On the morning of Friday, November 10, we woke up to the news that John Lewis had launched an ad campaign called "Moz the Monster". If you're from the UK, John Lewis needs no introduction, but for our American audience, they're a high-end retail chain that's gained a reputation for a decade of amazing Christmas ads.
It's estimated that John Lewis spent upwards of £7m on this campaign (roughly $9.4M). It quickly became clear that they had organized a multi-channel effort, including a #mozthemonster Twitter campaign.
From a consumer perspective, Moz was just a lovable blue monster. From the perspective of a company that has spent years building a brand, John Lewis was potentially going to rewrite what "Moz" meant to the broader world. From a search perspective, we were facing a rare possibility of competing for our own brand on Google results if this campaign went viral (and John Lewis has a solid history of viral campaigns).
Step #1: Don't panic
At the speed of social media, it can be hard to stop and take a breath, but you have to remember that that speed cuts both ways. If you're too quick to respond and make a mistake, that mistake travels at the same speed and can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy, creating exactly the disaster you feared.
The first step is to get multiple perspectives quickly. I took to Slack in the morning (I'm two hours ahead of the Seattle team) to find out who was awake. Two of our UK team (Jo and Eli) were quick to respond, which had the added benefit of getting us the local perspective.
Collectively, we decided that, in the spirit of our TAGFEE philosophy, a friendly monster deserved a friendly response. Even if we chose to look at it purely from a pragmatic, tactical standpoint, John Lewis wasn't a competitor, and going in metaphorical guns-blazing against a furry blue monster and the little boy he befriended could've been step one toward a reputation nightmare.
Step #2: Respond (carefully)
In some cases, you may choose not to respond, but in this case we felt that friendly engagement was our best approach. Since the Seattle team was finishing their first cup of coffee, I decided to test the waters with a tweet from my personal account:
I've got a smaller audience than the main Moz account, and a personal tweet as the west coast was getting in gear was less exposure. The initial response was positive, and we even got a little bit of feedback, such as suggestions to monitor UK Google SERPs (see "Step #3").
Our community team (thanks, Tyler!) quickly followed up with an official tweet:
While we didn't get direct engagement from John Lewis, the general community response was positive. Roger Mozbot and Moz the Monster could live in peace, at least for now.
Step #3: Measure
There was a longer-term fear – would engagement with the Moz the Monster campaign alter Google SERPs for Moz-related keywords? Google has become an incredibly dynamic engine, and the meaning of any given phrase can rewrite itself based on how searchers engage with that phrase. I decided to track "moz" itself across both the US and UK.
In that first day of the official campaign launch, searches for "moz" were already showing news ("Top Stories") results in the US and UK, with the text-only version in the US:
...and the richer Top Stories carousel in the UK:
The Guardian article that announced the campaign launch was also ranking organically, near the bottom of page one. So, even on day one, we were seeing some brand encroachment and knew we had to keep track of the situation on a daily basis.
Just two days later (November 12), Moz the Monster had captured four page-one organic results for "moz" in the UK (at the bottom of the page):
While it still wasn't time to panic, John Lewis' campaign was clearly having an impact on Google SERPs.
Step #4: Surprises
On November 13, it looked like the SERPs might be returning to normal. The Moz Blog had regained the Top Stories block in both US and UK results:
We weren't in the clear yet, though. A couple of days later, a plagiarism scandal broke, and it was dominating the UK news for "moz" by November 18:
This story also migrated into organic SERPs after The Guardian published an op-ed piece. Fortunately for John Lewis, the follow-up story didn't last very long. It's an important reminder, though, that you can't take your eyes off of the ball just because it seems to be rolling in the right direction.
Step #5: Results
It's one thing to see changes in the SERPs, but how was all of this impacting search trends and our actual traffic? Here's the data from Google Trends for a 4-week period around the Moz the Monster launch (2 weeks on either side):
The top graph is US trends data, and the bottom graph is UK. The large spike in the middle of the UK graph is November 10, where you can see that interest in the search "moz" increased dramatically. However, this spike fell off fairly quickly and US interest was relatively unaffected.
Let's look at the same time period for Google Search Console impression and click data. First, the US data (isolated to just the keyword "moz"):
There was almost no change in impressions or clicks in the US market. Now, the UK data:
Here, the launch spike in impressions is very clear, and closely mirrors the Google Trends data. However, clicks to Moz.com were, like the US market, unaffected. Hindsight is 20/20, and we were trying to make decisions on the fly, but the short-term shift in Google SERPs had very little impact on clicks to our site. People looking for Moz the Monster and people looking for Moz the search marketing tool are, not shockingly, two very different groups.
Ultimately, the impact of this campaign was short-lived, but it is interesting to see how quickly a SERP can rewrite itself based on the changing world, especially with an injection of ad dollars. At one point (in UK results), Moz the Monster had replaced Moz.com in over half (5 of 8) page-one organic spots and Top Stories – an impressive and somewhat alarming feat.
