We have all seen Willy Wonka of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and just can’t get enough of his eccentricities. James Watt, BrewDog’s CEO, took this fondness for the character a little further but ended up messing big time. Well, the story is interestingly silly but tells you a lot about what wrong tweets can do or, in his case, be the three mistakes of his life. Take a look at what went wrong with a great ‘gold can’ promotion idea that incurred a heavy loss for BrewDog.
Gold Can? Loss For BrewDog
For a promotional strategy of BrewDog, CEO James Watt decided to conceal fifty gold cans in beer cases for lucky winners. For this, they found a goldsmith who could make these cans. According to James Watt, he got this idea after watching ‘Charlie And The Chocolate Factory’. To top it off, each winner would receive an additional BrewDog share worth nearly ₹14 lakhs.
However, he got so carried away with this idea that he overlooked the making process of these gold cans. He assumed that the cans were of solid gold and were not gold-plated. Now imagine what this confusion with three tweets backing it could do. The ‘solid gold can’ claim appeared in three posts which changed the whole game.
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Customers And Compensation
When winners got their cans, they realised the solid gold claim was indeed false. Moreover, Advertising Standards Authority got involved after customers’ complaints against BrewDog. They claimed that those tweets were misleading and a criminal offence. To clear confusion, James Watt posted a message on LinkedIn and admitted that he overlooked and made a silly mistake. However, he couldn’t prevent a loss of nearly ₹5 crores. This was the compensation that he gave to the ‘gold can’ customers. Also, this compensation solely cost him and not the company. So, technically, he gave his two and a half years of salary for a silly mistake.
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Too much excitement and lack of attention can cause a lot of damage. Hmmm, doesn’t this incident remind you of The Office’s ‘Golden Ticket’ episode?
Cover Image Courtesy: James Watt/ LinkedIn