WHETHER The Wiggles’ decision to bring back original Yellow Wiggle Greg Page to replace frontman of five years Sam Moran is right or not is not for me to judge. However, the way the ending of Sam’s contract and reintroduction of Greg has been dealt with raises a lot of questions from a public relations perspective.
Take a look at this video and you’ll see what I mean.
Many have been left scratching their heads, wondering how a business with two decades of experience and in Australia’s BRW Rich List can come across so amateur. It has to be one of the most awkward interviews on the show in a while. And it wasn’t just on this network.
Here are five PR lessons to learn for your business by watching this week’s Wiggles episode unfold.
Monitor social media
One sure way to find out what the market is thinking about your brand and reacting to your news is to delve into social media – Facebook, Twitter, blogs and YouTube for starters. A quick look would have found mums – the ones who control the remote – were not happy with the decision.
Be prepared
The evident lack of preparation in going into interviews by The Wiggles was not a good look for the brand. Why they were not prepared for the questions asked baffles me. Answers to such obvious questions should have been well prepared. It begs the question of whether they thought replacing Sam would even matter to its fans. The Wiggles have long been the darlings of the media. However, journalists are after a newsworthy story. Just because they’ve been chummy with you for 20-odd years, doesn’t mean they won’t pull out the tough questions when needed.
Focus on your customers, not your bottom line
To be fair, Jeff at least credited the impact on fans in this interview. However, there needed to have been a stronger focus on how the decision would benefit its audience. It’s important your message is directed at your audience. What do they care about? It sure ain’t how much money you make or your chemistry on stage.
Make sure you speak directly to your audience
This is where The Wiggles failed, but Sam came out on top. His website today features a rather classy video from him speaking directly to his audience – the kids – to ease their concerns about him leaving the group.
Act quickly
In this age of social media, rumours can spread quicker than they ever have before. One tweet can reach beyond what word of mouth ever did. The key is to get out into your market and start responding to and spreading good news about your brand as soon as you can.
How do you think The Wiggles handled the situation? How would your business deal with this situation?
Oh my. WOW. Anthony was very uncomfortable and it was also obvious he doesn’t like Sam. Fair enough these guys are all mates and Greg was one of the founding members but I don’t think they really thought it through and weren’t prepared at all. They should have prepped themselves beforehand because surely they knew that they were going to be asked what happens to Sam. Anthony did not handle that question at all well and maybe they should have had his brother there to handle the big questions. You’re right though, these guys have had 20 years of media training so I don’t understand how they didn’t have scripted answers to obvious questions.
The whole thing has left me very puzzled, Kellie. If I were prepping a client for the interview, that would be one of the first questions we’d tackle.
It’s a rather painful interview to watch, for sure.
Good post and response to this PR disaster for the Wiggles. My goodness, that interview was probably the most awkward I’ve ever seen. I could even bear to watch the end. How is it possible that they weren’t briefed appropriately by their PR firm – or maybe they don’t have one. Anyway, a disaster for their fans. On a personal note, very sad to say goodbye to Sam who was awesome.
Thanks Carolyn. It was begging to be written!
Not sure if it’s true, but I did hear somewhere that Anthony thought they were just going to get on TV and sing. Seriously?
Ella is four years old, so we’re big Sam fans here too. That voice of his is just sublime. We’ll be interested to see what he does from here on in. And also to see what becomes of The Wiggles!
My lord!! In Anthony’s unspoken words – Sam uuuuuh Sam who? Seriously!
Can’t help but keep shaking my head, Robyn. Bizarre situation, indeed!
Couldn’t agree more!
That was one of the worst bits of PR I have ever witnessed and it spread because of social media. If not for FB and Twitter I would not have even noticed….
I agree, Sam came out on top…!
It’s an interesting point about social media, Dorothy. Once Twitter, Facebook etc grabs hold of something like this, it’s hard to stop.
Not a huge Wiggles family here but with an almost 4 year old, I think there are “ways” and “ways” of handling things. Working in event management and marketing myself, I can’t believe this situation from the Wiggles – formerly the Cockaroaches. They seriously need better handling. I will be watching out for what Sam does next!
Anthony said in a newspaper article that he had been up since 4am, so was extremely tired and his mouth and brain weren’t working in sync for that interview. Fair enough. Still, after 20 years’ experience, I’d expect it to be handled a little better.
If I were Sam, I’d be getting a product out into the market as soon as I was able to try and monopolise on all this attention.
I watched the interview yesterday after reading all of the hype and to be honest from what I had read, I had expected the interview to be even worse than it was!
