Case 10: Two Employees with a video camera

Social Media and a Damaged Global Domino’s Brand

Haley McGeePR192, Spring Semester, 2015, Dr. Martinelli

The influx of social media in the digital age has led to new challenges for companies and

their relations with the public. For companies to be able to detect and handle potential crises, a

form of monitoring has been developed called ‘social media monitoring’ and is defined as “the

continuous systematic observation and analysis of social media networks and social

communities.”1 The monitoring of media can be an incredibly effective tool at diffusing a crisis,

or if used inefficiently or incorrectly, can let a minor crisis develop into a major one. In studying

the company Domino’s and its ability to use social media monitoring for a crisis shows just how

potentially damaging this medium can be. Domino's response to its crisis can be compared to

Sony's use of social media monitoring to see how effectively it can be used.

An effective way to monitor social media is to create an account on the forums that are

wanting to be monitored, so that the public can directly query and be kept up to date with events

relating to the company. When these forums are responded to in a quick manner, it has the added

effect of easing tensions, as Armon, D states, “For fans, just knowing that someone is on duty

and moderating the channel may be enough to calm the frayed nerves of an angry consumer.”2

Giving customers a chance to release frustrations with the ability to be contacted allows for a

better company image, but also gives the chance to diffuse situations that may become larger

problems if left unattended to. Allowing customers to express their opinions can help reduce

negative feelings; this is because “it is well known in psychology that people’s anger could be

reduced by simply venting their sentiments.”3 Responding to these issues directly allows the

company to resolve issues and stop them from turning into a crisis. The other benefit of actively

1 (Fensel, Leiter, & Stavrakantonakis, 2012)2 (Armon, 2010)3 (Frantz & Bennigson, 2005)

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using social media to monitor customers is that it allows a rapport to be built and for clients to be

more likely to check on your responses to an event.

Social media monitoring is a multi-faceted tool that is designed to track discussions about

a company by one of two methods, the first of which contains a software search for keywords, in

order to create an overview of online communications and their locations. The other is to monitor

specific forums for a number of keywords; this software can be setup to monitor continuously

over a certain period of time as opposed to the other.4 If the software is used effectively, it can be

a very useful tool from a management perspective as it allows “both for detecting new or

emergent crises, as well as getting a better situation awareness of how people react to a particular

crisis.”5 Because of this awareness, management can make a decision on whether their current

public relations plan is effective as well as allowing them to determine promptly whether a crisis

is about to occur.

None of these monitoring methods were in place when Domino’s Pizza faced its crisis in

2009. Two employees videotaped themselves in series of vile acts that went against Domino’s

health and safety policies. These tapes included acts such as putting cheese in their nose and then

placing it on a food order. The videos were then uploaded to YouTube, where an online resource

for consumer driven advice, The Consumerist, began to display them on its site along with

outraged comments from customers. The videos were uploaded on Monday the 13th of April, but

were not seen by Dominos until a customer notified Tim McIntyre, Vice President of Corporate

Communications. McIntire was unable to get the videos removed from YouTube until

Wednesday the 15th of April. Once Domino’s was aware of the situation it sprang into crisis

mode, launching a campaign with the following three key messages, “Two idiots with a video 4 (Bekkers, Edwards, & de Kool, 2013)5 (Johansson, Brynielsson, & Quijano, 2012)

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camera”, “They don’t represent the rest of us” and “Nothing is more sacred than your trust.”6

These messages were targeted to distance the company from the tapes. The company then

created a temporary Twitter account to respond to any queries and statements from the public

and the president of Domino’s, Patrick Doyle released an apology video to YouTube on

Wednesday, the 15th of April.

The lack of social media monitoring by Domino’s meant that the videos had been

uploaded almost 24 hours before they were noticed. By the time that Domino’s was able to react,

48 hours later, the videos had been viewed 350,000 times before the apology video was uploaded

or the Twitter account was created to respond to customers. If Domino’s had used media

monitoring effectively, it would have been able to identify the crisis quicker and reduce the

damage done to the company’s reputation. Once Domino’s had discovered the issue and began to

use social media monitoring through its Twitter account and the YouTube video, its ability to

handle the crisis improved. This allowed the company to calm people with updates like notifying

people that none of the food in the videos was given to the public and the two staff members in

question were facing legal charges for the incidents.

