Here’s why this fails from a marketing standpoint, Yes, it’s true to a degree that “just get my name in the papers” , but there is also the Streisand effect. It’s a double-edged sword.

I’m going to bring out my former marketing head of a major non-profit card here.

Let’s look at it in a more nuanced fashion. Who was targeted for this campaign? By a rough look around I’m seeing a lot of people who are identified as “WordPress Influencers” but are they and/or a significant number of the folks they routinely encounter Wix’s target market? I’d argue, no. based on seeing a significant number of enterprise agency owners, heads of highly successful plugin shops, folks who are deep in the security realm…I could go on…these are not the droids you are looking for. They should have aimed at solopreneurs who help the DIY folks who have a little more cash. Hell, they should have REWARDED their current high end users and asked them to be their spokes people. Your next customer YOUR CURRENT ONES!

Let’s look other parts of this campaign. Anyone else finding it problematic that that there is one women in this campaign? Anyone else see the only POC are in two ads: in ad 1) they have been reduced to a blip where they slap each other silly in a plugin fight; in ad 2) we meet the Spanish speaking stereotype from hell. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I was left wondering who in the bloody hell greenlit this did they miss the entire BLM and MeToo movements, does is elude them that the Latinx community is the fastest growing demographic in the US? And this is before I get to Asian representation of any kind, I mean it’s not like that’s been in the news steadily for THE LAST THREE WEEKS or annoying. We’re they absent the day buying power, rising entrepreneurs, and demographics were taught…looks like it.

Next up for kicks and giggles, this is a brand that tweets once since April 1st and then 6 times in an hour today. You’ll find a similar dearth of content on their other social media outlets. Check out the comments on those posts and the vast majority are not good. That’s not a marketing strategy for a major brand, that’s throw some shade at the number one market share and let’s see what happens. I don’t think these folks would know a SWOT campaign if it ran up and bit them on the backside.

In short this is a travesty of their own making with dubious ROI at best.