The recent trending topic that blew up out of proportion with the CEO of Astronomer Andy Byron and HR - Kristin Cabot, that got caught on kisscam at Coldplay concert. That story got a wide media coverage pointing out brilliant reaction of Astronomer marketing team in crisis PR. I'm not a big fan of the conspiracy theory but let's just fantasize... what if that whole thing was a great planned PR campaign to begin with!?! That benefited multiple businesses in one shot?!
Let me break it down. As we all now know (at least by now) Astronomer is a software startup behind Astro, the industry leading data ops platform powered by Apache Airflow. We also have Coldplay - a British rock band formed in 1997!! We all love their songs, but probably forgot it a little!?
And here we go... here is Gwyneth Paltrow - the ex of Chris Martin (Coldplay's frontman). By the way, just a few days after becoming a spokesperson for Astronomer, her new biography book was released. Nevertheless, Ryan Reynolds with his agency Maximum Efforts, well known for loving involvement in viral PR stunts (we remember Peloton, right?) Yes, they're the ones who made the video for Astronomer.
So, as we can see... Coldplay ticket sales went up... everyone is reposting kiss cam videos from their concerts. Astronomer had finally a word to express what their company does- branding overload! We all remembered Coldplay songs and checked all their tour dates! His ex can promote her new book. And of course, Ryan Reynold "to the rescue".
What do you think? Just great crisis campaign or brilliant "well-planned" PR all along?