Despite the effective crisis management after the first 48 hours, the initial delay that

occurred because Domino’s was not actively monitoring social media led to a damaged

reputation. Because there was no communication to its consumers, it was equivalent to saying

“It’s OK. We’re going to outsource our reputation, and we’re comfortable with our customers

defining it for us.”7 In this case, the reputation became threatened when viewers of the video worried

that the food had been sent out and wondered if that was a regular occurrence in all of the Domino’s

stores. Because there was no medium for customers to turn to in order to get accurate information

6 (Swann, 2014)7 (Solis, 2008)

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on what had happened and what was being done to correct the issue, customers were left to find

information from other sources. Companies cannot allow this because, as stated by Armon, “of

course, the nature of social media is that everyone is a publisher. Because consumers can

generate content that is sometimes incorrect—or, worse yet, deliberately disparaging.”8 With a

company that serves food, word of mouth about produce and quality is important and not

reacting to these statements hurts the reputation of the entire company, not just the store where

the incident occurred.

The inefficient way that Domino’s Pizza handled its social media monitoring can be

noted when compared to a crisis that occurred to the Sony Corporation. Sony had experienced a

delay and was forced to postpone the release of the PlayStation 3, breaking its promise of a

global release date. This lead to backlash from its customers with one blogger writing “All the

king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put this disastrous mess back together again.”9 At

the time Sony had been monitoring social media through software known as Biz360 and found

that nearly a quarter of all online mentions were negative. Further research allowed it to create a

real-time spider map to show keywords used by bloggers so Sony was able to find the criticism

and rumors against the company; which can be even damaging when they turn into perceived

facts. With this knowledge Sony was able to release statements and correct any misinformation

and negative views. Nick Sharples, Director of Corporate Communications at Sony Computer

Entertainment, shows the risk of not addressing a customer’s statements when he stated, “‘One

website in Spain - meristation.com - wrote that the PS3 would not be out until May 2007. This

was wrong,' Says Sharples. 'It could have got to the BBC, but we were able to nip it in the bud

8 (Armon, 2010)9 (Crush, 2006)

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before that happened.’”10 Because of Sony’s actions, the delay of the PlayStation 3, while still a

crisis, did not develop into a much larger one thanks to Sony’s intuitive use of social media

monitoring.

The importance of social media monitoring is clearly seen in Domino’s 2009 crisis.

Because of Company’s lack of monitoring, it was unaware of the disgusting videos until many

hours had passed. This issue, in turn, caused the company to suffer damage to its reputation that

would take time to regain. Once the video was detected, Domino’s acted effectively but the first

48 hours created a crisis that would not have been as large if found sooner. There is no doubt that

if Domino’s had used media monitoring, it would have had a positive effect on the situation.

Using this crisis management tool would have allowed the company to act on the situation

quickly and quash any issues as they arose.

10 (Crush, 2006)

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Works CitedArmon, D. (2010). Ready or Not: Is Your Crisis Communications Plan Anti-Social? Public Relations Tactics ,

10-11.

Bekkers, V., Edwards, A., & de Kool, D. (2013). Social media monitoring: Responsive governace in the shadow of surveillance. Government Information Quarterly , 335-342.

Crush, P. (2006). Firefighting in the digital age. PR Week, London Ed. (pp. 24-25, 27). London: Haymarket Business Publications Ltd.

Fensel, D., Leiter, B., & Stavrakantonakis, I. (2012, 07 19). Social Media Monitoring. Retrieved 02 11, 2015, from Innsbruck: Semantic Technological Institute: http://oc.sti2.at/sites/default/files/SMM%20Handouts.pdf

Frantz, C., & Bennigson, C. (2005). Better late than early: The influence of timing on apology effectiveness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 201-207.

Johansson, F., Brynielsson, J., & Quijano, M. (2012). Estimating citizen alertness in crises using social media monitoring and analysis. (pp. 189-196). Odense: IEEE.

Solis, B. (2008, 11 03). Reinventing Crisis Communications for the Social Web. Retrieved 02 11, 2015, from Brian Solis - Defining the impact of technology, culture and business: http://www.briansolis.com/2008/11/reinventing-crisis-communications-for/

Swann, P. (2014). Two Employees with a Video Camera. In P. Swann, Cases in Public Relations Management: The Rise of Social Media and Activism (pp. 144-153). London: Routledge.

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