OPINION: How StarHub turned around its mascot adoption scandal

There are sufficient examples of brands that buckle under pressure when managing, or mismanaging, social media crisis situations. When handling a social media crisis, the best scenario is for a brand to manage the situation so well that no one actually notices the crisis. It takes invested and proactive efforts to prevent early stage issues from becoming full blown disasters.And that's exactly what StarHub did. StarHub successfully turned a potentially volatile situation on social media to end in its favor.On 10 March, Mothership.sg reported that it had spotted StarHub’s celebrity dog Sparky was up for adoption on local popular pet portal Pets Channel. It was also revealed that the tremendously popular mascot was re-homed twice in the last two years.Despite her universal appeal, her original owner’s husband did not appear to be fond of the dog and was released to run free on her own.For StarHub, such a situation would have greater implications to its brand.It seemed like StarHub had abandoned the original Sparky, who had won many hearts, to a miserable fate after successfully promoting the StarHub brand more than 10 years ago. Moreover, fueled by social media and general consumer sentiments, this situation could quickly go out of control with sympathy mounting for the ill-fated dog mascot.This article was read and shared actively on Mothership.sg.Fortunately for StarHub, it had invested substantially in proactive listening capabilities as part of its social media monitoring lab. Proactive listening requires listening beyond the confines of the brand community itself.This means that conversations related to StarHub, but not necessarily directed to the brand, was monitored.It gave the brand an opportunity to react to situations before it develops further into negative territory. StarHub leveraged on both technology and its consumer base to highlight this volatile situation to its attention.By 11 March, barely a day after the story was reported, StarHub responded to the article. Unlike conventional methods, StarHub chose to reach out to the community of Mothership.sg on Facebook to update the situation. It seemed that StarHub had been quite concerned about the fate of Tracy (the real name of Sparky) and had not reported its adoption at the request of its new owners in February.The brand had also gone the extra mile sending a care pack to the Animal Lovers League and Tracy’s new family. This reassurance was not limited only to the fans at Mothership.sg, but also across all the social media mediums that carried its news including StarHub’s own Facebook Page.By 13 March , comments from across all the social media platforms were largely favorable, with the public having been assured of the fate of the iconic StarHub mascot. The brand had successfully turned this situation in their favor, becoming a brand that cares. Not everything is business, and that everything related to StarHub is its business.*Full disclosure: Blugrapes consulted for StarHub earlier to build their social media crisis management strategies, processes and competencies. However, Blugrapes does not manage its social hub, which managed the situation above.The writer is Ryan Lim, business director of Blugrapes.