Travelling In Bad Company

Picture it. You’re all excited about your overseas trip. Everything’s been planned down to the minutest detail. You’ve checked in online to ensure you’ve got a good seat. Your Kindle’s charged and your inflatable neck cushion’s packed in your carry on luggage. You’ve even arrived early so that you don’t have to do the last minute scramble through security. But what you haven’t planned for, is that for the next 16hrs you’ll be sitting next to the largest, sweatiest individual you have ever seen. Oh and the plane is full and nobody in their right mind is going to want to swap seats with you.

What do you do?

Besides stealing miniatures from the drinks trolley and drinking yourself into a coma, there isn’t a heck of a lot you can do. If only you were still dating that lovely flight attendant, then she could pull some strings and get you upgraded out from beneath the soggy mass that’s spilling over from seat 49E.

As nauseous and uncomfortable the pairing with your new ‘travel buddy’ makes you, try picturing it happening to your brand as you publish an advertisement in a magazine without any control as to what will appear alongside it, with no ability to protect it! It could be another conflicting advertisement or even an article with an opposing view to your brand. The web is full of blogs showcasing awkward, cringe-worthy and just plain wrong advertisement placements.

So what can you do about protecting your brand? Simple. Get on board with an agency that understands media and that has good relationships with the publications so that they are able to ‘pull some strings’ by negotiating the most relevant and best placements for you. Ensuring that nothing hampers your campaign getting off the ground or your brand is protected from coming off less than its shiny best.

Some of the worst advertising placement fails can be seen here. While you may have a giggle, we are certain the brands involved are not!