Well, they did and I did. I ran to the train with recent purchase in hand, my mouth watering at the anticipation of the wonderful flavor and luscious mouth feel of Ciao Bella dulce de leche gelato. I’m a big fan of gelato and dulce de leche and of this brand in particular.

Sadly, when I started wolfing down (did I mention I was hungry?) the gelato, I was unpleasantly surprised by the quality of the product. It wasn’t sweet. Its texture was more grainy than velvety. It just wasn’t very good. I was quite disappointed because I had never had a bad experience with this brand before. So I decided to whine about it.

I took out my phone and tweeted:

albertoferrer Usually lovely Ciao Bella dulce de leche flavor gelato today not so much. Bland, a little rancid, even some ice cristals. Sigh.
8:39 PM Feb 4th from txt

About an hour later, a fellow fan of the Ciao Bella brand tweeted:

mindytweets @albertoferrer ohhh, fail!! Try the blackberry cabernet flavor, yum!
9:41 PM Feb 4th f rom UberTwitter in reply to albertoferrer

I got home and thought nothing more about the incident. That was until I had some free time the following week and checked my Twitter feed more closely. There I found this tweet, from the Ciao Bella folks:

CiaoBellaGelato @albertoferrer Oh NO! Sounds like a remelt issue. Please call our office or email info@ciaobellagelato.com and we will handle it. sorry
2:58 pm Feb 5th from TweetDeck in reply to albertoferrer

I was floored. These guys had not only picked up my tweet, but they had tentatively diagnosed the issue and responded with (1) a promise to make it right and (2) contact information. And that was done in less than one working day. I was also thrilled.

Following their instructions, I emailed the company, explaining the situation with the tweets above pasted into the body of the email. This was on a Wednesday afternoon. The next day I received an email reply from Justine DeRose at Ciao Bella.

She apologized for the incident, which clearly was not their fault (it was the retailer’s), explained in more detail what might have been the cause of the issue, and asked for the code at the bottom of the package so they could better look into the matter. She also offered a coupon for a free pint.

The explanation was great, as it directed any questions I might have about the product away from the product itself. Asking for the code on the package also was great because it suggested that they’d really look into the matter (“these people are serious about the quality of their gelato!” I thought). And of course the free pint coupon was just icing on the proverbial cake: unexpected and delightful.

I replied to the email saying that I no longer had the packaging but letting her know where I had made my purchase. She then asked for my address and mailed me the coupon. I received the free pint coupon this weekend.

Since this situation transpired, I have visited the Ciao Bella website several times (that’s where I was able to put a face to the name of the person at Ciao Bella who was actively engaged in resolving the issue), I have looked for stores that carry their product beyond the stores I usually frequent, and I even tried to buy a pint online. I’ve told the story to several people I know and they’re all impressed with how quickly Ciao Bella handled it, how positive the experience was, and how big an advocate for their brand I’ve become. And now I’ve written this post and will tweet about it.

Was that customer service? Was that marketing? That’s for another post. But from the perspective of a consumer, it doesn’t matter. It was done very well and it will pay off for Ciao Bella. Kudos to them and special thanks to Justine.

Update:
Within an hour of my tweeting the link to this post, Ciao Bella re-tweeted it with a thank you and responded here with a comment by Deborah Holt, their VP of Marketing.

This time, the research study mentioned by author Brian Steinberg hails from IAG Research and found a few interesting tidbits of information. First and most concerning is that “people who use DVRs have one-third less general recall of commercials than people who watch the ads on live TV.” That’s right: one third. That’s in stark contrast to the finding by the NBC Universal TV Research folks that says that the drop in ad effectiveness in households with DVRs is slight. “Consider the source,” I said before.

According to estimates by Interpublic’s Magna Global, DVR subscribers will number almost 40 million (34% of US households) by the end of 2011. Further, the article notes that “already, a Nielsen study of the 2006-2007 TV season finds that ‘nearly all the viewing declines in live TV can be attributed to the increase in DVR use.’ And that’s with 97% of prime time viewing still occurring live.” That’s not an insignificant impact for a device that is currently in about 20 million homes.

As I’ve said before, it is incumbent on us to figure out how to get our consumers to engage with our message before it’s too late. The days of disrupting and interrupting the target to feed her our message are quickly coming to an end. Enter the days of getting consumers to seek out your message. That’s a paradigm shift that few are prepared to surmount. It’s about using other channels but also about using all channels (yes, even television) differently. Are we ready?

The research study’s second finding noted by the article is that contrary to conventional wisdom, the place for your TV spot to be is not the first position in the pod, but rather the last. Ad recall in DVR homes was found to be highest for those that run last in the commercial break. Why? I can tell you from personal experience. It’s easy to notice that a commercial break is starting (and thus you hit the fast forward button on your TiVo remote) but it’s difficult to figure out when it ends (especially when in fast forward mode). Since I don’t want to miss any part of the show I’m watching, I tend to stop early and catch the last spot in the pod.

Can last-in-pod positions exclusively be bought? At least in the general market, that’s a delicate situation. Networks have tended to parcel out first and last positions across clients to keep everyone happy and not rock any boats. What will happen when everyone starts clamoring for last positions? Perhaps we’ll end up with many more commercial breaks (kind of like the Oprah show) that are one minute long, offering only first and last positions to advertisers.

A third finding that may spark some controversy according to the author can be summarized as “creativity works.” As the article puts it, ads with more “‘creative’ flair tend to be better recalled by DVR viewers.” The author notes that this finding dovetails nicely with the network executives position that while they have to figure out a way to address these issues, advertisers have to do their part by improving their ads.

I also addressed this point in an earlier post on the DVR issue. We have to give consumers what they want, what they will seek. Great creative will find an audience or an audience will find it. It’s encouraging to hear that great creative is still very much a critical part of our craft. The bar continues to be raised, though, and it’s up to us to keep jumping over it time and time again.

You can read the article in full (heads up: subscription may be required).