Turns out it’s a data science company that helps “observe data pipelines.” Most people have no idea what that means, and frankly, they didn’t care.
But after their CEO, Andy Byron, who is married, was caught on a kiss cam with his “Chief People Officer” (who isn’t his wife ) at a Coldplay concert, everybody knows who they are now. The moment could have faded quietly, just another awkward pan on the jumbotron, but they froze. Looked guilty. Then Chris Martin riffed from the stage:
“Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
And just like that, the company no one was watching went viral.
This Was Their Super Bowl Ad
They didn’t buy airtime. They didn’t script a CTA. They just got caught in a moment that was messy, human, and full of tension.
This wasn’t a brand campaign. But it was marketing. The kind people actually talk about.
You Don’t Need Permission
You Don’t Need Polish You Need People to Give a Damn
As Alex Bogusky once said in a conversation with Lee Clow:
“When someone does something with the Burger King mask on, like hold up a liquor store… in a way, maybe that’s good. I’m not sure that’s good.”
Bogusky understood that attention, even the uncomfortable kind, has value. That’s why CP+B’s creative briefs always focused on tension. What makes people squirm? What challenges their assumptions? What sparks a real conversation?
Most brands avoid that. Astronomer walked right into it. And suddenly, everyone was watching.
At The Next Wave, we’ve always said great marketing must do two things:
Create Lust • Evoke Trust.
Astronomer nailed the first part. The intrigue. The gossip. The viral moment. But trust? That cracked.
When your CEO and your HR Chief go viral for all the wrong reasons, it’s not just a personal mistake. It’s a professional crisis. And the worst thing you can do is pretend it’s not happening.
What They Should Have Done
If we were working with Astronomer, we would have told them to own the mistake immediately. Fast. Direct. Human.
Not with legal disclaimers. Not with silence. Not with a corporate line about “personal matters.”
We would have helped them release something like this:
What Astronomer Could Have Said
Headline: We Work With Data. This Week, We Learned From It.
Body: We believe in transparency, especially when it’s uncomfortable.
This past week, a personal moment between two of our executives became public. While the attention wasn’t about our work, it has understandably raised questions about our culture, our leadership, and our values.
We owe you clarity and action.
The individuals involved were our CEO, Andy Byron, and our Chief People Officer, Kristin Cabot. Their lapse in judgment has had a real impact on our team, our reputation, and the trust we’ve worked hard to build.
After internal discussions and personal reflection, both Andy and our Kristin have stepped down from their leadership roles, effective immediately.
They will not be leaving the company. Both bring deep institutional knowledge and valuable expertise that can still support our mission, just not in executive positions. Astronomer is now identifying new leadership that reflects the culture we are recommitting to.
We are also bringing in an independent firm to review and strengthen our internal policies. This isn’t just about one moment. It’s about building a more resilient and transparent organization.
At Astronomer, we’ve always believed in the power of observing and learning from data. This week, we’re applying that lesson to ourselves with humility, honesty, and intent.
Thank you for holding us accountable. We intend to earn back your trust.
~ The Astronomer Leadership Team
What Comes Next
Once the headlines cool off, the real work starts. Trust doesn’t rebuild on its own. It takes consistency, clarity, and leadership that isn’t afraid of the truth.
In 60 to 90 days, Astronomer could reintroduce itself with a soft brand campaign. No gimmicks. Just clarity.
Here’s how:
“We observe data. And we’ve learned to observe ourselves.” “Data reveals patterns. So does leadership.” “We’ve updated our dashboards. Internally, and externally.” “What we monitor most now: ourselves.” “Trust is our next release.”
That’s how a company gets back in the game. Not by hiding. Not by spinning. But by owning what happened and showing that it made them better.
Because when you go viral for the wrong reasons, your next move is everything. And if your agency isn’t ready for that moment, you need a new one.
At The Next Wave, we help brands build trust before and after it breaks.
Key Strategic Recommendations
1. Acknowledge, Don’t Evade. You can’t bury a kiss cam moment that got international attention. Attempting to “no comment” this invites memes, not mercy.
2. Show the Decision, Don’t Just Talk About Values. Immediate resignations signal seriousness. Kicking it to an “internal review” while everyone laughs online undermines credibility.
3. Preserve the Brand, Not the Ego. Andy Byron isn’t the brand. Astronomer’s trust with clients and investors is. Leadership turnover is painful, but necessary here.
