstar two weeks ago. Well, anything more than one day on the internet is considered old, isn't it the case?
For those who are unfamiliar, Anton made some sarcastic remark online. He ranted that public transport commuters are a bunch of poor people. And went on to show off his supercar.
This riled many of the local Singaporeans and caused an uproar.
The next thing he did was engage a PR agency to manage his crisis. He posted a video of his apology, which many perceived as insincere.
Anton ended up getting fired by his company and had to flee the country after receiving death threats.
Another proof of smart people doing stupid things.
He doesn't need an agency. He just needed sincerity.
Anyway, I was reading about this event on a magazine where the editor tie it to real-time marketing.
The editor went on to quote how Scoot, a budget airline made use of this incident a few days later to advertise airfare promotion to Perth, the city Anton supposedly fled to.
The ad headline reads: "Escape Plan: Fly to Perth Cheap Cheap, Poor or not!" and offered a 50% discoubt on return ticket.
The promotion was sold out in half a day.
On the surface, it looks like Scoot has capitalized on this real-time event in its marketing.
But on second thought, does tying the incident to its promo really helps?
What if Scoot runs a promo without tying the incident to it? Will tickets still be sold out? What if Scoot capitalized on the incident but offered airfare at only 30%? Hpw do you know if the tickets were sold out because of you tying the real-time incident to the marketing message?
Of course, you cannot deny the fact that the ad makes it atand out from the rest of the competitors, which focus mainly on price.
Rather than just using real-time events or incidents in running marketing programmes, how about using it to make a stand about your business.
Let it represent what you believe.
Scoot has just came out with another fare promotion taking advantage of the haze coming back.
What if they say they will distribute mask to those traveling back to Singapore in conjunction with the promo? Or offer those with medical reasons to postpone their flights because of the haze?