Photo taken from Google Images.

Normally the words free would have a stampede of crowds coming in.

This was not the case for U2, when Apple decided to gift 500 Million of their ITunes users the U2 album Songs of Innocence this past week. The reaction to this gift was less than positive. Most users were surprised and there were an overwhelming amount of negative feedback on social media. A few examples of people’s reactions to the U2 album were “How do I delete this U2 trash off my phone” and “Thanks iTunes but I actually really don’t want this U2 album. Have it back.” There was so much negative feedback that Apple had to create a new troubleshooting page to help Apple users delete this album off their phones. More on this topic here.

Why did this digital marketing campaign go so horribly wrong?

There was a complete lack of consent.

The biggest issue that arose was that iTunes users had the Songs of Innocence album forced onto their accounts without their awareness.

Customers demand their privacy more than ever. This article The New Anti-Spam Law in Canada talks about the new anti-spams law in place to protect customers from commercial emails. The new law stresses that companies obtain consent from customers before they are able to send them emails.

While iTunes did not spam their customers with emails, the forced album download took it a step further.  I myself was taken aback when I found this album already in my phone. Not only was this campaign poorly received, the lack of positive feedback can imply that it was a complete waste of resources.

Photo taken from Google Images.

The effort and work U2 put into producing this album was wasted. The quality of the music is completely overshadowed by this marketing stunt. The intent of this campaign was to hopefully spread U2’s music to increase their popularity but instead people will only remember the U2 album Songs of Innocence being automatically downloaded on their iPhones.