Forsyth Barr analyst Guy Hallwright says Telecom's response to the negative reaction was well-handled. "Telecom managed this quickly. They acted promptly. The question is, why did someone think it was a good idea?"
Telecom, although the dominant player in its market, is not above damaging its brand with a wrong move, says Hallwright. "I don't think any incumbent telco brand is bulletproof."
The ill-fated campaign, conceived by Saatchi & Saatchi, was insignificant compared with the past few tough years Telecom has had with the break up of the business, says Hallwright.
Julian Smith of consultancy BRR, which developed the Icebreaker brand with Jeremy Moon 14 years ago, says Telecom was trying to achieve some "wit and discourse" around the brand.
Vogel's Bread has done it in a way which worked quite well through its tongue-in-cheek TV ads, he says.
"One of the key things to look at in both adidas and Telecom cases is the consumer was not as well-considered, and the fallout was as a result of that."
Communications consultant Orly Jacobson, of Insync Corporate Communications, says the important thing to remember when a marketing campaign goes wrong is to "'fess up" as quickly as possible. "[Telecom] handled crisis management well."
Something on Telecom's side is the fact it is a Kiwi company, says Jacobson. "They got it - the abhorrence that the public were feeling."
But adidas was slow to address things. "The company would not talk, they started to look stubborn, they thought it would go away."
Mike Lee, senior lecturer of marketing at the University of Auckland, says there is a "heightened sensitivity" in New Zealand at the moment, with a conviction that more of the world is watching us than ever before.
A more appropriate idea for Telecom would have been a marketing campaign where it gave free phone calls to a country that had just lost to the All Blacks at the Cup, suggests Lee.
Probably the worst brand crisis for New Zealand has been the SanLu powdered milk scandal, says Lee. This was a big test for SanLu's 43 per cent shareholder, Fonterra. "The fact that it happened offshore was a saving grace. If it happened in New Zealand, it would have been unthinkable," he says.
And when a brand is under attack, it creates an opportunity for the competition, Lee points out. When Cadbury was mired in controversy over its use of palm oil, Whittaker's came out with an ad which emphasised the fact that it didn't use palm oil and its chocolate was made in New Zealand.
"Things don't happen in a vacuum. What's one brand's mistake is another brand's advantage," says Lee.
So what makes a good marketing campaign in the current climate? Mike O'Sullivan of creative consultancy Drago5 says a campaign is much more than just one TV ad.
Agencies should be integrating social media, offers, innovations and TV advertising to connect with the consumer. If an ad does not tick the box, the agency should move on and introduce something else. It should listen to consumer responses and act on them.
"You need to be clear about the objective ... [and] talking to consumers on lots of different levels," says O'Sullivan.
"Social media is a good one; it can decide your fate. People like honesty. The more transparent the brand is, [the more] people will connect with it."
Air New Zealand, ASB and 2degrees have managed this approach well, says O'Sullivan. 2degrees, through humorous and engaging TV ads and use of social media, among other initiatives, has become a challenger brand.
Air NZ uses a mix of advertising, social media and offers like grabaseat for its marketing, he says. "They experiment quite a bit, they feel quite connected to New Zealand consumers, they understand what they want."
Another local name did well out of the adidas fiasco - Rod Duke, owner of the Rebel Sports chain, thanks to his very public protest about the cost of the All Black jersey, says Tim Morris of the consultancy Coriolis Research. Duke discounted the jerseys in Rebel Sports stores to show his empathy for customers.
In doing so, Duke emulated similar French and British retail marketing campaigns, pointing out to the general public that that they were being ripped off, says Morris.
