Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Last Minute Travel Travails - or how not to run a promotional campaign

Last week LastMinuteTravel.com, a website specializing in discount hotel and air fares, launched a tantalizing online promotion dubbed the "World For $1 Sale". In order to introduce people to the revamped website, the company (LMT) promised to run a 15 minute booking window each day (from January 26th - February 6th) during which site users could book a room in any of their 15,000 hotels for $1 a night. The catch? Users would have to decipher a series of clues in order to determine when those 15 minutes would occur.



The campaign went off without any major glitches the first two days, but as the promotion gained steam (it received coverage by several major media outlets: CNN, CNBC), the initial excitement soon turned to frustration and outright anger due to a number of seemingly avoidable problems such as:
  • Improperly timed email messages: After keeping everyone glued to their computers all day on Thursday, LMT sent out an email at 10 p.m. CST reading "You didn't miss your chance today because the sale hasn't happened yet" only to retract that email 2 hours later.
  • Ever-changing terms of service agreements: Thus far the TOS have changed 3 times, each time getting longer and specifying new restrictions. Another piece of confusion: Although the sale states that winners will pay $1 per day, they are actually charged $0. This raises questions of whether or not to consider the promotion a sale or a contest (and carries important tax repercussions).
  • Banning of auto-refresh and auto-fill browser plug-ins: As of yesterday the company has banned the use of auto-refresh plug-ins that keep reloading the page (i.e. check4changes, changeEvery). Note from LMT: "The World for a $1 Campaign was designed to give an equal opportunity to all individuals to make a booking during the Campaign, and therefore, the success of the Campaign requires that we forbid the use of automated devices and/or software. You may attempt to make a booking the “old-fashioned” way – by watching our videos that contain hints, logging onto the site, and checking the clock." These plug-ins were not banned earlier in the competition and the TOS were changed yesterday to add this new restrictions. Funny side-note: the LMT clue videos show computers auto-refreshing the hotels page while the video protagonists are asleep or have their hands tied to the bed.
  • Punishing crowds for pooling resources in a chatroom: In true Web2.0 fashion, Internet users started pooling resources by creating a forum to discuss clues, provide support to one another while waiting for hours, and most recently launching what may be the world's first silent chatroom meant to alert people when the sale came on. At the height of the wait last night, the chatroom hosted about 2,000 anxious Internet users. It seems LMT responded by randomly opening booking windows for individual users, rather than opening the sale to everyone at the same time.
  • Chopped up time segments: Rather than running 15 minute booking windows, the company has been running two 7.5 minute or three 5 minute windows. To complete the booking they also made users watch several promotional videos thereby complicating users' ability to complete the booking. (See forum for discussion of other allegations such as timers counting down to zero much faster than they should, videos looping endlessly, etc.)
  • Contradictory clues: One clue read: "Knowing when NOT to look, is as important as knowing when. Monday-Friday, The World for $1 will only happen between specific hours. While Kevin and Janice sleep in their Manhattan apartment, you need not worry about missing your chance." The video showed the couple sleeping from 11:52pm to 6:02am (EST), yet on day 3 and 5, the sale ran during the wee hours of the morning)
  • Limited hotel inventory during the sale period: Internet users trying to book hotels during the sale have reported only limited availabilities - especially with regard to 4 and 5 star hotels which are said to disappear during the sale.
Internet users who sat in front of their computers for hours on end yesterday reacted less than favorably to these change of terms and technical problems and have created a PR nightmare for LMT. Should the company have seen this coming? Absolutely. If people can trample a Wal-Mart worker for a sale on an $800 plasma TV , it's not that difficult to imagine how involved an excited Internet crowd can get in a sale that promises a 7-day resort vacation for $1.

