by J. Butler, Applecore Content Development Specialist
Mad Men: it’s been called the reason for the recent pop culture fascination with (and glamorization of) the advertising business. For AMC’s critical darling Mad Men, success was slow-going, but once it came, it came fast. The show, based on the in and outs of an ad agency in the early 1960s, has been the centre of media mentions, high fashion photo spreads and near-compulsory appearances on year-end top ten lists. So it’s little surprise that that Mad Men, a smart, well-written character piece, also collected a number of devoted, very creative fans, who also happen to be very vocal.
A few die-hard fans began to create Twitter profiles (as well as advice columns) for characters on the show and assumed their identities, sending out “tweets” that closely followed the ongoing plot of the show proper. The trend took off quickly, until nearly every major (@dondraper, the office alpha male) and some very minor (@Xerox914, the office copy machine) characters had their own voice on Twitter. The tweets were all collected under one feed-aggregator, We Are Sterling Cooper (the name of the fictitious ad agency). All in all, a fairly tame way for fans to express their love of a show, and certainly not unusual in an online world where fans often have the final say.
But the really interesting part came when AMC (and their lawyers) intervened. AMC, in a knee-jerk copyright-minded reaction, moved to shut the Twitterings down, and within days, nearly all the fictitious Sterling Cooper accounts were disabled. The remaining few scrambled around the Twittersphere, sending out frantic tweets about their co-workers being "fired" and wondering how long they had left.
Though later reports suggest that AMC had only wanted to discuss the accounts with Twitter for copyright reasons, not shut them down entirely, the effect was the same: AMC looked like the big, mean network trying to pull the plug on what had just been harmless fun.
To temper the outcry of angry fans, AMC moved to have the Twitter accounts reinstated and quickly issued a statement endorsing the trend, calling the tweets “…a great expression of the passionate fan base of Mad Men.” They even interviewed one of the original account holders (@BudMelman) for the show's official blog. The tweets gradually picked up their former activity, and built up a little community of insider interactions and conversations.
What’s the lesson in all this? Well, if a fan/customer is engaging in your show/brand on their own time -- of their own free will -- then you should be counting your lucky stars, not rushing to stop the conversation. You’d put a halt to the kind of free, organic advertising that most marketers dream about. And worst of all, you’d end up looking the Big Bad Corporation who doesn’t understand social media or even the basic idea of fun.
Social media isn’t a formula; it’s a flow. AMC had to learn that the hard way.
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