By December 2, Moz the Monster had completely disappeared from US and UK SERPs for the phrase "moz". New, short-term signals can rewrite search results, but when those signals fade, results often return to normal. So, remember not to panic and track real, bottom-line results.
Your crisis plan
So, how can we generalize this to other brand crises? What happens when someone else's campaign treads on your brand's hard-fought territory? Let's restate our 5-step process:
(1) Remember not to panic
The very word "crisis" almost demands panic, but remember that you can make any problem worse. I realize that's not very comforting, but unless your office is actually on fire, there's time to stop and assess the situation. Get multiple perspectives and make sure you're not overreacting.
(2) Be cautiously proactive
Unless there's a very good reason not to (such as a legal reason), it's almost always best to be proactive and respond to the situation on your own terms. At least acknowledge the situation, preferably with a touch of humor. These brand intrusions are, by their nature, high profile, and if you pretend it's not happening, you'll just look clueless.
(3) Track the impact
As soon as possible, start collecting data. These situations move quickly, and search rankings can change overnight in 2017. Find out what impact the event is really having as quickly as possible, even if you have to track some of it by hand. Don't wait for the perfect metrics or tracking tools.
(4) Don't get complacent
Search results are volatile and social media is fickle – don't assume that a lull or short-term change means you can stop and rest. Keep tracking, at least for a few days and preferably for a couple of weeks (depending on the severity of the crisis).
(5) Measure bottom-line results
As the days go by, you'll be able to more clearly see the impact. Track as deeply as you can – long-term rankings, traffic, even sales/conversions where necessary. This is the data that tells you if the short-term impact in (3) is really doing damage or is just superficial.
The real John Lewis
Finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to someone who has felt a much longer-term impact of John Lewis' succesful holiday campaigns. Twitter user and computer science teacher @johnlewis has weathered his own brand crisis year after year with grace and humor:
So, a hat-tip to John Lewis, and, on behalf of Moz, a very happy holidays to Moz the Monster!
This post is ranking #4 in the UK for [moz the monster], which is either ironic or part of your strategy...
Could be both.
Thank you for sharing your crisis situation at Moz.
If it did have a longer term impact in SERPs how would you have gone about it?
It's a fair question, and a tough one. First, I'd want to isolate the impact. If the SERPs are changing and John Lewis was ranking for a handful of organic results for "Moz" *but* we weren't seeing drops in CTR or traffic, I'd monitor the situation but probably not worry about it too much. It's possible for two brands to co-exist and the people who need to get to each brand to still get there. We're not necessarily going to cannibalize each other. Obviously, if they were a competitor in some way, that would be a different story.
If they were a competitor or there was clearly overlap, then we may be talking infringement and I would seek legal advice. If an SEO tool provider called their company or tool "Moz", we'd have legal recourse. If a PPC tool provider called their mascot "Moz" and made him/her a furry monster, things get a lot grayer, although we could certainly argue a deliberate intent to confuse customers and capitalize on our brand. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, etc.
If there were no infringement, but the new brand threatened to completely take over the SERP, then my first step would probably be a more robust paid search strategy. That might sound odd coming from an SEO guy, but it would be the easiest/fastest way (although possibly costly) to make sure we held onto a spot in that SERP for our prospects and customers.
After that, we'd have to do the hard work of establishing our brand presence and refocus our content strategy. If the competing brand was friendly, there might be room for partnership of some kind. You sometimes see a domain or brand that says "Are you looking for [X] instead?" because both sides realize there's confusion and it doesn't benefit anyone.
or you could rebrand to something else, maybe "SEOMoz" or something ;)
Didn't you explore any possibility of partnering with John Lewis once you discovered Moz the monster? It's likely John Lewis did some research on the use of "Moz" before launching the campaign. Having a word with their PR people may have come up with some ideas for you to get a nice ride at a very low (or no) cost.
Kudos to you for how you managed the crisis though.
I remember that morning! It was interesting in the moment, and this is a great write-up showing the behind the scenes and longer view approach. Fascinating to observe the unexpected bad PR changing the course of SERP results after you think they are back on track. Great job!
