Velvet Sky

A saidWot Case Study

24 February 2012 – 5 March 2012

A reputation… grounded overnight.

BP are forcing liquidation on Velvet Sky for an amount in excess of R29m owed for fuel bought on credit. This made the news, and almost instantly the online space exploded!

And its no longer what you say that counts. Anything that anybody says about a brand, whether it be on a forum or a social media profile will be seen by hundreds if not thousands of other people.

THEY are the ones that determine the reputation of your brand and what the public thinks of your brand.

Facts & Figures

This case study is based on all comments received from the 24th of February until the 5th March 2012 relating to Velvet

Sky.

It is based on English comments from around the world and from all online media sources available.

This case study was compiled to showcase how quickly a brand’s reputation can take a turn for the

worst, and how quickly it gets out of control on the internet.

If you would like us to do this for your brand or for something you are passionate about, please contact us:

www.saidwot.com | infosa@saidwot.com

How many people were talking?

In just 11 days, over

756 people were talking about Velvet Sky online.

Their mentions went from

an average of 5 per day, to over 500 on the 24th February alone.

What was said?

Where did the conversation take place?

25 articles posted on Websites and 34 articles on News Sites

680 comments posted on Social Media Platforms

17 discussions took place on Forums

Where in the social media landscape?

83.96%

2.22%

3.53% 0.13%

Keep in mind that most people have set their privacy settings on Facebook to ‘friends only’. These comments cannot be monitored or tracked.

Who was talking?

@pamelaboshoff was the top tweeter, with 14 tweets during the period, reaching 205

people.

@DJFreshSA reached 177 311 people with his 2 tweets!

What was said?

Other top tweeters

By number of tweets By number of followers

Influential individuals

Celebrities, politicians, brands, and news sources got involved.

Online hype around the brand

The 24th February saw an astronomical explosion of mentions on the Velvet Sky brand. Days after the

24th Feb 2012, the hype was over.

2 mentions

504 mentions

99 mentions

25 mentions

Sentiment of the mentionsIf we look at the 24th February in isolation, since that is where most of the mentions were made, we can see that 86% were

negative to the brand.

Who was listening?

43%

57%

Interestingly quite a large percentage of the audience were women between the ages of 18 and 34 years.

How much was it worth?

2 873 075 people were exposed to comments and opinions about Velvet Sky Airlines.

In marketing terms, if the company wanted to buy advertising reaching the same number of people, it

would cost R574 615 in banner and cost per click advertising.

Summary

Velvet Sky handled this crisis very badly through their social media profiles.

They only tweeted 18 times during this period, and were retroactive in their Facebook approach, majority of these were when the damage had already been done. If they were more proactive in letting travellers know exactly what the statuses were with their flights, perhaps the online explosion they experienced in terms of negative press could have been averted. Also, it seems whoever was running the Twitter profile thought it was a good time to try something funny…

More information

This case study highlights the trends as identified in the analysis of the data around Velvet Sky.

If you would like us to share the remainder of the analysis, as well as the extensive tracking on this topic with you,

please feel free to contact us.

Additionally, for any demo accounts, queries or requests for information, please don’t hesitate to contact us on the

below information.

South Africa:Tel:          +27 11 021 8738Email:     infosa@saidwot.com Web:      www.saidwot.com

United States:Tel:          +00 (1) 704 450 2403Email:     infous@saidwot.com