Pepsi Takes its Eye off the Ball and Gets a Black Eye
There are plenty of painful examples of brands inadvertently ticking off consumers with botched promotions, but when you mess with New York Yankee fans you’re really asking for trouble.
A Pepsi promotion to give away 250 pairs of tickets last Thursday to the historic opening day game at the team’s new stadium and to promote its Pepsi Max beverage turned into a disaster.
The average price for a ticket at the new stadium is more than $75, making a decent seat at the game beyond grasp for many loyal fans. So people came in droves, lining up at the announced location hours in advance in the hope of being close enough to the front of the line to get some tickets.
That’s when the trouble started.
First, Pepsi admitted that it didn’t have the right permits to distribute the tickets and at the last second changed the location of the giveaway from 44th and Broadway to 47th and Broadway. All those people who had arrived early and waited patiently had to make a mad dash across the street (and that’s no easy feat in Time’s Square) and were now just part of a mass crowd growing angrier by the minute.
Then, somehow, the wrong information had gotten out about the tickets being offered, Nicole Bradley, a Pepsi spokesperson said. So the 250 pairs of tickets promised for the opening day game suddenly turned into 100 pairs, most to a game in June. Consolation prizes of Pepsi posters and T-shirts and Derek Jeter bobble head dolls did not mollify the crowd.
More cops were called in when the people began shouting “Pepsi Sucks! Pepsi Sucks!” and dumping their cans of Pepsi on the street. The media picked up on it and the bitter bloggers hit their keyboards.
Another big campaign promise was the appearance of Hall of Fame pitcher Goose Gossage. He did manage to show his face and wave to the crowd from the car before being whisked away in fear of the mobbing crowd.
The Daily News quoted a 31-year old woman from Manhattan as saying, “I could care less about June 2nd. I thought they were for today. They were misinforming the public.”
It remains unclear who was responsible for this event, Pepsi or an agency, or both, but it seems inconceivable that a company like Pepsi, with all that marketing muscle, talent and expertise, could let a program fall so completely apart in so many ways.
Pepsi tried to quickly make amends. It took full responsibly and last Friday renewed the ticket offer through a promotion with WFAN Sports Radio (NY 660 AM). The company gave away 500 regular season Yankees tickets, 250 pairs, and a coupon for a 12-pack of Pepsi Max to 250 of WFAN’s listeners, Bradley said.
“All we wanted to do was make fans part of the celebration, giving away free Yankee tickets and Pepsi-Cola products, but we blew it,” Bradley said.
The fiasco generated a lot of bad press and ill will for the brand and reinforces what should be a mainstay in every marketers’ tool box: Never take your eye off the ball.
April 21st, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I have directed several clients to this post because it once again shows the importance of my dictum - ‘proper planning prevents piss poor performance.’ Clients often fall in love with an idea and want immediate execution. This is what happened to Pepsi. After the fact there is always time for blame and recrimination. Unfortunately the damage to the brand has already been done. Taking the time to plan and ensure that everyone involved knows their role and all the possible contingencies may be a pain in the ass - but it is the only way to guarantee an event turns out as expected and achieves the business objectives sought.