Greggs the Bakers hit the headlines towards the end of last month after it was seemingly scuppered by a misfiring piece of Google code. However, the way the firm responded to the search engine giant’s perceived epic fail certainly didn’t crumble.

Users searching for information about Greggs towards the end of August 2014 found themselves presented with a rather ‘alternative’ ‘official’ company logo for the brand.

Anyone searching for  ‘Greggs’ would have found the first page of the results presenting them with what seemed to be the genuine corporate logo. However, closer inspection would have revealed that there was a new strap line attached to the familiar orange and blue logo, which gave a less than favourable and somewhat vulgar review of both the baker and its customers.

Instantly going viral, and with the ‘new’ image shared across every social network, the Newcastle-based firm’s boardroom was no doubt a place of some sour expressions. However, Greggs’ digital brand manager Neil Knowles stepped in and, rather than getting all corporate, tweeted a photo of a tray of doughnuts, alongside:

“Hey @GoogleUK, fix it and they’re yours!!! #FixGreggs”

Less than half an hour later, Google responded:

“Sorry @GreggstheBakers, we’re on it. Throw in a sausage roll and we’ll get it done ASAP. #FixGreggs”

The banter continued, with Knowles tweeting an instant reply:

“We love you Google!!!!”

Having solved the issue, the Google team responded with:

“That’s all done now @GreggstheBakers, #FixGreggs is now #FixedGreggs.”

That was not the end of the conversation though, as Knowles then cheekily asked for a Greggs/Google doodle the following day, complete with a picture of ‘Google’ spelled out with sausage rolls.

Google took time to respond to this too, tweeting an almost identical image, with the sausage rolls replaced with just a few crumbs; exclaiming:

“Whoops! Sorry @GreggstheBakers. #FixGreggs #FixedGreggs #AteGreggs.”

It just shows great corporate strategy and actions can certainly rise to the occasion and turn a potentially bad piece of PR into a creative and funny publicity campaign.

John Murray

John is every inch the wordsmith and loves a game of Scrabble above all else. With experience writing for newspapers, John’s time at university was spent studying Creative Writing – something which comes across in his love of the pun.