4. Humanize the Fall, Without Excusing It. Lean into the idea that this is how people learn, painfully, publicly. It’s the heuristic cost of bad judgment. The old sports adage about it’s not how you fall, it’s how you get back up is what matters.
5. Reinforce Culture With Action. Introduce a third-party audit of company culture. Reaffirm HR policies. Make the next hire someone known for integrity and transparency.
6. Make a Quiet But Smart Marketing Pivot. In 60 to 90 days, if the storm settles: A soft brand campaign that nods to what happened, without exploiting it.
“We work in observability. That includes ourselves.” “Data reveals trends. Transparency reveals truth.”
Update: Well, Astronomer went big, and released this ad starring Gwyneth Paltrow (wife of Chris Martin of Coldplay) that refocuses the message back to what they do, instead of what their former employees did.
The work by Ryan Reynolds ad agency, Maximum Effort, which states on their “aboot” page (Reynolds is Canadian, eh) “Maximum Effort makes movies, shows, ads, investments and cocktails for the personal amusement of Hollywood Star Ryan Reynolds. The simple ad has racked up millions of views, but still has a way to go to surpass the viral nature of the kiss cam debacle. While no one has said how much this star power cost, the reality is Chris Martin and his wife may realize that Chris inadvertently helped destroy two fan’s lives, and didn’t want their innocent co-workers to suffer. In the grand scheme of things, this was a noble step in the right direction for Coldplay to help re-direct the conversation.
Do little kids still want to grow up to be police officers in America? By the time they’ll be old enough for the job, they’ll have seen a constant stream of news of police officers making major mistakes and causing significant damage to their professions reputation.
If Police in America were a major airline, which killed random customers daily and “accidentally” do you think they’d still be “flying the friendly skies?”
Reputation management is something we do at The Next Wave. This would be a major challenge, up there with getting kids to stop smoking, or people to trust a brand again after a major fail. We believe we need a national conversation to take place about what it means to “serve and protect” and being an “officer of the peace” looks like in 2021.
One thing we’re certain of, showing up in military gear to a legal protest is probably not the best way to diffuse the situation. We put together a series of posters/memes to try to show how ridiculous this has become. Note, we don’t own the rights to these photos, nor do we have permission to use them. However, since it’s educational and for public criticism of the new “trade dress” of police in the US- we believe it falls under fair use.
Are police making a fashion statement? Jonathan Bachman for Reuters
If this is how far the balance of power has shifted, police have failed. Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Fear is a horrible motivator. Photo by Roscoe Myrick | Flickr/CC BY 2.0
We believe it’s time for a national re-training of the police in this country, It’s time to re-examine what service police are here to provide and it’s value and values. When protesters say “No justice, no peace” what does that mean?
Can you honestly tell little kids that being a police officer is still a desirable job when they will hear stories of police shooting people in their garages, holding a subway sandwich, or in a raid in the middle of the night, or even when an officer comes “home” to the wrong apartment and shoots it’s occupant? The common thread- is the victims are Black. I’m not linking to any of these stories or naming names, because to do so is actually minimizing the scope of the problem. It’s happening way too often, way too frequently, and that’s the basis of our call for a rebrand and some reputation management.
It starts with public perception. It starts with how you come dressed to the party. It’s time for reform.
A recent reviewer of a RFP/RFQ response wrote this in the evaluation/scoring:
Plan provided is NOT a marketing plan it is a Operational plan. RFP is for Marketing not a replacement of the Administration.
People who think marketing is something separate from operations shouldn’t still be in business anymore. That myth should have gone away a long time ago. Wisdom from Leo Burnett should be a good starting place, and he died in 1971.
“What helps people, helps business.”
“Before you can have a share of market, you must have a share of mind.”
“We want consumers to say, ‘That’s a hell of a product” instead of ‘That’s a hell of an ad.'”
“The sole purpose of business is service. The sole purpose of advertising is explaining the service which business renders.”
“The greatest thing to be achieved in advertising, in my opinion, is believability, and nothing is more believable than the product itself.”
Considering the potential client runs a service business, funded with tax dollars, and is getting a failing grade on every count, (a local school district) a new operational plan and way to communicate the new way of doing business is the key to changing perception and their fortunes.
