2Nov
The bagel, an historically Jewish bread product from Poland, made its way to the United States over a century ago. In the past few decades, baking automation technology has helped it spread throughout the country, though it maintains particular popularity in certain geographical areas like New York and Philadelphia. It is now popular enough that Apple, the most profitable company in the world, decided to create a bagel emoji to add to its rapidly expanding database of textable niche images.
But there was a problem, which many bagel lovers instantly recognized: there was no cream cheese!
New Yorkers in particular were very unhappy with said sad bagel. Maybe you could get away without cream cheese if the bagel itself was a more adventurous flavor, but this was a plain bagel. What kind of monster would design such a thing? Said the New Yorkers, one of whom tweeted, “It looks like something you get from a cardboard box in the freezer section at Walmart.”
Social media tweets, with hashtags #sadbagel and #bagelemoji, ran wild throughout the internet. Suddenly, cream cheese company Philadelphia got into the game. Their social accounts fired off multiple promoted tweets that argued for the new bagel emoji to include cream cheese. Philadelphia even created a petition to Apple on popular petition site Change.org.
The new #bagelemoji is a #sadbagel. Sign the petition and help us change this travesty with a schmear of cream cheese. https://t.co/371JXvS5yW pic.twitter.com/oXlt6zkyET
— PHILADELPHIA (@LoveMyPhilly) October 5, 2018
And then…SUCCESS.
In just 10 short days since #bagelgate began, Apple fixed its new bagel emoji. Not only did they add cream cheese, but changed the consistency to more reflect hand-created bagels.
Hooray! Bagel lovers everywhere united and convinced @Apple to turn the plain #SadBagel into a delicious #HappyBagel and we are celebrating. #ItMustBeThePhilly
— PHILADELPHIA (@LoveMyPhilly) October 16, 2018
This may seem like a silly and ultimately trivial interaction. But it shows how social media really works and how companies and consumers can interact to create something bigger than the sum of its parts. The first lesson: companies running social media accounts can be and are a crucial part of a cultural zeitgeist—even if such a zeitgeist is bagel-sized. Philadelphia smartly surveyed the internet discussion that was relevant to its product and confidently stepped forward to contribute. All companies with social media ought to be prepared to make similar moves, because, after all, social media is social.
Another lesson? Social media pressure can be enough to change even the biggest company’s mind.
If you’re a consumer or ad agency, participating in such a campaign is free advertising. And if you happen to be the company targeted for the change, well, making a change to appease the social media clamor can result in more advertising—and goodwill from your consumers.
The final lesson to learn: staying versatile is vital to the modern marketing world. Just a few years ago emojis weren’t a thing and neither was Twitter. Stay ahead of the game now – it’s more important than ever.
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