So you may have seen if you’re on Facebook there are some sponsored ads on the right from Heineken or even ads in the middle of your news feed that advertise some music festival they’re running:
Click on the ad and you are brought to their website for the event. It asks where you’re coming from on their Irish site after directing you there. Uhm. Hello?
There they ask you for your details including your age and country you’re from. Data they have easy access to on Facebook. They make you re-register all over again for their events when a simple app on Facebook which only those above 18 in Ireland or 21 in the States can see. Dopes.
I’m sure there’s a massive drop-off rate too. Why not create a fan page on Facebook which you can restrict to people of certain ages and message all of them about events through the website they are using on a daily basis and having fun on? You need to go and market where the people are, not go there and drag them away to another site and putting a barrier in front of them when you drag them over. This is not a dog show, the people are not your dogs that you can drag around an obstacle course and making them jump through hoops and run through tunnels.
Wasted opportunity there.
I think you just spec’ed the next step of their ad campaign on Facebook. And for free!
I think its a legal requirement of all alcohol companies to ask for age when entering their site and obviously some countries have stricter alcohol laws too. Not exactly going to put off under-18s though is it
web 1.0 : Web Property / Website / Solid
web 2.0 : Web Vagrancy / Widgets / Gas
In fairness you can understand how a BigCo might be fearful of the transition from one state to the next.
Damien, aren’t you usually all for companies dipping their toes in the waters of what we are forced to call ‘social media’?
Don’t you think posts like this could discourage companies from trying stuff out for fear of being given a highly visible dressing down online if they are perceived to have done it ‘wrong’ or made a mistake?
@Frank I gave a constructive solution to what they should have done. If a post like this discourages Heineken by being honest about what they did and what they should do, then maybe they should add an extra layer of cotton wool when the cheerleaders don’t come out for their other initiatives. How would you approach the emperor and his lack of clothing?
Edit to point out tone after re-reading: I’d genuinely appreciate your view on how you’d approach it.
Hey Damien, I’m not sure I would approach it – except to do as you have done in the past and try to write tutorials on how it is done properly.
Otherwise aren’t we getting into a ‘someone is wrong on the internet’ type infinite job of posting blog posts pointing out mistakes?! 😛
I suppose if I felt really strongly I might try to drop the most relevant person I could find an email, or utilise other personal contact I might have to make my opinion known.
I wondered upon reading it, as adiman mentioned, whether Heineken were obliged to look for that information on their own site, regardless of what they might be able to ascertain from another domain.
But the real issue for me is not Heineken or the specifics of this post, but the fact that a lot of bloggers have a go at those who they perceive to get it wrong, thereby creating an environment which can be perceived to be quite hostile.
Companies I have come into contact with are reluctant to poke their heads above the parapet for fear of coming under fire. If they stay safe in their old skool tower they don’t bring a blogstorm on themselves.
I have also spoken to a lot of others in the industry who relay similar stories.
I know we have quite different approaches to this kind of stuff, but I guess that’s why it’s interesting to discuss this area with you as we have in the past.
I’m thinking this through as I type, so apologies if it’s somewhat garbled, but if you did wish to post on this specific campaign, is it necessary to title the post with a brand name and ‘badly done’ or to use ‘no clue’ in the post?
Isn’t it possible to offer constructive criticism without being negative?
I know you may at this point laugh at my nicely nicely approach, but wouldn’t it be possible to congratulate Heineken on tapping into FaceBook and go on to offer some possible ammendments to their campaign, thereby getting your points across in a manner less likely to be offensive to Heineken, and more importantly less likely to be offputting to companies considering getting into the whole game.
I’m equally genuinely interested in whether you’re laughing your ass off at my response or whether you think it’s worthy of even a moment’s consideration! 🙂
Unfortunately for my brain I take your opinions quite seriously and they are prone to change my viewpoints and reactions to things. Mr. Brain doesn’t like that but he suffers on. So yes, I see your point and it’ll be in my brain the next time I start drafting a post in this area.
And there was me expecting the ROFL response.. 😛
Back to work with me so, thanks for the interesting distraction from it!