Brand disaster a blessing in disguise?

Hi,

Here is a case where a disaster achieves one of your marketing goals:

The thoroughbred racing industry is in turmoil with the Spring Racing Carnival in Sydney cancelled because of equine 'flu. But the industry has suffered for years from public and political ignorance of its size and importance, according to the industry leaders I interviewed during a brand audit for TAB Limited several years ago. Now the 'flu disaster has made the facts painfully public: the Spring Racing Carnival was expected to turnover $1billion. A study in 2001 revealed the industry was worth $8billion annually. The cost to the NSW racing industry is estimated to be around $40 million in TAB turnover for the first 72 hours of the crisis alone.

So it's a costly way to achieve a marketing objective. But it should be calculated into the equation.

Cheers!

Michael

PS. A mate of mine Malcolm Martyn emailed me to say my reference to Interflora and my dearly departed father probably started a word of mouth/viral campaign that will boost Interflora's sales! Another cloud with a silver lining?