Let's have a public vote to decide the outcome or perhaps a competition...Brilliant idea!
We can engage with our audience, we can make them feel involved with our brand, we can take the pressure off of ourselves to make a decision and we can hope for a bit of positive PR out of it all. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, what could go right? With most campaigns, you'll run you'll have a rough idea in your mind as to how you'll want it to turn out. You can pretty much guarantee that if there is a voting option then the public will throw you an unexpected curveball.
I'm not even going to mention Brexit in this blog, but that's a prime example of trusting the public with something important that they don't fully understand.
Let's keep it simple, let's focus on the marketing world, let's think about trusting the public and immediately I stumble across that great news story from March 2016 of Boaty McBoatface (now known as the RRS Sir David Attenborough).
The name is not important here, what is important is that the responsibility for a decision was unnecessarily handed over to the public and with no great shock it was hijacked by unwanted attention.
Marketeers be warned if you want a particular outcome to your campaign then be firm, amend your activity, use a judging panel with some influence or don't offer an option to the public at all, but if you do ensure you do with eyes wide open.
Now I'm not encouraging a dictatorship, nor am I saying that these things should be rigged, that would be even worse. The issue is that the campaigns have not been fully thought out and all eventualities considered.
For my part I've worked on various campaigns that have required public consultation and involvement, but only once have I been slightly irked by the decision (this shall remain under my hat).
Perhaps a grumpy old saying sums it up best 'If a jobs worth doing, do it yourself'.
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