Marketing does not exist in a vacuum, it’s interrelated to everything a business does. Looking to management guru Peter Drucker, who died in 2005, we find yet another quote:
“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”
If that doesn’t tell you that an operations plan is marketing, you should reexamine your boss credentials.
Everything a business does, reflects upon its brand. And the brand is a story that the world tells each other, based on what they think they know about it. Apple, Nike, Google, the great brands- have a story that people can share without a whole lot of prompting- and for the most part, it’s a positive one. Sure, each has its detractors, but overall, the Q-score and the buzz line up with the company vision and goals.
To me, Apple started out as a “bicycle for the mind”- a tool to exercise your further your ideas and to help you share them. Nike reached into the competitor in all of us, and gave us an uplifting mantra- “Just do it” and Google, knew long before the rest of us, that with great power, came great responsibility and stated that their goal was to “Do no evil.” It’s take over a decade for most people to understand the power that Google had harnessed.
Click to download a printable PDF
Great companies do great things and communicate those things often and consistently. But here’s the key- it’s not through words or ads- “actions speak louder than words” should be the mantra of every ad agency across the globe. Doing good is doing well. Talking about yourself is just talk, and often times, boorish.
Need an example of actions speaking louder than words? I was at a minor league hockey game last night. I’ve been around hockey for at least 50 years, playing and watching. In a freak instance, a players stick was flung into the stands, and a fan caught it. Granted, sticks can cost as much as $300 these days- but, the team had the nerve to send down a team official to take the stick back. The crowd booed for at least 5 minutes. Considering the home team was down 2 goals, the players had to wonder why they should be trying their hardest to win- when they were getting a steady raspberry. Would a marketing-centric company dare to ask for the stick back?
The story that the fan will tell now is “I got hit by a players stick flung out of the rink” and they came and took it away. Or, the proper response, “I got hit by a stick at a hockey game, while sitting in my seat, and they came and checked to see if I was OK- and offered to let me come down after the game and get it signed by the entire team.”
Kmart is a brand in search of itself. It’s needed saving for a long time. I can’t recall a reason to go there, and my significant other can clearly tell you why she never will again.
The brand is troubled. It’s hurt Sears too- they became part of the same company when a financial wizard who knew nothing about retailing, but “saw value” in the real estate that came with the company.
No matter how much money Kmart could spend on advertising this holiday season, they couldn’t have bought the positive PR they’ve received in this area with “anonymous donors” paying off layaway accounts. From the Dayton Daily News:
Kmart stores across the region report that anonymous donors are paying off the remaining balances of layaway accounts of strangers in a showing of holiday generosity.
Kmart store managers in Trotwood, Fairborn, Beavercreek and Riverside said unknown visitors are acting as secret Santas and spending hundreds of dollars to cover the layaway bills of complete strangers, especially people who are late on their payments and who are in danger of having their orders canceled.
Most of the donors also look to pay off come-due or past-due layaway accounts that contain toys or gifts, hoping to prevent some area families from having an empty space beneath their Christmas trees.
“They are looking for layaways with children’s clothing in it and toys in it to try to help out families that might be in need,” said Ron Monmaney, store manager of the Kmart in Riverside. “It must be the season.”
On Saturday, two unknown individuals spent more than $1,000 at the Riverside Kmart to pay off the layaway accounts of six strangers. Monmaney said the customers were “elated” to find out their orders were paid off, and they were touched by the gesture.
On at least five occasions in the last two weeks, unknown individuals walked up to the layaway counter at the Kmart in Beavercreek and paid for the accounts of strangers who were late on their payments or who were struggling to make them, said Jerry Campana, the store’s manager. He estimates the mysterious Good Samaritans spent at least $800.
“I think it’s truly amazing,” Campana said. “The best part of it is they are not doing it for any kind of recognition … they are just going out and doing it out of the goodness of their hearts and for people they don’t even know.”
The random acts of kindness started earlier this month at Kmarts in Michigan, but stories of the activity spread through news coverage and online, and it is now taking place all over Ohio and the country.
When you look at Kmart shoppers and realize that the people using layaway are at the absolute bottom of the income spectrum, the idea that put stuff on layaway with the hope that some “wealthy donor” will pay it off works the same way that buying a lottery ticket does: building an unrealistic dream. Is there any tool more used in advertising?
Supposed Kmart decided to invest between $3K and $5K per store in “anonymous donors” - compared to spending it on TV ads nationally. With 1,382 stores nationally, at $4k per store: that works out to $5.52M, which is a 2.5% of a 2009 budget of $224M. The payback in free mentions of this “feel good” story far exceeds what paid media would achieve.
