Can negative publicity have a positive impact?

You may have noticed the latest ongoings in twitter with @mocktheweek - some are accusing the show of being sexist (pretty serious allegation). As a response @mocktheweek has been defending itself very vigorously on twitter - breaking one of the golden rules of social media, "Don't try to stifle negative sentiment on social media" (it often has the opposite effect). Some have referred to the incident as a "slow motion car crash", whilst others have gone to the defence of the show. A lot of people have criticised the aggressive tone and the handling of the @mocktheweek account.

What kind of an impact will this have on the show? Although it's hard to tell, probably none - the show is governed by BBC guidelines, has a popular prime time spot and is watched by lots of people because they consider it to be funny - if anything it has raised awareness with people who weren't aware of the show.

Negative publicity can have a much more serious impact of course, only recently the biggest newspaper in the UK had to close due to the media furore regarding the phone hacking scandal.

We can undertake a much more educated approach thanks to a study called "Negative Publicity: When Negative Is Positive". The paper, ritten by Jonah Berger Alan T. Sorensen Scott J. Rasmussen, has produced remarkable insight and measured the effects of negative publicity by analysing the impact of negative book reviews in The New York Times on sales.

The study found that sales of books by well known authors decreased by 14% when they received a negative review. Remarkably, however, the sales of books by unknown authors increased by a massive 45% when they received a negative review.

Why such a big difference? Well known authors are read by the mainstream who are guided by thought leaders such as the NYT. A bad review can be enough to turn some of them away and cause a 14% dip in sales. Where as unknown authors have nothing to lose, nobody knows about them. The mere act of being mentioned in the NYT allowed book readers to become aware of their book and go on to purchasing it. Of course a good review would have been preferable, but the bad review also did wonders.

How can this help your strategy?

Start-ups arguably have nothing to lose and a lot to benefit from social media, the mere act of being there and engaging with new people means more people are aware of them.

Established brands however need to have processes in place to ensure they protect their brand - negative media/publicity can have a devastating impact on sales of products and their brand.