How Globe Screwed Up Its PR Mileage by Spending Almost Half A Million Pesos Just to Force Smart to Make Money Off It

Source: www.asmartrock.wordpress.com

One of the telecommunications company in the world, Globe Telecom Philippines, has consistently fouled up its PR nightmares by mismanaging its, well, communications.

First, it wasn’t too long ago when Globe got entangled with the wit of Professor Solita Monsod, an eminent UP Professor, economist, and media personality when Prof. Monsod wrote a scathing column against the customer service of Globe.

After several days of silence, Globe finally responded with its own version of the truth via its Communications Director, using words and phrases like:

We regret that there may have been several unavoidable circumstances and a convergence of many factors that led to the delayed resolution of their concerns.

Convergence of many factors?

I’m sure the mass-based readers and followers of Prof. Monsod got that message right.

But at least that reply is certainly more Einstein than the recent snafu of Globe yet again. Globe decided to run a promotional campaign focusing on a foreign artist, which it has done so in the past. So far, so good.
Never mind the continued complaint of both prepaid and postpaid Globe subscribers regarding its terrible network coverage. As long as they’re putting up promotional concerts, they think, they’re good.

And after patting themselves on their collective backs, they decided to up themselves by sponsoring a concert junket for their lucky subscriber to an Alicia Keys concert in Madison Square Garden, New York City

Now this definitely takes the cake.

Prepaid users are targeted for this campaign: Two (2) Round-trip tickets to New York City, Two (2) Front Row (18th row) Seats to Alicia Keys’ concert, and Hotel Accommodation in New York for Two (2).

Imagine that.

They’re now aggressively promoting a high-end event to a very low-end market. But to add serious hilarity on the entire campaign, they raffled off the tickets to the winning recipient of Globe calls. The first winner did not pick up the phone. So did the second. And the third. And the fourth. Until the fifth finally received the call.

We have a winner. So far, so good. Unfortunately, the winner had neither a passport nor a US Visa, two important elements required for anyone to visit the United States of America to watch an Alicia Keys’ concert. But as a consolation, Globe did say that the prizes were transferable. And transfer the winner did.

The recipient of the winning junket got the prize and took the opportunity to fly out to New York. According to sources, Globe did not even bother to ascertain if the “new winners” are Globe subscribers as well. After all, you wouldn’t want to spend so much money on a contest where the winners are not even your subscribers and, worse, belong to your competitors.

Thankfully, however, the two had Globe lines and even requested that their international roaming services be opened and extended. Globe informed them that they should do this in writing with the specific approval of the president of the company to which they belong. This, they did.

But further to advancing to the missed opportunities of Globe, they also failed to take this rare photo-op of sending off their “winners” to the States, pronouncing to the entire country how much they value their subscribers.

By the time the two winners arrived in New York who, in a way, have become Globe’s Brand Ambassadors, get this: the international roaming service of Globe was not working.

The two sent another letter to Globe requesting to activate their roaming services, twice, to no avail. So not only did Globe miss out on a great PR opportunity, they also missed out on sales, in terms of recovering the investments they’ve made on the contest and, at the very least, from the two they sent out to space.

Meanwhile, the two were using the SMART Phone international roaming services and have already racked up Php 12,000, EACH.

In other words, SMART had a free ride on Globe’s contest and made money off it.

Now isn’t that pretty SMART?