Canada Post promotion disappointment at TIFF

It’s been a really long time since I’ve blogged on PR Passion-ista (apologies!), but something happened this week during TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), that gave me some inspiration for a post.

Last Tuesday I was waiting in line at the Elgin theatre to see Damsels in Distress at the Visa Screening Room. I noticed a few promoters going up and down the line – there were guys dressed up as old fashioned photographers, and girls going around with iPads. One girl in particular approached the woman in front of me in line, and began to tell her about this promotion Canada Post was doing – did she want a free limited edition postcard, or a chance to win tickets to another TIFF film. The woman was really rude to the promotions girl, and I felt bad for her, as I know how tricky it is to get people interested in your promo and get them to sign up for whatever it is you’re selling. Then the promo girl approached me and asked if I wanted to enter to win tickets. I said, “sure, what does it involve?” She said all I had to do was login to Facebook either on my smartphone or the iPad she was carrying, “like” the Canada Post Facebook page, and post on their wall that I was in line at the Elgin. Normally I don’t like signing up for things, but partly because I felt bad for her since the other lady was so rude, and partly because I had about an hour to kill before they started to let the line inside the theatre, I said sure why not. She walked me through the process, all in all it took about 10 minutes, but I figured the prize was pretty sweet. Fast forward half an hour later, another promoter says “hey do you have Facebook on that thing?” (meaning, my Android). I said yes, and he proceeded to tell me about the contest again “all you have to do is like our page, and post on our wall” I said yup, I’ve already entered.

The next day, I logged into Facebook to see if  Canada Post announced the winner of the TIFF tickets. I thought my chances were pretty good, as only four other people posted on their wall. Instead, I see the following message from Canada Post:

I was a bit puzzled at this. Not once did either promoter mentioned that one of the components of winning these tickets involved finding them at the Elgin. Normally I would just drop it, but I was really irritated because I felt like I was lied to or something. How can you hold a contest and tell people incorrect entry information and expect to get away with it?  I replied to the thread and this is how the conversation went:

First of all, the team was NOT telling people to find them in line. Doesn’t that defeat the entire purpose of having the promo reps carrying iPads for people to enter in? How would that even work, would a promo person come up to us, tell us about the contest, get us to enter on their iPad, then they walk away, then we just turn around and call them over again? It seems redundant and nonsensical. Secondly, it wasn’t just myself who didn’t “hear” the rules of entry – a couple other people mentioned they thought they would do a draw on their Facebook page. Thirdly, I’m pretty sure that Facebook doesn’t allow public pages to hold giveaways on their page – I’ve worked on numerous Facebook contests for different brands at work, and we’ve always had to build contest tabs or find other ways to give away tickets.

Kudos to Canada Post for responding, but I’m still really irritated at the miscommunication of both promoters. Next time you hold a contest or giveaway, make sure your promo team is giving people the correct information. Not only is it annoying to have to go through more than three steps to enter, but to have your entry void because you weren’t properly informed is not cool.