Clowns Outside Schools: Tracking a Not so Comedic Crisis in Real Time

They say there are two things to avoid in showbusiness: Children and Animals. Earlier this week, it seems the adage for PR pros and marketers is “never work with clowns”.

Don’t Send in the Clowns

Earlier this week, disturbing images of clowns randomly appearing and loitering outside schools across the island of Singapore started to circulate online.

Within hours, the images had been joined by a swathe of posts across social media from rightly worried parents, followed by a series of rumours of the motive behind these seemingly creepy comic entertainers. Several parents reported clowns asking their children to follow them; others claimed they offered sweets and even money up to S$1000, and one school principal called the police over the reported incident.

Within hours of the first sighting, the topic began to spike (13,330% higher than usual). The subject snowballed by the hour with over 500 mentions of “clowns” mixed with fear spreading across social media, as people rightly asked, “what is going on?” This is based on social mentions of “Speech Academy Asia” and “Singapore” on Cision Social Listening.

In less than a day, the news was picked up by every mainstream media outlet in Singapore; and started to appear in Malaysia and Australia before being reported by SCMP in Hong Kong. By the end of the day, it had generated over 2.5 million impressions. The news was also reported in The Washington Post and Daily Mail.

So, what was behind this plot? Had the Joker and his band of comic villains found refuge in the Lion City? Or, is there a new tropical sequel of IT in the works?

From Fear to Failure

It turns out it was nothing so sinister or as exciting. Instead, it was a failed publicity stunt by a local enrichment centre acting on a bad idea from their marketing and PR team.

By day two, the school realised more needed to be done and issued a statement, written apology and was forced to deny (multiple times) any wrongdoing. Acting swiftly and honestly has curbed the response and stopped the accusations and story from spreading further. However, the topic continues to attract attention on social media, forums, and message boards. Riding on the buzz, The Straits Times even managed to track down the promotor who dressed up as the clown in an interview on September 22.

The apology may have slowed the tide, but the impact on their reputation may take a while to recover. Over 40% of all comments mention their brand name are negative in tone and associate the school with poor judgment and lack of awareness – things parents don’t want their children to learn.

The enrichment school was even included in Campaign Asia’s Best and Worst Marketing Stunts in Asia by the end of day two. Undeterred by the backlash, some brands have even tried to “ride the wave” of publicity by using clowns in Instagram posts and online to promote their products and services – If they could see what I can see on our social listening tool. They wouldn’t think twice about sending in the clowns.

RELATED READ: The Benefits – and Avoidable Pitfalls – of Humor in Asia-Pacific Corporate Communications

No Clowning Around When it Comes to PR

So what’s the moral of the story? If you are a marketing or PR pro looking to gain attention for your brand, maybe think twice before sending in those misunderstood clowns. But even more importantly, be prepared.

Preparing for a crisis is essential for any business, big or small. I am sure no one at the centre could have predicted that their Singapore clown stunt would have been retweeted by people as far away as the UK and Australia, but it was.

Social listening can provide an early warning system to a developing crisis, help you determine the scale of the problem, and give you an idea of the most appropriate response. You can use social listening tools to create alerts based on activity spikes or specific keywords, enabling you to check for significant or sudden changes in conversation volume or sentiment around your brand – or your next marketing campaign.

For brands thinking of jumping on the bandwagon, it can also show you how past clown campaigns were received and how your take on the news might be received too. It can also help you plan a response, create your messaging and discover the best delivery method.

Nonetheless, technology can only get you so far. The critical thing to remember in a crisis is to remain calm and try not to panic. Don’t react in anger or become defensive. Instead, ensure your chosen responses are consistent, authentic and, where needed, apologetic.

This blog post is written by Thomas Skelton, Senior Manager, Communications Strategy at PR Newswire in APAC.