April 16, 2011
AAAAAFLLAAAAC! Can Ducks Make Lemonade?
By: Beth Fetcho Frear
One of my first jobs out of college was working as a temporary administrative assistant. The hallway outside my office was old and any noise made carried a great echo. Also in this hallway was a conference room where Aflac representatives would meet with employees and encourage them to sign up for the company’s benefit plan. As a way of drumming up business, the representatives would take out a stuffed Aflac duck and have it squawk AAFFLLLAAACC through out the echoing hallway. The first few times I was ok with it. By the end of the week I was ready to storm out of the office, take the duck and rip its beak off. What an obnoxious voice!
I later found out the voice of the duck was none other than Gilbert Gottfried, also known as the voice of the parrot in Disney’s Aladdin. Apparently Gottfried has the perfect voice for annoying birds.
Gottfried was recently involved in a scandal that made Aflac look bad in the media. Gottfried posted inappropriate jokes about the natural disaster in Japan on his twitter page. Not only is his voice annoying but even the words he types sends shivers down peoples’ spines!
Because the jokes were made in such poor taste, and Gottfried is known as the voice of the famous (infamous in my book) duck, Aflac immediately made a statement apologizing for the inappropriate comments and fired Gottfried. Aflac followed PR rule number one, apologize for your mistakes.
Aflac did turn the negative situation around and came up with a really creative idea that would not only help the public forget about Gottfried’s association with the company, but would also generate great PR, help with the unemployment problem and give the spokesperson for the company, the duck, it’s much needed voice back.
Aflac launched a national casting call to audition new duck voices. Auditions were held in six major cities. If an applicant was unable to travel, Aflac offered the opportunity to record auditions on the company’s website. In total, the company heard 1,000 in person auditions and 12,000 online auditions. That is a lot of quacks!
The person who wins the coveted role receives a six figure salary plus benefits. Not too bad for a voice over job huh?
Here is where Aflac got it right when it comes to PR. The company apologized, and came up with a creative way to fix its two biggest PR problems:
1) The company’s main branding vehicle was voiceless.
2) The company’s reputation was slightly damaged for being associated with Gottfried.
Aflac turned lemons into lemonade by coming up with a great way to not only give the duck a voice, but promote the company’s product. Instead of calling a casting agency, the company took its need right to the public and its potential customer base.
In order for quacking wannabes to audition for the job, they went to the Aflac website, facebook or twitter pages, all great places to put controlled information in front of an attentive audience. The company is also updating these pages to keep people informed of how the competition is going. The story in the news changed from Gottfried’s inappropriate jokes and association with Aflac, to the company coming up with a creative way to hire a new voice.
Another way Aflac showed that it did not agree with the statements made by Gottfried was putting a link on the company’s website and facebook page to support the disaster in Japan. A link to donate to the American Red Cross relief fund for Japan was prominently placed on these social media vehicles. This shows that the company is genuine in its statement that it supports Japan and will do what it can to help.
All in all, I think Aflac did it right. The company apologized, was creative, turned a negative news story into a positive one, is helping those suffering in Japan, and building a stronger brand. Most importantly the company understands the importance of social media.
I don’t remember seeing a commercial promoting the contest, but it’s all over Aflac’s social media sites. The company really took advantage of new and low cost technology that make exceptional public relations tools. The added bonus is social media is a healthy choice for any budget.
It will be interesting to see how Aflac decides to announce the winner of the quaking auditions to create further positive buzz about the company. Will the company hire someone down on their luck so it has a feel good story to pitch? Will Aflac make the announcement on its social media sites or website? Will the company hold a press conference? How do you think the company should announce the new AAAFFFLLLAAACCC voice?
Dan Fogarty said,
April 18, 2011 at 12:05 am
I agree with how Aflac turned the negative into a positive by getting the entire country trying to see if they have what it takes to be the next Aflac duck.
I have heard anchors for the local news try to do it, people at work, and Saint Rose students even try to quack like the Aflac duck. It has really jump started the company again and brought it back to the lime light.
Very good idea overall and it should be looked at by other companies who may run into similar problems in the future.
Brian said,
April 18, 2011 at 9:16 am
Thanks for your comment Dan. I must have been living under a rock because I didn’t see anything about the Aflac campaign locally. All the information I pulled for this post came from national news sources, mostly CNN.com. The company really pushed the contest through social media instead of using traditional media like newspapers and tv ads. – Beth
Aoife Herbert said,
April 18, 2011 at 11:02 am
This is a great case study to show how being pro-active and rapidly responding to negative situations can have a positive overall effect. The auditioning for the duck voice role is both creative and humorous and creates a like-ability effect for the company. It was quite a vibrant response which will serve them well as a company I feel.
Tim Branfalt said,
April 18, 2011 at 11:40 am
Beth,
I’m right there with you with Gottfried’s voice waging war on your ears. The only time the guy has made me laugh was at the Roast of Bob Sagat.
Anyway, Aflac’s response was perfect. They avoided a crisis, by not mentioning it outright, and moving on swiftly. And they used a move many PR practitioners are using-social media. The move always seems to work because it brings the company closer to the consumer, and costs less than traditional advertising or hiring a talent agent.
