Brands take advantage of Apple’s #BendGate crisis in a real-time marketing

Natalia Chrzanowska
September 26, 2014 ・ 6 min read

Social media users are mocking Apple and other brands know how to take advantage of iPhone crisis.

#bendgate iPhone 6 Source: Twitter
It has not been the best week for Apple. After the rumor about bending iPhone 6 Plus spread virally in the web, the company got out of control of the crisis. Within last 24 hours people created and shared over 20k contents about the bending phablet. What is more, the number of negative comments has been growing and a lot of people who initially planned to buy iPhone 6 now change their minds. Does it sound bad enough? It was just the beginning of bad news for Apple. Just after the iOS  8.0.1. introduction clients started reporting all kinds of issues with the update.  In few hours it was pulled. Social media users are mocking Apple and the situation does not seem to get any better.

Good start

Nothing spelled a disaster for Apple. They were doing really great in the beginning of September. Before, during and after the special event, when a lot of novelties were introduced social media users were crazy about the brand. The vast majority of technology blogs and websites gave all the attention to Apple. The chart below reflects that Apple was on a roll. During the September event the number of mentions about iPhone 6 exceeded the level of 50k contents per day and nobody saw what was coming. On Friday 22nd first devices reached to customers and some negative comments began to spread in social media.
chart
#BendGate goes viral
Internet users eagerly shared funny memes and videos about bending iPhone, especially after the video test by Unbox Therapy. Within last 24 hours the estimated number of mentions related to bending iPhones amounted to over 20,000! These contents reached to approximately 28 million people! Here are some examples of the funniest memes and jokes:
 
 

 

Post by Bonnybonnybonnie Albon.

Brands trolling Apple

Apple’s competitors and other brands as well did not miss the chance to take the advantage of BendGate affair. They used the bending iPhone image in clever ads, which engaged even more people. These photos are great examples of how to run successful online activities in a real-time marketing in order to increase your audience and gain new followers.

Samsung – Apple’s competitor number 1 struck twice:

However, other mobile devices producers also trolled Apple:

Post by ASUS.
 

Post by HTC USA.

We like this one:

Not only brands of mobiles proved their creativity. Here are other examples of real-time marketing:

    And our favorite one:

Sales drop

In the worst scenario Apple might loose a lot of fans and customers. This seems to be very likely outcome as already plenty of Internt users have written on their profiles that they are not going to buy iPhone 6 Plus anymore or even they cancelled their orders. Some even rerurn their already bought devices. What is more, Apple was forced to pull update of iOS 8.0.1 as after its introductions a lot of issues with the operating systems were reported. The future for iDevices does not seem bright and now it is all up to Apple and how it will handle the crisis. The company have already responded that iPhone 6 Plus went through rigorous testing and that only 9 people reported problems with devices. However, it might not be enought for such a huge wave of negative reations and mocking jokes about Apple. In this Forbes’ article you can find out more about the possible outcomes for the company.

WHAT THEY SAY

Natalia Chrzanowska ・ Content marketing manager and author at Brand24. Social media and marketing freak. Occasional traveler and amateur photographer.