The Ocean Agency

Jimmy John’s Sandwiches is a sandwich shop that is impressively tech savvy. Hey fatso, you can even order sandwiches directly from your Facebook account:

Today was a big day for the Jimmy John’s franchise, as they gave their Facebook fans a sneak preview of what was to become their first televised commercial. They built up anticipation, posting links both on their Facebook page (they have 229,000 fans) and on their Twitter. They revealed the commercial at 3 PM central and fan reaction was immediate, and negative.  Here is a small sampling of the comments:

So what does a brand do when inundated with negative comments about an ad they are going to release? Well, Jimmy’s decided to scrap the ad all together:

Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches
One of my favorite signs in our stores reads, “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” That’s exactly what JJ’s got today. Sorry fans, we thought we’d give you a laugh but the JJ fan voice has spoken! “No sock puppets!”

Was this the right response on Jimmy John’s part? I think so. But the larger issue is that it shows the ability of social media to be a testing ground for future marketing ideas and campaigns. It also builds brand loyalty and shows that you care about your customers when you involve them in business decisions. The down side however, that with 229,000 active voices, reaching any kind of consensus is nearly impossible.

But this idea of test run may be valuable for many brands, especially those who don’t want to spend the time or money hiring a market research company. This is definitely up for debate however: Can social media replace market research? In the case of Jimmy John’s I think it can, but this is mostly because of their large and active following. What about for smaller or lesser known brands? Does social media “research” give you real insight, or just muddy the water? Looking forward to your thoughts.