Airline Cathay Pacific is making headlines around the world this week after an awkward mistake was made on one of their planes. A Boeing 777-367 was sighted in Hong Kong with the letter ‘F’ missing from their name after a flight from China.
As funny (or “unny”) as this is, there are some good lessons to be learnt for content marketing professionals.
1 – Follow Your Brand Guidelines
Brand guidelines exist for a reason. They ensure that your brand is presented to the marketplace in a consistent and correct manner. Don’t go off on your own and make changes to branding elements, especially the company logo.
2 – Always Take the Time to Spell Check
Accurate spelling and grammar are critical to conveying your message in the way you want. Whether it’s a quick Tweet, a video, a blog post or even painting your brand name on the side of a plane, no harm has ever come from taking the extra time to do a thorough proofread.
3 – Have a Good Sense of Humour
It’s happened to the best of us. You’ve triple checked everything, but an error has slipped through anyway. If it’s something as downright silly as “Cathay Paciic”, then the best thing to do is own the mistake and laugh it off. In fact, showing that your brand has good sense of humour is likely to build a positive association for customers, instead of leaving them focusing on the mistake.
Surely the bigger failure is not learning from our mistakes and those of others. We’re laughing with you, Cathay Pacific, not at you.