Also, h/t to John Lewis for being such a good sport all these years! Makes me grateful for a fairly a-typical name. :-)
Never heard a story of brand crisis like yours!! yeah good job Moz guys.
ps: I love the "Moz the monster" video!!! it's awesome
Great crisis manual
Depending on the cases, the factor that someone uses a name could come up well, so the most important thing of all is not to be alarmed
Hi Pete,
Interesting take. At Majestic we knowingly walked right into exactly this minefield when we gave up the "SEO" in the brand name. Majestic Wine in the UK is huge and should always get seen for most consumers on Google above us. Then there's every Majestic theater and frankly every awesome sunset. Choosing a generic word was walking into a lion's den - but there is an absolute upside too. Majestic tries to be open, but we don't have to go all TAGFEE, and having a generic word as a brand makes it extremely elusive to track using social media listening tools for example. True - it is hard for US to track as well, but of course we at least have access to our own site logs. Our problem, though, became a lttle more pronounced a few months ago, when Fanatics boughtup Majestic Athletic in the US. In itself not a problem, except my good friend, dennis goedegebuure, got the role of head of SEO there... I found this out when I was doing some client entertaining with him on my table at the US Search Awards! Oops - awkward :)
On balance, though, I am not scared. We (Moz and Majestic) are both B2B brands. Google is (or shoul be) adept enough now to personalise results enough to show most consumers (who are not interested in either of is) different results to those that are. Your UK trens/click data seems to suggest they have indeed got this about right.
Dixon.
Interesting -- thanks for sharing your story, Dixon. Yeah, we risked some brand confusion when we shifted to just "Moz" a couple of years back. Ultimately, though, that's a business decision first, and often other factors outweigh the SEO implications. You have to be aware of the SEO implications, but these decisions have to go much deeper.
Great post - as someone from the UK that was my first thought when seeing the advert - what impact will it have. I would also say its one of their worst xmas adverts.
Glad to see it had very little impact.
Excellent way to manage the search results, because indirectly you have harmed. This case study comes in handy to know what to do in case something similar happens to us.
Thanks for the excellent contribution of a real case.
Good job. Now you have to do something about Morissey. When I was monitoring mentions of Moz brand at my previous job ( for reasons :D ) it was a pain in the a** because 8/10 tweets that mentioned Moz were referring to Morissey.
We get confusion every year from Morrissey fans when MozCon starts trending.
Invite Morissey to perform next time, this will confuse them even further :D
Great response & writeup, of what could have been messy if handled badly.
I have a question though - surely there would have been digital marketing / SEO people involved from John Lewis or their agency. How could they not have realised what they were about to do? Surely someone would have spoken up at a meeting?
Truthfully, being a UK brand, it's likely they never heard of us, or they saw mentions of "Moz" in various forms and thought they were all unlikely to cause confusion. Being a one-syllable brand, these things are also bound to happen. Star Wars VII, for example, has a character named Maz which is pronounced exactly like "Moz". Should someone, somewhere do their due diligence? Probably, but naming a character for a movie or ad campaign isn't quite the same as picking the one-and-only-forever name for your brand.
John Lewis are a large enough brand that anyone working in any form of digital marketing for them would have heard of Moz. Whether they were involved in the naming process is an entirely different matter.
SEO novice here :) I feel like I'm missing something - why would it matter if John Lewis upset your SERPs for the search term "Moz"? Surely people searching for "Moz" likely know you already, so they're just looking for your website and are prepared to do a bit of scrolling/clicking to find the page?
I can see that perhaps for an SEO company it might not be a ringing endorsement if you aren't top of the page, but is it really that big an issue?
On small scale, if they took a spot or two, it's not a big deal. People looking for them would find them and people looking for us would find us, and no one needs 10 spots. The danger/concern is if, due to the massive scope of the campaign, the signals shifted and Google started to interpret "Moz" to mean Moz The Monster and not Moz the company. It's unlikely, but given we're a smallish company and this was a huge ad spend, it's possible. Then, we'd be looking at a significant investment (and probably a substantial PPC campaign on top of it) to re-compete for our brand and just get back to where we already were before all of this.
Our brand has been largely unaffected in search by the race horse and vessel 'Tropical Sky', but in the run-up to Christmas I've noticed UK retailer Argos ranking a little too high for comfort for our brand term with their Yankee Candle product available through their site. Considering doing a customer giveaway of 'Tropical Sky' scented candles - at least we wouldn't have to pay to have the label branded!
There's a "Dr. Pete's" that makes small-batch marinades and sauces, and I used to give them away to clients. They had this coffee balsamic marinade that was amazing, but discontinued it :(
Fascinating case study - I am from the UK and despite the ad spend the John Lewis campaign had no impact on me personally - I didn't know it was about a Moz monster until now - maybe I am more interested in SEO than department stores. Suggests that fortunately the target audiences for Moz and John Lewis are very different in this case. Great insight on how to deal with an unexpected crisis though.
Wow, what a rollercoaster! I felt a pit in my stomach thinking about what I would if I was in a similar situation :o I liked how you responded to it on Twitter and tried to turn it into a positive as much as you could, hats off!
Great to hear how you guys at moz handle such a situation - a lot to learn from this. And thank you for sharing your steps on how to get through it with the “crisis plan”!
I am sure a lot of readers (me included) appreciate it!
That was a genious approach! I've never seen before an explanation of how to resolve a crisis like this. It is very difficult not to panic at first, but as you said it is crucial in order to have an effective plan. Well done and thank you!
Good job!
That was a thrilling story!
It was yet another politically correct advert! Complete and utter rubbish.