Brian said,
April 18, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Tim – I’m glad you agree with my description of Gottfried’s voice. I was worried I was being too harsh, but then I had an AAFFLLAACC flash back and thought my comments were fair! I agree that Aflac’s response was strong to this crisis and used social media affectively. I also think their strategy could inspire other companies who find themselves in similar situtations. – Beth
christinekenyi said,
April 19, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Nice post Beth. Aflac handled this crisis in a brilliant way and like you mentioned were probably able to do so with minimal cost to the company because of their use of social media outlets as their primary way to promote the competition. Although they may have shied away from using conventional media tools to promote this, I think reaching out to them to announce the winner would be great for the company. It would be an effective way to reach a wider audience and maximize the success of the new direction they are going with the symbol of the Aflac duck.
Brian said,
April 19, 2011 at 3:23 pm
I agree Christine. It would make sense for Aflac to send a press release out to media outlets letting them know who won the competition and have the new voice of the duck be available for interviews and of course, quaking! Thanks for your response! – Beth
Derek Gibbons said,
April 20, 2011 at 12:54 am
hahaha this is incredible, I never knew this. Either way I think that Afflac did a fantastic job in recovering from this. To fire Gottfried was the right thing to do. Even better was to hold a casting call for duck voices. This will get the public involved greatly and I am sure will be a feel good story. I bet Afflac will choose someone with a feel good story as well. It will just help their reputation so much more, especially by giving someone six figures to be a duck, which I think is absolutely ridiculous anyways. The company should announce the winner in a commercial with the winner I think that would be the best thing to do. This was great crisis management.
Brian said,
April 20, 2011 at 9:55 am
I agree with you Derek. After I posted this story I saw a TV ad for Aflac. The ad was filmed like an old western movie with no sound, just cheesy music. The Aflac duck was trying to save a damsel in distress and there were cuts to subtle title shots. So Aflac is definitly using this an opprotunity to further show the public that the duck needs a voice. It looks like the company is building momentum for an annoucement. -Beth
Steve Felano said,
April 24, 2011 at 10:48 pm
By the looks of things, Aflac made a genius move in its handling of this crisis. A recent report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution claims “the duck grew Aflac’s name recognition in the U.S. from a lowly 10 percent to around 93 percent, a segment just shy of corporate titans like Coca-Cola Co. and Apple.” For this reason, cutting loose the voice of its primary advertising vehicle was likely no easy task for Aflac, but the company did so quickly and rebounded beautifully. The same AJC article says the voice contest for the Aflac duck did a lot to shift focus away from Gottfried’s comments, and on to something positive. The beauty of this whole thing is that Aflac took the source of the crisis it was facing in the first place, and turned into a solution to the problem. By the way, it looks like “a new voice will be announced by Tuesday, when Aflac hopes to premiere the first new commercial.” – http://www.ajc.com/business/a-search-for-the-923360.html
-Steve
Brian said,
April 25, 2011 at 8:54 am
Thanks Steve, for finding the answer to how Aflac will announce the new voice of the duck. I’m excited to see the new commercial and hear the new voice. The company really did handle this situation well. Beth
Brittany S said,
April 25, 2011 at 3:13 pm
While Gottfried did a great job playing to cranky Iago from Disney’s “The Lion King”, he absolutely failed as a spokesperson for Aflac. Not only were the jokes completely insensitive and ill timed, but as a corporate spokesperson, he should have known that the majority of Aflac’s business comes directly from Japan. While it was pretty obvious that he would be getting his pink slip within hours of the comments, I don’t think anyone was expecting Aflac to turn the situation around so quickly.
This case study reminded me of the Red Cross/Dogfish Head/Twitter fiasco previously written about on this blog, but I actually think Aflac did a better job taking advantage and turning their crisis into a positive. Not only did they turn the situation into a social responsibility campaign, but a promotional one as well – which could be a very tricky thing to pull off during times of crisis.
Brian said,
April 26, 2011 at 11:34 am
Aflac is keeping people on their toes about who the new voice of the duck will be. Keep checking the duck’s facebook page for the annoucement: http://www.facebook.com/#!/aflacduck?sk=wall
Once it’s made, i’ll post it on here. Thanks! Beth
Brian said,
April 26, 2011 at 2:21 pm
And the winner is….
Daniel McKeague from Minneapolis, MN! Daniel is a sales manager at a radio company in Minneapolis, MN who’s done a little voiceover work on the side, so moving into quacking was a logical next step. See his TV debut tonight during The Voice at 9pm EST on NBC. http://www.facebook.com/#!/aflacduck?sk=wall
-Beth
Bakari Lake-Sample said,
April 29, 2011 at 11:47 am
This was a brilliant move on behalf of Alfac. The actions of Gilbert Gottfried was something they had no control over, but it still impacted their brand. The solution to regain their reputation was good. Currently a lot of individuals are unemployed and as we all know the economy is hurting. So what better way to win back your reputation than to give someone a job being your spokesman.
Funny thing is i actually have on of those annoying Aflac stuffed ducks.