> Samsung expects you to do things at these events and you get your trip and stay for free in return, sometimes a little cash on top. Noone wants to use the word work, for all the red tape this would create...
Legal? - possibly. Ethical? - not to me. How is this not evasion of labor laws? That this is par-for-the-course is pretty dismaying.
It's not as bad as it sounds. It's targeted toward students that are tech-savvy. You get a free trip to an international destination that you otherwise most likely wouldn't have a chance to travel to with people that share your passion.
It can be a lot of fun if you know what you're signing up for.
I know her and have talked over FB to her personally. Her experience was terrible and can only be attributed to the pressure Samsung was putting on their PR people. Being one of the main sponsors of the olympics is expensive, so they were most likely throwing a lot of pressure around and people weren't able to think things through... too bad.
I'd love to know what labour and Visa laws they violated if they were forced to work in a stand. It's very clear that they were going to report on the products, not work for Samsung for absolutely nothing!
> Legal? - possibly. Ethical? - not to me. How is this not evasion of labor laws? That this is par-for-the-course is pretty dismaying.
Surely Samsung aren't doing this for the work -- there have to be cheaper ways to get people to demo your product than flying folks from India to Germany, getting them uniforms, keeping close watch on their activities, daily update emails in the beginning, etc.?
Why not just have their own employees do it? Or just pay native German bloggers?
It sounds to me like Samsung was trying to buy enthusiasm, but failed to adequately communicate the work involved and then massively overreacted when it went wrong for them. With decent management, it could have been better the alternatives -- the 'booth-babe and slimy salesman' or 'bored employee droning through a script' approaches.
I still prefer Apple's approaches to product demonstration -- either a big on-stage demo followed by relatively unsupervised hands-on time for a large number of reporters at once, or a personal demo by a senior executive for certain lucky individuals.
I don't see a problem if somebody voluntarily agrees to tell how he likes Samsung phone (especially if he genuinely does like it - why not?) in exchange for free ticket to the trade show. It may be not the best marketing trick ever, but certainly by far not the worst either. The fact however that people were misled into this and then threatened was really bad. If they knew it from the start I would have no problem with it whatsoever.
Comments
> Samsung expects you to do things at these events and you get your trip and stay for free in return, sometimes a little cash on top. Noone wants to use the word work, for all the red tape this would create...
Legal? - possibly. Ethical? - not to me. How is this not evasion of labor laws? That this is par-for-the-course is pretty dismaying.
It's not as bad as it sounds. It's targeted toward students that are tech-savvy. You get a free trip to an international destination that you otherwise most likely wouldn't have a chance to travel to with people that share your passion.
It can be a lot of fun if you know what you're signing up for.
Yes, work can be a lot of fun if you know what you're signing up for. But let's call a spade a spade.
If it's anything like this woman's experience (http://int13.net/france/blog/i-won-a-contest-to-go-to-the-lo...), I don't think they would have had much fun. Especially if they knew what they were signing up for.
I know her and have talked over FB to her personally. Her experience was terrible and can only be attributed to the pressure Samsung was putting on their PR people. Being one of the main sponsors of the olympics is expensive, so they were most likely throwing a lot of pressure around and people weren't able to think things through... too bad.
I'd love to know what labour and Visa laws they violated if they were forced to work in a stand. It's very clear that they were going to report on the products, not work for Samsung for absolutely nothing!
you know what you're signing up for
This should be EXPLICIT from the beginning
"It's targeted toward students that are tech-savvy"
Newsflash Samsung, Bloggers != 'tech-savvy students'. It may overlap, but don't count on it
> Legal? - possibly. Ethical? - not to me. How is this not evasion of labor laws? That this is par-for-the-course is pretty dismaying.
Surely Samsung aren't doing this for the work -- there have to be cheaper ways to get people to demo your product than flying folks from India to Germany, getting them uniforms, keeping close watch on their activities, daily update emails in the beginning, etc.?
Why not just have their own employees do it? Or just pay native German bloggers?
It sounds to me like Samsung was trying to buy enthusiasm, but failed to adequately communicate the work involved and then massively overreacted when it went wrong for them. With decent management, it could have been better the alternatives -- the 'booth-babe and slimy salesman' or 'bored employee droning through a script' approaches.
I still prefer Apple's approaches to product demonstration -- either a big on-stage demo followed by relatively unsupervised hands-on time for a large number of reporters at once, or a personal demo by a senior executive for certain lucky individuals.
I don't see a problem if somebody voluntarily agrees to tell how he likes Samsung phone (especially if he genuinely does like it - why not?) in exchange for free ticket to the trade show. It may be not the best marketing trick ever, but certainly by far not the worst either. The fact however that people were misled into this and then threatened was really bad. If they knew it from the start I would have no problem with it whatsoever.