I absolutely believe they’ve handled this pretty badly, but for us, the wiggles were never the same after Sam took over, my kiddos wear Greg fans and I guess I have a soft spot for the original wiggles. I can understand the impact it will have on the littlies though, my kids never really were interested once the “yellow wiggle” changed, and I suspect borderline aged fans will move on also 🙂
I do however respect the fact that Sam was on a contract, I just think it’s silly of them to have not done the change over more smoothly. I would imagine the best case would have been for them to all get together as a group and do an announcement to farewell Sam and introduce Greg to little wigglers, why they would seem so cold is beyond me! Silly move really isn’t it!
Thanks for your comments, Ree. I think you’re right. I saw a lot of Greg fans move on once he left and I think Sam fans may do the same.
Getting together as a group would have been a far better way to make the announcement, for sure. It would have garnered a lot less negative attention.
I think they handled it atrociously. That interview indicated that Anthony didn’t care about another human being’s feelings and that he didn’t even perceive what Sam might be feeling, and that never goes down well. It appeared such an arrogant and selfish decision – all about Anthony and his chemistry with Greg. Demeaning Sam to a mere employee (and admitting it publicly) is not a good look.
Nice analysis here. It’s what I’ve been thinking for the last few days. I followed the Facebook thread on their page from the moment it was announced. I was gauging from the 3500 comments I flicked through (research for a blog post I was writing) that about 80 of the comments were not happy customers! Anthony’s follow up response the next day on Facebook was less than assuring and a little dismissive. Where were the PR people in controlling this avalanche?
The Wiggles certainly done a good job of trashing their own brand this week.
Deb, as I just posted below, I’ve since read that Anthony had been up since 4am and said his mouth and brain weren’t working in sync. Even so, preparation in such a situation means these disasters can be avoided.
Interested to hear your findings from their Facebook post too, Deb. Thanks for sharing that.
Thanks for the update on Anthony. By the way, I meant 80 per cent. My brain and fingers weren’t working in sync. 😉
LOL! Love it! 😉
I saw it on the today show and couldn’t believe it, but it’s interesting to hear everyone’s opinions afterwards. I didn’t get the impression Anthiny never liked Sam; I got the impression that maybe he didn’t even know what had happened! Like it was a decision by others and he had to go along with it, and was on holidays when it was done and that was it.
It was very uncomfortable to watch, and the other question left hanging, was where was Murray?
I think the fact they were on holidays when this all happened is certainly a key point, Jess. I think this is where the PR side comes in, so that all parties are well prepared before going into such an interview. Not sure why they would have done it, without having all the answers well rehearsed beforehand.
On the Murray thing, apparently he was overseas on holidays. I say, lucky Murray!! 😉
I agree with you 100%. There will be kids who don’t know who Greg is, but there were also kids who had to get used to Sam once that initial changeover happened. You can’t please all the people all the time, but you sure can annoy a whole lot of people at once! The Wiggles have, I believe, seriously damaged their brand for the first time in 20 years. Kids will continue to love them but they are not the ones holding the remote and they certainly aren’t the ones forking out money for merchandise and concert tickets. Their excuse that they weren’t prepared for the interview is nonsensical! Even a 5 year old would have asked about Sam -there’s no excuse for the way they came across.
It’s that one question, I think Cathy, that is leaving people so puzzled. Why you wouldn’t have an answer to the Sam question.
I think they’ll have a bit of work to do to get themselves back on track. I’m interested to see what happens from here on in.
Visiting from the business mums blogging carnival – even though I read this when you first posted it, it’s still an interesting one to revisit! I always like hearing your opinions on things such as this Kel!
Thanks Kelly. I so appreciate your feedback and support. 🙂
I can’t add anything everyone else already has except for that this is such a well-written blog and that you are a smart cookie Kellie. Everyone can take a lesson from the Wiggles and from your subsequent blog about how to run their own business – cheers! Alli x
Thanks Alli. You are too kind. x
It’s been an interesting one to watch unfold.
My daughter is a huge Wiggle fan…we cannot get through a day without watching 4-5 episodes! I sing those darn songs in my sleep!! We were very sad to hear about everything that went on with the Greg/Sam fiasco. What I cant understand is that after Greg being back for 7 months he is stepping down AGAIN–along with Jeff & Murray?? What was the point of it all in the end? Why subject themselves to the backlash? Not to mention the children who lost their Sam Wiggle, and the ones that were elated to have Greg Wiggle back…now they have neither!
It’s certainly a strange situation, Krista. From what I’ve read from interview with them, it was Jeff who decided he didn’t want to continue with the group and so resigned. Very soon after (I think maybe the same day?), Murray decided he wanted to go too. At that point, Greg questioned staying around if the other two weren’t there, so announced his departure too. Although, I don’t know that Greg was ever going to be long term anyway. It’s very messy, either way!
It depends on the age of the kids, I guess, but I think some of the older kids will start questioning why the lineup changes are happening. I know my 4.5 year old is. The nearly 2 year old doesn’t really care!! 🙂