The last few days marketeers and social media managers were faced yet again with another unprecedented event – the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II, who’s reign lasted more than 70 years.
With social media channels only having existed for 17% (25 years) of that reign the event is something truly new to navigate.
So, how do you navigate a head of state dying, how is a period of mourning reflected on social media – are there differences between organic and paid social? As a brand and/ or company is it really necessary to switch your profile pictures and cover images to grey scale to reflect the sentiment, is your brand required to share a statement? Many questions that differ in answers per company and crisis event
Having worked in the social media business for 10+ years, I managed social teams, accounts and their responses throughout several unprecedented events – from the Paris attacks, the Manchester Arena bombing, Covid, Black Lives Matter protests, Russia / Ukraine War – and there’s never a one fits all approach.
Virtue signalling
First, let’s look at the definition of Virtue signalling. By Cambridge Dictionary definition it is the popular modern habit of indicating that one has virtue merely by expressing disgust or favour for certain political ideas or cultural happenings. Out of respect for the passing of the Queen, media and companies have reacted with different approaches but one may say that brands that have nothing directly to do with The Queen or wider royal system may be overdoing it with switching their profile pictures to grey scale. This feels very close to brands rainbow washing pride and having the profile picture in pride colours for a month, to switch it back to normal until Halloween. And by definition, I would say most companies who participate here fall under the category of virtue signalling.
Jumping on trends/ Reactive marketing
A trending topic is one that experiences a surge in popularity on social media for a limited time. In many crisis events this goes hand in hand with virtue signalling. Now that the days of incorporating #TBT on a weekly basis into your social content plan have luckily finally passed, we see brands engage with all sort of trends reactively to gage engagement from their audience. With the aim of reach, resonating with their current audience as well as reaching outside of their direct audience we are now often faced with reactive social media tactics that miss the mark, both immediate (short term) but also long term as they grate on the brand.
Official guidelines
With Operation London Bridge in full swing, the gov.uk website has released their very own guidelines, for website and social media this means:
- Online communication channels can also be used to reflect the demise of Her Majesty and participate in the period of National Mourning.
- Organisations can acknowledge the mourning period by making changes to the homepage of their website, for example, with the use of black edging or black banners.
- Organisations and individuals may also wish to share their memories of Her Majesty online. There is no set way to mark the passing of Her Majesty on social media. Organisations may wish to review their planned content for the period.
- Any changes to websites or social media pages should take into consideration accessibility requirements for visually impaired users.
Relations to the Event of Crisis
The relationship of the company/ brand to the event is key in formulating an appropriate response. For example a business with a Royal Warrant of Appointment may want to respond differently to a business headquartered in the US, a business with other relations to the royals will likely to respond differently compared to an organisation without.
Immediate Actions
- Review scheduled content and confirm if posts need stopping
- Confirm if ads need switching off
- Avoid social environments lacking brand safety controls
- Confirm what locations of organisation are affected
- Sense-check all copy that is live or going live
Follow-up actions:
- Social listening
- Monitor competitor activity
- if not yet set up – set up Google Alert, and Storm Alerts for brand mentions
How do you shape a meaningful response individual to your brand?
By answering the following 4 questions covering 4Cs (context, culture, community and content) and evaluating the impact of a response you’ll be able to develop a response matrix.
- Context – what relationship do we have with the queen, related institutions and regionally?
- Culture – are we just adding to the noise for the sake of it?
- Community – what does our community expect from us?
- Content – does the response align with the brand values?
So how did different brands respond?
Let’s take a closer look at some companies within those brackets and how they navigated the situation.
Innocent:
- The Response: Posted on the morning after the news of Queen Elizabeth’s passing have been confirmed with text in brand tone of voice, text on a black square. No further social posting activity otherwise, no change of profile and cover image. Light touch community management.
- Context: Innocent were founded in Cambridge, UK, and are now owned by Coca Cola, a US corporation.
- Culture: By acknowledging the situation in their usual TOV and also giving their audience information about the next few days they have engaged in a more valuable conversation than just reactive social media.
- Community: Some fans tweeted innocent to pause their scheduled post, so there was definitely some sort of expectation around innocent’s social media posting.
- Content: Yes, the brand also used to share content for the Queen’s birthdays so the Queen was previously talked about on the platforms.
RyanAir
- The Response: Same as innocent the company tweeted the morning after the death of the Queen has been announced. After the tweet was shared it seems the general social calendar is being rolled out as per usual.
- Context: Ryanair is an Irish company, Ryanair UK is a British low-cost airline with its second base at Stansted Airport. The airline is the UK subsidiary of the low-cost Irish airline group Ryanair Holdings, and a sister airline to Ryanair
- Culture: Ryanair shared the post, so it seems, for their passengers and then went back to the usual posting plan – this seems like an appropriate reaction/ post from a brand.
- Community: With Ryanair being an Irish company, and their usual tone on social aimed to make them the most talked about brand in social – there certainly was expectations for a post.
- Content: Does not bring brand to life, shows empathy. The focus on passengers grieving seems like and odd choice of words.
Pizza Express
- The Response: Change of social cover image to black, shared branded black square with white font. Customer service continues, no other social media activity.
- Context: Pizza Express was founded in London, and have no direct relations with the Royals apart from the highly publicised Prince Andrew alibi, where he claims to have been at a Pizza Express with his daughter.
- Culture: Based on these claims and the fact that I simply would not have expected of PizzaExpress the post alongside many of other companies who shared similar posts was not a value add
- Community: Customers didn’t expect PizzaExpress to make any sort of statement and will not purchase from them based on it. There was no value add.
- Content: Does not bring brand to life, shows empathy.
VisitLondon
- The Response: Change of social profile image to black and white, likely cover image to black, and shared imagery of the Queen in black and white on Instagram, white square with text on Twitter.
- Context: VisitLondon is London’s offcial visitor guide, London tourism of course heavily connected with the Royals.
- Culture: Within the sector a reaction/ post would be expected.
- Community: Followers would expect a post, if not multiple posts about the death of the Queen.
- Content: Feels placed onto the correct platforms as well as correct course of action.