The recall rollout affects 350,000 cars in the UK and 18,000 in Ireland. They've been using traditional PR to get news stories out in the press and they also have used their local online presence to alert the public.
But there's never a shit situation that can't be enworsened by a smartarse hacker. Indeed hacker is probably too lofty a term for what was needed to bypass Toyota's failsafe security. Here's what happened on Toyota Ireland's site early this weekend.
We can confirm that your Toyota is absolutely fucked and is probably exploding in your face right now.Ouch. It stayed like that for two whole days, complete with a working link to major competitor Renault, before finally someone got it fixed. Now it's back to the boring old business of trying to minimise the damage that has already wiped $20 billion off Toyota's worldwide share value. But the recalled, repaired site makes no reference to the messing that went on.
It even has last Friday's date on it. The Twitter account, updated today, Sunday, at around 3 in the afternoon, alludes to it once only and also seems to think that the hack had just happened minutes ago. It leaves us with a lukewarm Thanks for listening message.
Just like in real life, jokers will mess with your shit on the web. In fact it's pretty much guaranteed, especially if you're in any kind of media spotlight. Ask Cheryl Cole. But there is a more serious point for all Irish advertisers to take on board. The web is a living place where your brand can grow or get bullied, or both. If you aren't on top of it, with online PR, advertising and active social engagement, you will suffer. This isn't an academic notion. It's a fact.
More learned people than I can tell you the dos and dont's of building your site in order to avoid this kind of jackanapery, but you shouldn't need anyone to tell you that the web is open for business all the time. There is no weekend off, not for your PR company and not for you. Two crucial days were lost online for Toyota, and the level of engagement in the arena where they were lost has been absolutely minimal. Nothing on the site, and one lousy tweet that relayed no information.
Compare this with a slightly smaller embarrassment that Vodafone UK suffered at pretty much the same time, Friday afternoon on Feb 5th. An offensive tweet on their account read
"Vodafone UK is fed up of dirty homo's and is going after beaver."
It was taken down sharpish, and Vodafone's reaction demonstrates the difference between a client who understands how they have to behave online and one who clearly isn't there yet.
Anyone who complained was responded to, and a complete disclosure (within reasonable limits) was made. Responsibility was assumed, quickly, and a full apology was made. No doubt some dick will rightly have every Monday off from now on, and it must have stung Vodafone like hell, but how often do you hear a big brand saying We're really sorry?
And will Toyota Ireland (who have proven themselves quite clever online in some respects, particularly marketing) learn from this, I wonder? I hope so.
For the record, every car I've ever owned has been a Toyota. I'm on No. 4. And if I'm ever lucky enough to change again, it'll most likely be to No. 5. I'm nowhere near as convinced that management has mastered CRM in the 21st century as well as it has production.
