Warning: this publicity stunt may contain publicity stunts
I really don’t get people sometimes…
Well, most of the time. This human race of yours is baffling.
Earlier this long weekend, my girlfriend and I were short-listed for the chance to win a night at the Terrace Hotel as part of their current #SocMedSleepover campaign. For those not involved in the Perth Twitter echo chamber, this campaign offers the people of Australia the opportunity to be one of the first few to stay at this soon-to-be-opened boutique hotel. Rooms are limited (there are only 15 rooms in total) so the marketing team at The Terrace are trying to cover a decent cross-section of the social media community. 10 rooms are to be given away to people such as food bloggers, ‘influential’ Twitterers, fashion writers etc. A handful of these rooms will be given away in future competitions open to the entire public.
This type of marketing isn’t unusual – it’s pretty much the standard when it comes to Social Media. Tempt people with the loudest voice in their sphere of influence with freebies and let them do all the publicity for you. To spice things up, Terrace Hotel decided to short-list some potential candidates and have them battle it out in a popularity competition. It worked quite well for the food bloggers, with the delightful Perth Munchkin winning a room so Terrace Hotel decided to up the ante and put myself and @ikacy up against @devar, @kitta, @richardgiles and @lu_lu. Between the 6 of us we have almost 30 years of combined Twitter experience and almost 25 thousand twitter followers. @Lu_lu has been heavily involved in the Perth Twitter scene since it’s inception, @richardgiles has been tied up with on-line communities in one form or another since the ’80s, @kitta has been blogging for almost a decade and I have buried myself deep in the Internet community since I was 13 – I am now in my 30s. You’d think that we would be good candidates for this kind of competition…
This is the part of the story that things go all sour.
A small handful of people took offence to the fact that people were being hand-picked to stay in the hotel as well as provide free publicity. They decided to voice their opinion quite vehemently online, fuelled by rage and backed by flawed facts.
The actual facts are this:
- Terrace Hotel already ran this style of competition to no fanfare with food bloggers – why should this be different?
- 4 rooms have been given away so far – there are plenty more up for grabs.
- A handful of these rooms will be available to win by any member of the public. Perceived social influence will not be a factor in the contest.
- They could have given freebies to ‘Perthonalities’ but chose not to.
- This isn’t a 400 room hotel. Giving away ALL the rooms to random contest winners would be a bad marketing choice.
What disgusted me is that @freocookster put his neck on the line for this Social Media campaign. He isn’t getting paid for the effort he has put in and the entire campaign has nothing to do with his employer. Unfortunately he has become the human face to The Terrace’s Twitter account even when he has no control of it. But the people of Twitter decided to revolt, pointing fingers and publicly criticizing him for the publicity stunt. The discussion was heated and even descended to personal insults towards Freo’s character.
Guys, what the fuck? Chill. He’s one of us.
Many of you know that I can be a complete and utter dick when I see a Social Media campaign go wrong. Look at the recent Grill’d campaign and Qantas, I tore into them like a rabid pitbull. But in this instance, I just don’t get it – why take it out on Freo? He’s just a nice guy helping out with a marketing campaign. The bloke has done a LOT for Perth’s Twitter community over the past few years. Sure, a lot of it was part of his job but he isn’t the type to plunder on the naiveté of the public for financial gain.
Yes, this was a publicity stunt that capitalised on a perception that certain people are more influential than others, but the community isn’t stupid – the Hotel had a very clear goal and everyone can see that. Its nice to see that for once I’m involved in a Perth Twitter controversy where I’m NOT the bad guy. I must be losing my touch…
This is just an innocent campaign for a small Perth Hotel. They don’t have a budget or marketing team like InterContinental Hotel Group so they’re making do with what they have.
What do you think? Is my judgement clouded since I’m part of the whole thing? Are people overreacting? Does this really matter? I have a comments doohicky below if you wanted to voice your opinion or somethin’…
C’mon Perth, you’re better than that. Well, no – I guess history seems to repeat itself.
- love, hugs and kisses, your pal grum.