Twitter contests: Am Ex trip to Jumby Bay
Blogging/Journalism — By Chris on February 20, 2010 at 10:43 am
Getting customers to do your marketing for you is the mantra behind corporate social media these days. And among the travel industry, it seems, no PR offering is more effective than a Twitter-based trip giveaway.
In the past few months, I’ve seen travel companies jump on the bandwagon with some outstanding prizes. Orbitz, for example, ran a Tweets for Tickets promotion several times last year where they gave away airline tickets to anywhere in the continental US. Celebrity Cruises just finished a campaign where Twitter users were asked to tweet their reasons why they should be chosen to sail on a preview cruise with the line’s new ship, Celebrity Eclipse. The practice has become so prevalent that About.com has written a roundup of prizes that readers have won.
The latest travel contest, from American Express, has quite a prize: roundtrip airfare and 4-nights of all-inclusive accommodation at Jumby Bay, A Rosewood Resort. You read that correctly - Jumby Bay. The 300-acre private Caribbean island where celebs such as Leo DiCaprio and Hilary Swank have gone to get away.
Great, you say. Sign me up! If you are interested in entering, follow @americanexpress on Twitter and tweet this message once before 11:59pm ET on Monday, February 22, 2010: “Hey @americanexpress, I want to take my tweetheart (insert your sweetheart’s first name here) on the ultimate romantic getaway. Pick me! http://bit.ly/bFgMGU #amexTravel”
Entering contests like this is so easy, in fact, that I’m tempted to do so myself. But here’s the dilemma with these contests, at least from a blogger/journalist point of view. I want my readers to know about such promotions so they can take advantage of them. So writing about them is safe territory. Taking advantage of them myself? It definitely wouldn’t be allowed in a newsroom. So I’m torn (and choosing “no,” for the time being).
What do you think? Should journalist/bloggers participate in Twitter giveaways? Or am I overthinking this?
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8 Comments
I actually just won a trip to Rwanda via Twitter! But I (and my fiance) are with you: If us bloggers/journalists continue to give this kind of promotion away for free, what’s going to happen to advertising? It sort of dilutes our personal brands in a sense. I like doing giveaways on my blog but have started to say “no” more often than “yes” as I’m just essentially a free ad for the company. I tell them they’re welcome to buy ad space, but I won’t be doing any pro bono promotions.
(That said, I totally Tweeted the above statement, heh.)
Kristin – I saw that you won that trip, and I think it’s great! (and I can’t wait to see your content from the trip). In some ways, I think that Rwanda promotion is different, because it was specifically targeted to bloggers, whereas the American Express one is open for everyone. But you are right – asking us to promote these contests is just another way for us to advertise FOR them, without the company shelling out any money for our own ads.
You’re not in a newsroom anymore, Chris! I say enter the contests. Heck, yes, I do. Think about it — if I (or you) win, we’ll blog and Tweet about it. Extra PR for the company/resort/hotel/cruise ship giving away the prize. They should be thrilled such a prize would go to a blogger/travel writer.
I do hear you on the “Will you help promote this contest/deal on my site?” type of requests. We at The Vacation Gals get them all the time. We are very choosy about what we do promote. Quite frankly, if any of us has a personal relationship with the company or PR person — if we’ve met them in person or traveled with them — we’ll typically help them out with promotion if it’s a product/destination we like.
It’s a you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-usually-scratch-yours type of blogger/PR world these days I find.
I know, Kara, you are right — I’m not in a newsroom anymore. So the old rules don’t necessarily apply. But…but…but…I spent 20 years following those rules. And so abandoning them isn’t going to happen overnight. You’re absolutely right, it would be good for me AND the company AND my readers if I won a giveaway. Mmm…Jumby Bay photos on the blog…equals fabulousness!
I guess that while I’ve forged some fantastic relationships with PR people in the past few years, I”m still a little leery of labeling what I do “scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” Even if that’s what often happens in practice, I feel like I need to have some sort of separation in my own mind because I’m used to operating on a more independent basis.
I think I need a new blog: The Recovering Journalist. Or the Angsty Blogger….:)
Hi Chris,
I think we are bringing up some great points here, and as the PR/journo/blogger landscape changes with social media, so may the rules of the game. But, the big ones remain the same.
From the PR perspective, it is great to work with freelancers and journalists who are able to experience our product – a resort, an island, a cruise, a new restaurant, etc. I respect that some publications do not accept free trips and would not approve of freelancers taking freebies either. But, some of these more expensive experiences would be out of the question for freelancers, so part of my job is to make it as easy for select journalists to experince the product. I would never want to compromise a writer’s ethics.
I say if you really want to experince a place and your audience would be interested, the PR team would be willing to help. Media rates can be a reasonable way to pay your own way if you don’t feel comfortable with contest giveaways or FAM trips. And I agree with Kara – your audience and the destination would both benefit from a travel blogger winning a trip.
~Caitlin
@TravelPRgirl
Caitlin –
Thanks for weighing in and bringing your perspective. I’ve made my peace with press trips, for the most part. I did the Marriott “Bloggers in Paradise” promotion in December and felt like that was a good experience. I got fantastic content for my blog, my readers loved it – at least judging from the follow up questions I heard from them about St. Kitts – and (I think?) the PR agency was satisfied. So that was a win-win, with no pressure involved on either side. I would definitely participate in other FAMS, if the possibility for great content that would benefit my readers was there (and heck, Jumby Bay would certainly qualify!) And I do ask about media rates now, as it’s almost impossible for me to travel otherwise.
The Twitter contests are a bit murkier. In a blog post, I have a chance to disclose and tell people who is picking up the tab. In a Twitter 140-character contest, I’m just flat-out promoting the company line, even down to the words they put in my mouth. So it seems a little different to me. But I’m not judging the people who have done them. As Kara says, I’m not in a newsroom anymore so I have the chance to figure out what works and what doesn’t work for me – and I fully expect that to change over time (as the media landscape is for all of us!)
Chris, trust me I struggle with this all the time in the mix of work I do every day. Which hat am I wearing today? Magazine writer, web copywriter, blogger, marketer? I cobble together freelance work as I can get it and entrepreneurial work because I love it, but it does result in major line blurring.
I think about if I were a newspaper reporter or a corporate staff writer and that was my only job, and how “clear” my head would when it comes to this. But I sure as heck *never* want to spend 40 hours in an office ever (ever!) again.
New world, new world!
I wish I was able to have seen this in time to participate. I would love to goto Jumby…