Astronomer’s ‘intelligent’ PR transfer embracing CEO scandal

The US tech agency whose CEO and chief folks officer resigned after being caught on digicam embracing at a Coldplay live performance has launched a tongue-in-cheek promotional video that includes Gwyneth Paltrow as a “temporary spokesperson”.

In the 60-second clip posted on Astronomer’s X account, Hollywood star Paltrow – who was married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin for greater than 10 years – says she needs to reply “the most” frequent questions the corporate has just lately been requested.

The first of those questions, showing as captions on display, reads “OMG! What the actual f”, to which Paltrow responds: “Yes, Astronomer is the best place to run Apache Airflow”, she ends the reply by claiming the corporate is “thrilled so many people have a “newfound curiosity in knowledge workflow automation”.

When a follow up question asks how the company’s social media team is “holding” after the clip went viral, Paltrow says spaces are still available for a forthcoming conference.

Paltrow signs off the clip, which has been viewed over 27 million times by thanking viewers for their “curiosity in Astronomer”, saying the company will now be returning “to what it does finest”.

“It’s a extremely intelligent video,” Jordan Greenaway, CEO of PR firm Profile says.

“Everyone has heard about this scandal, everybody has seen the video. But for those who’d gone down the road and requested somebody who the CEO of Astronomer was, they’d say ‘the man within the Coldplay video’, however for those who then requested ‘what does Astronomer truly do or promote, they might most likely say ‘they’re type of a tech firm.'”

Greenaway says the video going viral probably won’t have too much of a negative impact on Astronomer going forward, as the viral scandal “would not strike on the coronary heart of the standard of their product”.

He says the company’s goal was to create brand awareness amongst the mass public so the company isn’t just known for the scandal.

“I do know there are some PRs whose default it’s to lean into humour to bridge the scandal and recover from the hump.”

“In most circumstances that does not work.

“But this is what Astronomer is attempting to do in this case,” he says. “Rather than sidestepping things, they’re jumping in with both feet. That’s often a good strategy when a crisis is so big and well-known that you cannot easily duck it.”

Greenaway compares it to the horsemeat scandal of 2013, when horsemeat was found in beef merchandise throughout Europe, and says “it would not have been right to dress that up in humour by posing as a horse, for example, and giving a response”.

“That could lead to your customers saying ‘this is something that attacked the quality of your product, and you’re making light of it’.”

The nature of this scandal provides Astronomer the flexibleness to strategy their response with a bit extra humour as a result of the corporate sells an information service, Greenaway continues.

“They’re not making fun of the quality of their product, they’re making fun of their CEO, who has now resigned.”

But Greenaway says whereas Astronomer can come out of this comparatively unscathed, that is not the case for Andy Byron.

“He and his reputation are a different matter,” he says.

“If Andy Byron had made light of this, that would have been very unfair and very unethical, because he was the one undertaking in the bad behaviour.”

Byron had been CEO of Astronomer for 2 years when he and Kristin Cabot have been caught on the enormous display on the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts on 16 July.

Greenaway says he would have taken “by and large the same strategy,” that Astronomer has had he been concerned in a scenario like this.

“I would have got rid of the CEO sooner. If possible I would have liked to have shown these type of leadership ethics at Astronomer are unacceptable.

“But when it comes to transferring the dialogue again to the corporate, and what it truly does, I do not suppose this can be a unhealthy technique to go about it.

“I don’t know if I would have had the courage to do what they are doing, but I hope I would have.”

Interest in Astronomer, which describes itself as “the best place to run Apache Airflow” – a product not developed by Astronomer – elevated vastly for the reason that clip of its former CEO went viral, with some unverified experiences suggesting a spike of 15,000% in visits to the corporate’s web site.

The firm was based in 2018, and gives providers for firms that need to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Astronomer says it has labored with Apple, Ford and Uber, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Pete DeJoy, co-founder and chief product officer has been appointed as the corporate’s interim CEO, and might a minimum of see a optimistic to all the eye on his firm.

“The spotlight has been unusual and surreal for our team and, while I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

The solely earlier assertion the corporate had made was on X, two days after the Coldplay live performance.

“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability,” it stated, whereas asserting a proper investigation had been launched.

Seeing the second Byron and Cabot hid from the digicam from his place on stage, Coldplay’s Chris Martin stated: “Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy.”

And for those who’re questioning what sort of PR impression this had on Paltrow’s well-known ex-husband and his band, Greenaway thinks it is impartial.

“I don’t think it increases awareness of them… the public at large have one thing in their head, and that’s the Kiss Cam video. That drowns out all the other stuff.”