I don't get this story. They were asked to wear a samsung t-shirt. That's not how shills typically work, isn't it typically, pretend you're independent, give good review, rather than, pretend you're part of our PR team?
Why would it benefit Samsung to have random Indians bloggers demoing devices in Berlin?
Something about this story doesn't make any sense.
I'm almost certain this must have been a communication issue within Samsung. Someone got it in their head that this group was hired to promote their product and told subordinates to deal with the group.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
There's no way that threatening someone to leave them stranded in a foreign country is the result of "miscommunication". This behaviour on Samsung's part is simply despicable.
Even if the bloggers had agreed to work for Samsung, and then changed their mind, holding return tickets ransom would not have been an acceptable course of action.
There is no way that this is explained by stupidity, this is malice in its purest form.
Mmmm, how about stupidity followed by malice? Pure malice doesn't make sense. What's so valuable about using foreign bloggers to stand around with phones instead locals?
I'd say Negitivefrags's guess is good. Something like that might have happened, and then when the bloggers didn't co-operate with the misinformed boss, the nasty stuff started.
Sounds like Samsung wanted to hire some freelance product publicists on the cheap covering only room and board but they made it sound like they were sponsoring the bloggers. I guess they were trying to skew the labor & tax laws. It backfired when the bloggers didn't want to play along with the wink-wink game.
If they wanted to do that they could've just sent samsung devices to the bloggers at home instead of bringing them out to a show. I think that's what most tech sites typically get.
I'm guessing that program is a way to get some free workforce (at the price of hotel/tickets) to demo Samsung products - like independent - but carefully selected and instructed by Samsung, of course - fans of the product instead of regular (and probably more expensive) marketing people. Just like ads where "regular people" read the script instead of professional actors - supposedly it makes the message so much more authentic.
Unfortunately, the bloggers were not told about the nature of the program and thought it is entirely different thing where the company invites independent journalists to write about their product. It totally makes sense to me that two branches of marketing don't communicate properly and get vastly different ideas about what the program is and then poor bloggers left at the whim of erratic and not very smart petty manager that threatens them when things not go as planned. For me, this madness totally makes sense in a general way things don't make sense in big companies.
Samsung told them that, over the course of the event, they’d “have to be in uniform, in the Samsung booths, every day. Showing the products to members of the press.”
That's not just "wearing samsung t-shirt". That's not what bloggers do.
P. S. I think that if you chose to piss off some people, then bloggers, whose main visible activity is conveying their thoughts to general public, is one of the least smart targets available.
Comments
I don't get this story. They were asked to wear a samsung t-shirt. That's not how shills typically work, isn't it typically, pretend you're independent, give good review, rather than, pretend you're part of our PR team?
Why would it benefit Samsung to have random Indians bloggers demoing devices in Berlin?
Something about this story doesn't make any sense.
I'm almost certain this must have been a communication issue within Samsung. Someone got it in their head that this group was hired to promote their product and told subordinates to deal with the group.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
There's no way that threatening someone to leave them stranded in a foreign country is the result of "miscommunication". This behaviour on Samsung's part is simply despicable.
Even if the bloggers had agreed to work for Samsung, and then changed their mind, holding return tickets ransom would not have been an acceptable course of action.
There is no way that this is explained by stupidity, this is malice in its purest form.
Mmmm, how about stupidity followed by malice? Pure malice doesn't make sense. What's so valuable about using foreign bloggers to stand around with phones instead locals?
I'd say Negitivefrags's guess is good. Something like that might have happened, and then when the bloggers didn't co-operate with the misinformed boss, the nasty stuff started.
Just speculating, but someone probably thought
"If they're not going to help us promote the brand, why should we pay for their plane ticket? They can just buy their own"
...without considering that the bloggers might not be as flush with cash as they are in their corporate world with expense accounts.
I'm quite a fan of the expression "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
But I'm sorry, threatening to leave a blogger (and then carrying this out!) with little money stranded in Germany is most certainly malicious!
Yup, miscommunication and possibly also cultural issues. A nice way of assembling an ad-hoc multi-lingual promotional team, though, if done properly.
Sounds like Samsung wanted to hire some freelance product publicists on the cheap covering only room and board but they made it sound like they were sponsoring the bloggers. I guess they were trying to skew the labor & tax laws. It backfired when the bloggers didn't want to play along with the wink-wink game.
Perhaps to prevent them seeing demos of anything else and reviewing them too?
If they wanted to do that they could've just sent samsung devices to the bloggers at home instead of bringing them out to a show. I think that's what most tech sites typically get.
Good point. Still very strange.
I'm guessing that program is a way to get some free workforce (at the price of hotel/tickets) to demo Samsung products - like independent - but carefully selected and instructed by Samsung, of course - fans of the product instead of regular (and probably more expensive) marketing people. Just like ads where "regular people" read the script instead of professional actors - supposedly it makes the message so much more authentic.
Unfortunately, the bloggers were not told about the nature of the program and thought it is entirely different thing where the company invites independent journalists to write about their product. It totally makes sense to me that two branches of marketing don't communicate properly and get vastly different ideas about what the program is and then poor bloggers left at the whim of erratic and not very smart petty manager that threatens them when things not go as planned. For me, this madness totally makes sense in a general way things don't make sense in big companies.
Samsung told them that, over the course of the event, they’d “have to be in uniform, in the Samsung booths, every day. Showing the products to members of the press.”
That's not just "wearing samsung t-shirt". That's not what bloggers do.
P. S. I think that if you chose to piss off some people, then bloggers, whose main visible activity is conveying their thoughts to general public, is one of the least smart targets available.