Dive Brief:
- T-Mobile tried to stir negativity around rival mobile service provider Verizon with its Promoted Trend -- a Twitter ad product that gives the trending hashtag to the sponsor for $200,000 -- but the pricey plan backfired.
- After the wireless carrier pushed out the #NeverSettleforVerizon campaign on Thursday, which was set to run for 24 hours, it received an outpouring of tweets bashing the campaign and T-Mobile (see sample Tweets below), with consumers rising to the defense of Verizon.
- The Promoted Trend has since been removed, although a T-Mobile spokesperson told Adweek the campaign was still running.
Funny, I left @TMobile and went back to @VerizonWireless because the service on TMo was awful. #NeverSettleForVerizon
— Sherri C (@Maxicat) May 14, 2015
Had T Mobile less than 4 days and til this day I cannot forget how awful that was. @VerizonWireless is on fleek #NeverSettleForVerizon
— jonnyPAIN (@jonny_pain) May 14, 2015
Would you drop 6 figures for a promoted hashtag naming another brand? @TMobile would. #neversettleforverizon.
— j barbush (@jbarbush) May 14, 2015
Remember when Apple ran slanderous campaign against Blackberry? No? B/c they just built a superior product instead. #NeverSettleForVerizon
— Cameron Stoltz (@camstoltz) May 14, 2015
Dive Insight:
It seems as the T-Mobile Promoted Trend has been removed, but a spokesperson indicates otherwise. T-Mobile has never been one to shy away from eyebrow-raising campaigns, including negative ads against competitors. After a failed merger between the carrier and Sprint, T-Mobile launched ads offering special promotions to "rescue" Sprint users from the carrier, and even reporting Sprint to the National Advertising Division for misuse of certain words in ads. And T-Mobile CEO John Legere himself is famous for colorful Twitter rants like the widely followed #Sprintlikehell tweets following the failed deal. But as the Twitter backlash shows, nobody likes a bully and continued behavior like the #NeverSettleForVerizon debacle could cost T-Mobile where it hurts most -- with consumers.
