United Breaks Guitars

It's back!

Here's another post about the "United Breaks Guitars" case study.

I know I've written about or mentioned it a few times, but this is a new take, looking at other aspects of United Airlines and this viral video.

First: a quick and informal audit of United Airline's social media.

@United has a conversational and entertaining tone on its social media platforms, specifically Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.


As an example, the brand's recent posts have featured their new first class seats.                                                                                                                                                      
The brand tries to be funny and engaging while explaining how the new seats have been improved, and why these features are important.


United is most active on Twitter but does a good job of cross-posting the same content on Facebook and Instagram as well. 

The major campaign images and posts appear on all three platforms, while extra details and more posts will be seen on Facebook as compared to Instagram, and on Twitter as compared to Facebook.

United also does a pretty good job of listening to their audiences and followers on social media.                                                                                                        

Their responses are not generic or boring but are instead tailored to individuals, with the same caring and fun tone as their posts, and are signed by the team member responding.


They respond to comments, posts, tweets, and mentions, with usually only a few hours delay.

Now: what if this video was made today?

If Dave had flown on United Airlines today and complained about his guitar being mishandled, United would probably respond quickly and tried to help him in any way they could.

United's customer support has obviously come a long way in seven years and provides much better customer service today than they did when this video was created. 

Hopefully, the initial complaint would not be ignored or overlooked so he would not feel driven to create the video at all.

But if he did create this video today, in our digital age, I believe it would have received a different response.

The Hispanic imagery might be considered mildly offensive to some people, but that would not affect its popularity to a big degree, as the internet is filled with various degrees of offensive content that is popular.

No, the big thing that would affect this video's popularity is the fact that there have already been so many viral videos.

This video was revolutionary in its time, becoming essentially the first truly viral video.

But today, it could easily be just another funny video.

YouTube is filled with music videos, comedians, social commentary, and mixtures of all three. So while this video would probably garner some good attention today, it would likely not be a viral sensation.

Important takeaways:

Thinkers: Don't be afraid to try something new. 

You never know when your brain child might become huge and inspire multitudes of people, so don't be afraid to be the first.

Brands: Be ready to respond to anything.

Whether or not you believe claims or complaints, it's important to react quickly with a prepared team and a unified front. Even if you're facing a false claim, little things can have a big impact.



Planning to look at other case studies now,

The Purple Writer

Numbers can add up quickly.

Numbers are an important part of our lives and the internet.

We use numbers to keep track of items, assign value to items we produce, and much more, including measuring the effectiveness of a message on the internet.

Now, since you are reading this blog post, you probably know how to use the internet, and have watched videos on or from YouTube.

Did you know you contribute to a metric just by watching videos?

There are various metrics and numbers that are collected by websites and analyzed, but we'll focus on views of YouTube videos.


Each individual view of a video adds up to a tangible number that brands and individuals can use to gauge their success, popularity, reach, and other useful statistics.

Let's look at the video United Breaks Guitars.

Now, that may seem like a normal, kind of dorky song to find on YouTube. However, this was really the first video of its kind on the internet.

The main singer in the song is Dave Carroll. He was flying with United Airlines and his guitar was broken. 

United, which was used to one-way communication with its customers did not take Carroll's claims seriously and just ignored the whole situation.

After 9 months of this, Carroll created and uploaded this video in July 2006. After about a week, the video had over a million views. It was a viral sensation and was shared on Twitter, blogs, and even mainstream media.

Suddenly, United found itself with a problem. 

Instead of going away after some time, this customer's complaint and the way United handled it had exploded and was getting national attention.

Beyond having the vague idea that people around the world were watching this video, United was faced with a metric: the continually growing number of views highlighted just underneath the video on YouTube's website.

This number was a measurable guide showing how many times potential customers saw or replayed a reenactment of how United mishandled the baggage and consequent complaint. 

Today, over 15 million people have watched the United Break Guitars video and 85,000 individuals have liked it.

The number of views attached to a YouTube video is an important metric, especially when accompanied with shares, likes and dislikes, comments, and so on.

Don't underestimate the power of a number.

Off to contribute to YouTube metrics,

The Purple Writer