I think that's exactly where LMT went wrong. I know web promotions are a big thing right now, but unless you have thoroughly thought this through, you shouldn't launch such an ambitious campaign. And there's plenty of reasons that lead me to believe that the company didn't think this through very well:
  • They launched a blog and a Facebook page 2 days after the sale had started, seemingly as an afterthought. Although the blog has comments enabled and plenty of upset website users have left comments, the company has yet to respond to any of them. Seems like a blog without a blogging strategy. One-way communication instead of dialog. Gil, who runs the blog sums it up nicely: I'm "actually not a blogger but rather a viral advertiser"
  • They clearly didn't anticipate the amount of users who would rush to their website at the same time and overwhelm their servers. You simply can't run such a promotion without having the technology side of it all figured out.
  • Changing the TOS several times suggests that they really hadn't put much thought into the first version. In this age of mass collaboration, is it really that difficult to fathom that Internet users would get organized and collaborate on this project? Maybe the authors of this campaign should read up on some Web 2.0 literature?
Update 02/04: KetaKeta Ltd., LMT's viral video advertising agency today called the campaign a success citing the buzz the promotion created as evidence of that success. Seems like the agency considers all buzz to be good buzz, considering that the comments on the World for $1 blog and the forum are mostly negative.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great summary of that fiasco. Unfortunately people won't truly understand it unless they participated in it and saw how frustrating it was. After all the shenanigans the company pulled, I'm not sure I would trust booking travel arrangements - let alone giving up my credit card info - with them.

Tennor said...

Great blog. Totally agree with you.

I'm still waiting to hear back why I was charged the full amount last night.

Anonymous said...

First off, great promotion IDEA by LMT whether or not the user got in on it and received a free hotel stay. Granted they could have managed it better instead of changing the TOS as they well and pleased (which they do have the right to do anyway), but the public image has been tarnished in some eyes. Understandably, the people who got in probably have little to no ill will and those who didn't are the antithesis. However, isn't this what happens in general? The people who get something feel an euphoria and those who don't feel left out and in some cases bitter. There's a fine line between someone who does not get what they want and is riled up about it to the point of defaming the company versus someone who does not get what they want and moves on with their life. Hopefully the logical and tempered people decide which they want to be.

corinnew said...

@ anonymous (#3)
I think the point is that people wouldn't have reacted so strongly if LMT had communicated with them. I've been following this promo since day one and have been surprised how uninvolved LMT has been in this discussion - especially given all the rumors and accusations. They have a blog - why not use it? I'm not saying they should give the clues away, but they could have addressed people's questions/concerns before the whole deal got out of hand.

Anonymous said...

Communication is definitely a key to effectively deploying a marketing strategy...it's probably fair to say that LMT did not think this out thoroughly and could have made a better effort to communicate to the public, given they do have blogs and such in which to do so. However, at what point does a person cross that line of feeling like they need redemption for their time and energy spent on trying to get the hotel stay? I don't disagree that LMT failed to communicate, but is it not up to the people to make their own choices of whether or not they want any part of this promotion? I think ownership and responsibility has not been partially shared by the public in this matter; after all, no one is being forced to participate and participation is at the user's discretion. The blame game comes easy when one is behind the majority line.

corinnew said...

I just think you have to be careful when you try to create this type of excitement around a campaign. The way this was set up through the videos and the intial reports of successful bookings created powerful expectations in people's minds. Are they entitled to a prize? No. Did they think they had a chance? Yes, mainly because of the way this was set up: figure out the clues, log on, book, win.
When those rules were changed, people got mad. Did LMT have a legal right to change those rules? Absolutely. I just don't think that helps them in the court of public opinion.
If there are reasons for changing the rules, let people know (ASAP), and explain why they were changed. I'm convinced people wouldn't have reacted that negatively if LMT had been more transparent.

Anonymous said...

I agree that after the first 2 days, there was definitely a lot of excitement on LMT and the public about getting up to 7 days free anywhere in the world. If LMT had stopped right then and there, they would have had a fairly good reputation (granted if they admitted that more people won they then expected). However, it's really a cause and effect situation. LMT found out that there were 3rd party proprietary software that was being used to circumvent the booking process (software that automatically refreshed or those that sped up the video). It clearly read in the TOS that if used, would violate the terms established. At this point, LMT could have pulled the campaign as well and again, had fair light shined upon them. However, they continued but made it more difficult and (admittedly) more obscure for people to get bookings. I believe that due to the public finding a loophole (or depending on how you want to phrase it, finding an "upperhand"), LMT had to change their TOS to prevent these measures from occurring. Although I agree that the campaign has really taken a turn for the worst, and reputation for LMT has been tarnished, one cannot argue that the first 2 days were not highly successful but certain anomalies (3rd party software) made it go downhill after that.

