Qualtrics Enlists Help of Chief Apology Officer to Highlight Divide between Brands Saying Sorry and Taking Real Action

Too often leaders spend too much time apologising for bad experiences that could easily be fixed or prevented by simply listening and then doing something with the information. 

The new humorous campaign from Qualtrics, created in partnership with creative agency TBWA\Chiat\Day NY and O Positive Films, stars Martin Jones, a self-confessed empathy evangelist. Martin thinks saying sorry will revolutionise the way people do business. 

With this campaign, Qualtrics is showing broken experiences don’t have to stay well… broken. By using simple feedback resources, like the Qualtrics XM Platform, companies can gain the insights they need to find and fix experience gaps –– the difference between what businesses believe is happening and what is actually happening.  

Qualtrics CMO Kylan Lundeen notes: “People are not robots. We are human. And our customers are humans—ones who think and feel and align their experiences with their emotions. Our goal is to develop campaigns humans can connect with and relate to. This campaign illustrates the need for human connection—for leaders to stop apologising, and start taking action to create incredible experiences.” 

TBWA\Chiat\Day NY executive creative director Walt Connelly continues: “Companies are now on multiple platforms beyond traditional bricks and mortar, and with that comes new experience issues for customers, suppliers, and employees. Many companies ignore these problems or invent a new employee title so someone else can deal with it. We found a lot of humour in the number of C-suite titles so we created the Chief Apology Officer. Why fix a customer experience problem when you can hire a CAO to apologise for them?" 

Paid media plan includes a Forbes.com integration, audio digital buys with Spotify and Pandora as well as a number of online placements.