Paltrow collab a ‘master stroke’ in #Coldplaygate saga

When I first saw the news on social media about #Coldplaygate, I thought Andy Byron was an astronaut. Then, potentially, CEO of a company that trains astronauts? Either way, I had no idea what Astronomer was. But now, thanks to a little help from Gwyneth Paltrow, I do.

On July 16, a scene caught on a kisscam at a Coldplay concert took the world by storm: Astronomer CEO Andy Byron embracing his chief people officer Kristin Cabot.

As the couple immediately tried to hide from the camera, Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin commented on their seemingly unusual behaviour: “Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy. I’m not quite sure.”

An extremely viral moment

#Coldplaygate has played out over the last nearly two weeks and both Cabot and Byron have since resigned from Astronomer. There’s now even rumours that Byron may plan to sue Coldplay – but there’s been no legal filing yet.

The world has jumped in on this moment with gusto with memes, articles and commentary featuring on media outlets across the world, as well as on social media platforms including Reddit and LinkedIn.

For Astronomer, the company was reeling after being dragged into a public relations disaster that was not of its own making, says The Media Lab’s co-founder Antony Young.

“Their initial response was to exit their CEO accompanied with a sanguine statement obviously issued by their PR team: ‘Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.’ Their brand threated to remain a meme.”

Maximum effort

But over the weekend, Astronomer posted a video featuring actor and businesswoman Gwyneth Paltrow as a temporary spokesperson to speak on behalf of its 300-plus employees. Paltrow is, famously, Chris Martin’s ex-wife.

Advertising agency Maximum Effort, co-founded by Ryan Reynolds, has claimed responsibility for the one-minute clip that has since made the rounds on social media. StopPress approached Maximum Effort for comment but we’re yet to hear back.

In the video, Paltrow answers the most common questions the company has received recently. While the questions relate to #Coldplaygate, she uses the opportunity to instead say what it is the company does. Which, as it turns out, is nothing to do with space, but instead: data workflow automation.

Paltrow plugs Astronomer’s upcoming conference then ends the video by thanking viewers for their interest, adding the company will now be returning to what it does best: “delivering game-changing results for our customers.”

Young calls the Astronomer and Paltrow collab “a master stroke”.

“The real hero in this story for the ad agency world is Ryan Reynold’s agency Maximum Effort that specialises in celebrity and social video content that created the Gwyneth Paltrow spot. The agency has an enviable record in making viral hits,” says Young.

“The video for Astronomer released over the weekend on social media has 149,000 likes and over 36 million views to date.”