How Brands can deal with challenges as they occur.
In this Future of Engagement episode, Murray Newlands looks at how Adele and the Brit Awards responded to the flak they received for the controversy, and examines the social media buzz about it across social networks.
This episode discusses how to handle potentially brand damaging mistakes – especially when they occur during a big International event with lots of media coverage involving celebrities.
Last week, Adele received a Brit Award for Best Album. The Brit Awards are the British version of the American Grammys, so they’re a pretty big deal for a British artist like Adele. Only thirty seconds into her acceptance speech, she was interrupted by the host, and many people speculated that she was so that the Brit Awards could run more commercials. In response, she flipped off the producers and walked off the stage.
Highlights
- Public support for Adele was strong.
- That support was very emotional.
- Apologies can be accepted if they’re swift, honest, and to the point.
- Saying “We’re sorry if anybody failed to understand what we meant and were thus offended” doesn’t work.
Graph by Alerti social media monitoring and management

This Alerti graph shows mentions across various social mediums for the phrase being tracked.
Steve
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The thing that really freaks everyone out, deep down, is the loss of control. Yup, viewers can flick channels, skip to the web, record and watch later. And in this case, I’m not sure why we’re debating support for Adele. what’s interesting is that the debate fuels discussion. If the channels were smarter, those discussions would be happening on their web properties, not just Twitter and FB.
Businesses should now recognize the real might of social media, in just a couple of seconds social media can proliferate negative publicity to a brand and ruin your business name.
I don’t understand why people are so surprised for the overwhelming support for Adele. She got cut off by the producers during her acceptance speech and she was really pissed, which is completely understandable. her reaction was reasonable considering the circumstances and alot of people can sympathize with her in that regard.
People supported Adele because they felt like she was cheated. Even though she’s a fabulously wealthy singing artist, they empathized with her against Big Music.
That mean how social media can hurt if we use it wrongly but the proper use of social media bring hug traffic and finally i can say social media is very very powerful tool in present.
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We all know how social media can hurt if it is used wrongly. The positive effect is also same. The best part of social media is it can spread your brand to the level that you have never imagined. Thanks for the post, Again your every post are really useful.
It is important that people understand how synergism works. Social media has the ability to work together in such fashion.
Now a days I am driving traffic alone from social media on my blog and literally by following your twitter guides I can see the magic of twitter. Engagement is the key of success once you master this skill you can dominate the social market.
Yes, that news has generated a very weird response, as nobody has anticipated that there’s going to be such a public support to Adele.
M Mark
There is a proverb in Italy that states that being polite is good even in the house of the Devil, meaning everywhere. Now business is business and flashing commercials every fifteen seconds while watching tv is becoming pretty boring. I still remember when there were just three or four commercials during a movie and now there are around eight at minimum. Probably we’ll arrive at a time when we’ll just have to look at commercials and we’ll shut the tv.
Anyway, business or not cutting in this way the speech of a person is unpolite and I’d say pretty stupid as a business approach. But, well, these are times when money comes before everything and being wise is not so widespread. Adele should have lest the award in the hands of the host and leave.
Social media is really powerful. The Adele controversy over the Brit Awards just spread in a matter of seconds especially on Twitter (which is now considered the most powerful of all social networking sites).