Anonymous said...

This promotion was a failure for the company, in my opinon. No, consumers are not "entitled" to free hotel rooms - but I know that I, and a lot of other unhappy people, will not be using their website in the future. The fact that they changed and even disregarded the Terms of the promotion makes me uncomfortable trusting them with my credit card information. And the fact that they never answered the several emails that I sent shows how bad their customer service is. It's true that the idea of the promotion is great and a win-win for both the company and the consumers, but the execution was off and did not instill confidence.

corinnew said...

The problem is stuff like this:
"I had called customer service [...] CS rep said that it will be random times - hints have no value anymore - particularly in reference to time- and that not everybody would get videos regardless - it would be based on cookie when you logged in. Another - completely random as to who and when. Best advice he said was to look around site some and see if got lucky ...." (taken from forum)

If that's the case, they need to clarify that ASAP before more people get upset.

If it's not, the CS reps need to be clued in on what's going on.

Anonymous said...

Response from email written to LMT:

Hi Kristen,



A few things before I address your specific questions. Any questions you have should be sent to LastMinuteTravel .com employees as Ypartnership is responsible only for communicating information to members of the press. Next, I do want to thank you for your comments and want to provide you with answers.



I can confirm, we are absolutely still running the World for $1 campaign. Week two started yesterday and continues through this Friday. We did make some changes which have completely limited the use of non-manual activities (robots, etc) on the site, as they are against our terms and conditions. No one is calling you a “cheat,” we simply are preventing robots from violating the rules. However, for individuals who explore www.lastminutetravel.com, The World for $1 sale is very much available for a total of 15 minutes per day - no more than 3 sessions of no less than 5 minutes - covering the entire hotel inventory. The reason we launched this sale was to introduce people to the website – show them that our rates, availability, service and speed really are better than “the big guys.” I suggest that instead of simply refreshing, get to know the site a little better.

We did change the terms and conditions before the campaign started in order to stay with in the laws that govern promotions such as this. I am sorry, I know that was frustrating, but laws are created in the best interest of the consumer so we had to maintain that. Here is a link to the Terms and Conditions http://www.lastminutetravel.com/w...ar-TC.aspx and a full FAQ on our blog: http://worldforadollar.lastminutetravel.com/



I understand that you are frustrated – but please know the promotion is not over. During the first 6 days of the campaign 955 reservations were made sending 2,261 people on a free vacation. I hope I have answered some of your questions.



Lauren Volcheff

Director of Marketing

Travel Holdings, Inc.

corinnew said...

"No one is calling you a “cheat,” we simply are preventing robots from violating the rules."

I wonder if they will re-shoot their clue videos in order to edit out their own use of auto-reload scripts :-)

Anonymous said...

Corinnew,

Will you be analyzing the effects of the Promotional Campaign and how it kept changing its shape/form due to unexpected catalyst? (e.g. the different softwares that were used to circumvent the TOS) How about the psychological effect this Campaign has taken on people, such as sacrificing their time to get a vacation for the family or how frustration/anger escalates to a borderline virtual mob scene with threats for lawsuits, ECBs, etc.

corinnew said...

@Tennor - Just saw on the forum that they finally did give you the booking for free. Congrats!

Anonymous said...

I actually did win a 7 night vacation to Disney. My kids were thrilled, and my husband and I were so happy to be able to take a trip this year!
We never expected to be able to, so this was an amazing surprise.

LMT made my family's year!

corinnew said...

Hmmm. Interesting, an anonymous comment praising the promotion the same day Keta Keta visits my blog. Leaving fake comments on behalf of a client is so unethical IMHO.

corinnew said...

Hmmm. Interesting, an anonymous comment praising the promotion the same day Keta Keta visits my blog. Leaving fake comments on behalf of a client is so unethical IMHO.

Anonymous said...

Lol, I just came across this page. Very well written article, I wish I had come across it earlier. I agree with you that the contest has largely been a failure. Even months afterward I don't know anyone who has used LMT to book a paid reservation. Their prices just aren't as competitive as Hotwire/Priceline.