The rise and fall of Boaty McBoatface

A Cautionary Tale

In the UK some bright folks (were they marketers?), at the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), decided it would be cool to allow Twitter users to come up with the name for a new polar research ship. According to The Times of London, no less than the Minister of Science, declared:

“Can you imagine one of the world’s biggest research labs travelling to the Antarctic with your suggested name proudly emblazoned on the side?”

Apparently (link as above) a former BBC presenter suggested Boaty McBoatface as the name and (for whatever reason) it gained many times more votes than any other suggestion. Call it the Donald effect.

History Repeating

Some may remember other problems with crowdsourcing of this sort.

Back in 2012, Walmart ran a Facebook likes contest to decide which Walmart store should receive a live visit from Pitbull (the rapper, not the Donald). The allegedly most remote Walmart store, in Kodiak Alaska, was the clear winner gaining over 70,000 likes (which is about 10 times its population).

Allegedly the campaign (for such it seemed to be) was once more organized by a media figure, in this case a newspaper writer. Reaction on Reddit, suggests that this was definitely a concerted effort…although the resulting Pitbull (not the Donald) concert was appreciated as a nice spin on a difficult situation.

Then there have been the various product naming nonsenses. “Dub the Dew” is probably the most infamous. An online crowdsourced name for a new apple-associated beverage from the makers of Mountain Dew, must have seemed a no-brainer for the smart marketers involved. It saves marketers’ brains — which god knows are in very very short supply; gains engagement — which is the usp of this century; and promises a great promotional platform. Unfortunately, the crowd became the mob (pace the Donald), and the suggested names became politically incorrect, marketingly inexpedient, and quite probably actionable.

The New York Mets crowdsourced (or to make it seem more respectable we can call it “open innovated”) the choice of their eighth inning anthem. The result? They were rick-rolled!

None of this is new. Back in the dark ages of the 1990’s, David Bowie’s people decided to crowdsource (via steam-telephone) the songs he would play live. Again the poll was hijacked, allegedly once more by a media figure from New Musical Express (which went the KFC route to NME). With that Bowie favourite “The Laughing Gnome” firmly in the lead, the contest was abandoned.

What then should we do?

The Boaty McBoatface farce was resolved by naming the boat itself after “Britain’s world-renowned broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough.” And (literally) deep-sixing Boaty McBoatface as the name of the Sir David’s submersible (would that the Donald could be dealt with as easily).

Of course, “resolved” is a relative term (as the Republicans may be finding), a petition to restore McBoatface to the surface (and perhaps sink Sir David) is now circulating. While another petition aims to rename Sir David himself as Boaty McBoatface. Could both succeed? (Could the Donald become the Jeb and solve all?)

Good Practice for Crowdsourcing

Always constrain choices. Constraints reduce creativity, and that’s what we want in public polls. Limit the choices, then count the votes. Marketers can’t delegate all the responsibility to the crowd. By now we should know that crowds are likely to be hi-jacked by those with reputations to polish, and rapidly morph into mobs (ha! back to the Donald?).

Watch carefully. It always pays to monitor crowd projects as they develop. Nip out the buds of wayward suggestions before they can flourish. Is this censorship? Yes it is. If we are to harness crowdsourcing we need bridle and bit! Build in a delay between suggestion and live-feed; insert a moderator. In many countries this is a legal requirement and can be presented as such.

Invite suggestions not decisions. As marketers have proved time and again (perhaps to reassure themselves), consumers are unlikely to come up with imaginative suggestions that are usably on-brand. Imagination triggers the bizarre — the most-definitely off-brand — the secret voices in our heads that sound out the politically incorrect opinions (the Donald again?).

Creativity of the mob-crowd needs to be structured, corralled, and evaluated before it is launched on the unsuspecting world.