Greggs turns online disaster into a publicity triumph
The bakery chain Greggs had to deal with a potentially disastrous case of online vandalism yesterday as its official logo on Google was altered by a hacker yesterday afternoon. Due to a glitch in Google‘s algorithms, a hacker replaced their new slogan, ‘Always fresh, always tasty‘ with a more offensive motto in reference to the popular appeal of the nationwide bakery.
Undeterred, Greggs‘ social media team took to Twitter, interacting with customers as well as the Google team in an attempt to try and make light of the situation. Greggs tweeted a picture of a selection of their doughnuts to Google as an incentive to rectify the error, imploring, “fix it and they‘re yours!!!” in reference to the sweet treats. Google, not to miss out on the publicity stunt, replied, “Throw in a sausage roll and we‘ll get it done ASAP”. The hashtag #FixGreggs featured in a number of tweets over the course of the afternoon.
The bakery, which has more stores nationwide than MacDonalds, has seen an impressive turnaround in 2014, and will probably look back on yesterday‘s incident as a case of ‘all publicity is good publicity‘. Having suffered in 2013 as consumers flocked to coffee shop chains such as Costa, Greggs has regained business through the introduction of a new range of healthy, low-calorie sandwiches, including the Cajun chicken wrap, which already brings in £1 million a week for the company.
The return of the Flappy Bird…
The creator of the runaway success Flappy Bird App will return with his second creation tomorrow when ‘Swing Copters‘ becomes available to download free on the Apple and Android app stores.
Fans of the addictive phenomenon that was Flappy Bird will no doubt be thrilled at the prospect of a new challenge. The Flappy Bird app was pulled earlier in the year just nine months after it was released because it was causing its creator, Vietnamese developer Nguyen Dong, too much anxiety. At the time of its withdrawal, Flappy Bird was earning its creator over $50,000 per day through advertising from its 50 million users.
Speaking to Forbes on his decision to take down Flappy Bird, Nguyen Dong said that he was worried the game had become an “addictive product” and that he believed it had “become a problem. To solve that problem, it‘s best to take down Flappy Bird. It‘s gone forever”.
Will Swing Copters become a viral phenomenon like its predecessor? Only time will tell, but let‘s hope it‘s not too successful or its creator might well decide to deprive us of his second creation as well.
