We are all becoming more and more aware every day of how social media, viral marketing and user generated media/content are revolutionizing the advertising world. Unfortunately for some brands like United Airlines and Pizza Hut, they are finding out the hard way. The Dave Carroll/Taylor guitar fiasco has spread like wildfire, thanks to the opportunity given to anyone anywhere to share their voice. This incident should teach brands a valuable lesson with regard to how they handle customer service inquiries. Brands need to be very attentive and sensitive to the fact that everyone is now considered a “marketer,” given this newfound freedom to communicate their experiences and opinions, whether it be good or bad.

According to Ad Week, over three million people in one week viewed the video that Dave Carroll uploaded to YouTube regarding the mishandling of his Taylor guitar. For United Airlines, this translates into a dreadful number of people worldwide that now identify United Airlines as the airline that doesn’t care about the management or handling of your luggage. Considering the latest attitude toward airline companies and the new and increased baggage fees, this is a serious hit to United’s reputation and will demand serious recovery efforts. Terribly news for the airline that the video is now the third search result for the query “United Airlines” on Google.

United has already made a genuine attempt to reconcile with Carroll, and announced via Twitter that they had made a $3,000 donation to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Good start, but this will need to be followed by further earnest efforts to mend this damaging reputation they’ve acquired.

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/strategy/e3icf26a0dad6f1001638196a9b842c61d2?pn=1