D OMINO S S PECIAL D ELIVERY:

GOING VIRAL THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA (A)

M ONDAY A FTERNOON C RISIS

4:30 p.m., Monday, 4/13/2009 VP of Communications, Tim McIntyre, receives alert that vulgar videos featuring Dominos Pizza employees contaminating food have recently been posted on YouTube.

T HE O PUS P IECE

T HE B LOG S ITES
Within hours of surfacing, two prominent blog sites posted links to the videos to protect the public interest.

Goodasyou.org: GLBT activist group Mission: Investigate any organization/media outlet/ personality in regards to discriminatory language/actions

Consumerist.com: 38th most popular blog site in the world Highlights persistent, shameless gaffes of modern consumerism; empowers consumers by informing and entertaining them about top consumer issues of the day

Sources: http://www.goodasyou.org/whats_this/ http://www.consumermediallc.org/index.html

T HE

GAME PLAN

pinpoint where this store was located Find out that there werent any orders coming into the store at that particular time

identify the people and contact the independent store owner, the health department and the local police communicate with the most relevant audiences at the time

T HE C ULPRITS

By 11 p.m. Dominos had positively identified the videos director, Kristi Hammond, and star, Michael Setzer:

Sources: Personal Interview with Tim McIntyre

Kristi Hammond Director & Narrator

Michael Setzer Actor

L AUNCHING
7

A SOCIAL MEDIA

COMPONENT DURING THE CRISIS :

Dominos had a social media team that was building a plan to introduce Dominos to Facebook, to Twitter and to some of the other relevant social media sites. So it was already in place. But they ended up having to jump in during a crisis, which was the opposite of how they wanted to do it.

P UBLIC

PERCEPTION

Somebodys tainting food at Dominos. Somebody posted a hoax video starring Dominos.

What is Dominos doing about it?

The critique of how Dominos handled these rogue employees.

How do brands protect themselves and their reputations in the YouTube era?

S UMMARY

OF THE

C RISIS

4:30 p.m. Monday: Dominos is alerted about vulgar videos showing food contamination by employees in uniform in an unidentified store

Within 24 hours: 250,000 million hits on YouTube for more popular video
Most senior management is out of town (day after Easter Sunday)

T HANK

YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

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