For every question I get about the wonders of “web 2.0” it’s rare that we hear clients ask “what can I do to make my customer happier?” Will a mobile version of your website make them feel better about the washing machine they just bought? No.
It comes down to customer service- and understanding that the best marketing is outstanding customer service- “marketing as a service.”
Amazon got it when an ad agency suggested they spend at least $30 million a year on ads- and instead they decided to give their customers free shipping (of course, once they started into their own products like the Kindle- they had to start advertising).
One has to credit Crispin Porter + Bogusky for taking on Domino’s Pizza- and not only telling them that the quality of their pizza is the problem (they probably told VW that being below average in the JD Power car quality charts wasn’t helping sales too) but getting the company to pay money to tell customers that their pizza did suck, but it’s better now:
You can spend all the money on marketing you want- just remember, if your product or service is less than stellar- good advertising will only kill your product sooner.
That’s the beauty of web 2.0, not, when you screw up, someone will tell a lot of people- either on your site, where you can respond and try to fix it- or on anyone of millions of other sites, including their own- where you may or may not be able to respond. If you haven’t set up Google Alerts on every product name, company name, key people in your business- you may be finding out the hard way when things are going wrong.
If there is one place we need customer service 2.0 it’s government. Unfortunately, most politicians and bureaucrats think they are immune from finger pointing (although they’re all aces at it). The rest of the nation already understands the value of open, honest communication, unfortunately we’re still doing government with rules from long before the information age.
If you want an in your face take on customer service, I give you Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library speaking at SXSW (parental advisory for naughty words):
As a parting thought- thanks to Gary- it also doesn’t hurt for your company to have a personality either. Try reading “Personality not included” by Rohit Bhargava- it’ll wake you up to what kind of service is possible with personality.
There is no “App for that” when it comes to customer service- it all comes from the choices leadership makes. Advertising or free shipping? Quality product or lower pricing? A warranty that customers can believe in, or a legal trap to play gotcha?
Customer service should be first on everyone’s mind, everyday, because there is an app to tell the world when you screw up- you’re looking at it now. Comment below at will.
A local newspaper does it. Puts a non-inclusive list of pizza shops online and runs a poll for “best of the city” pizza. This will grant “bragging rights” for the next year as “This cities best pizza.”
Now, pizza is a very subjective subject- some like it with thin crust, some thick, some believe in wood fired and others like deep dish. The “contest” is really not about the pizza- but about the paper driving traffic to their site and selling ads.
But, it can have real effect to the winners and the losers. The winner get’s bragging rights- and possibly a business bump. The losers all get ticked off. Next thing you know, you’ve lost a subscriber, a reader, or respect from the pizza aficionados who really know pizza- all because the contest wasn’t really a contest, but a popularity contest- and with internet voting, for the most part- a very imperfect system that can and will be gamed. Bragging rights for pizza is one thing, but a contest for a hybrid school bus takes this to another level. This is a real prize and required the students to invest time in creating a video/work of art to compete. Now, you’ve asked for free labor (crowd sourced creative) and then left the “judging” up to whomever can rig the system best.
We will choose the top 10 finalists, then all of America will be invited to vote online for the ultimate champion. Students of any age can enter (although a parent or teacher will need to sponsor students under 13 years of age). Group or class entries are also encouraged.
There is no requirement to watch all 10 videos before voting, no way of verifying without a doubt that voters are actual voters. It’s not like the Superbowl ad meter- which is a more scientific system, although not perfect by any means.
While all the voters may actually be made aware of your new hybrid bus, the 9 losers won’t be happy. And, does the stunt of the contest really advance your brand? Or does it alienate the losers it creates?
Contests for contests sake are fine, but once you tie in user generated content and ask people to do your work for you- make sure that the user gets more benefit that you do. Considering YouTube is the second most important search engine- consider requiring key words or links to a page that you want to have at the top of search- instead of allowing it to be a popularity contest open to all- have a real panel of judges to filter the final entries- and allow all the other entrants to judge the finalists- with a random prize for those who take the time to review the top finalists.
Just like you wouldn’t bet the farm on a spot that tested well with bad methodology- why run a contest that way?
Unless you like being tagged #FAIL by those who believed in your contest in the first place.
