Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

Here is the text of an email I received today. Anyone else get one of these? My email address is visible on this site but not on the any other bicycle forum. I love the "your blog" reference - this is Marketing 101 I suppose but still it's a bit too direct for me - I don't know what to write back actually, besides no thanks, in which case I won't respond. Are there privacy issues here as I am on a do not contact list for both phone and email.

The company seems real >> Sam Wallman swallman@hillandknowlton.com.au

web >> http://www.hillandknowlton.com.au/index ... ut_us.html

Dear Stuart,

I work on behalf of Powerade. I came across your blog when searching for Australian blogs that focus on sport and noticed you're a keen cyclist.
We recently launched the Powerade Performance System which comprises of three products; Powerade Energy Edge with caffeine, Powerade Isotonic and Powerade Recovery with Protein.
We would like to know if you would be interested in receiving some free product from Powerade to help you reach your cycling goals. Please note that this is a gift, Powerade do not expect you to write or comment on the product but given your interest in sport would like you to sample the new products. However, if you do chose to write something, we ask that disclose that Powerade provided the product sample as a gift.
If you would like to receive some Powerade please reply to this email and we will send some out to you.
If you have any questions please let me know.
Kind regards,
Sam Wallman

Yep, I got one. It's in the trash.

They were giving them away at the gym the other week

The company has broken the law. Specifically the SPAM Act, (2003).

You can contact the ACMA and report the abuse here.

They will contact the company and tell them not to SPAM Aussie residents. They will take no further action unless the company re-offends, at which tme the prosecutions start...

Yep, I got one too. They must have farmed the forum for anyone who posted their e-mail address. Compared to all the crap one gets by phone and e-mail, this struck me as a gentle offer to send free stuff, which I could accept or ignore. I said what the heck, send me some free stuff if you really want to.

Did they use software to acquire the email address's or do it manually?

I'd heard about those fiendish bots that run around automatically harvesting e-mail addresses. But if I was an advertising guy told to try to get a bit of low-level, word-of-mouth action happening, I guess I could come up with a few hundred e-mail addresses of sports cranks in an hour or two, just by looking at forums like this one.

Looks like they did it manually. To get Huw's address they would have had to follow a link to his webpage, then recontruct the e-mail address spelled out in words.

This actually seems legit. Coke is getting pretty crafty with its marketing, but it still doesn't mean that the promoters can break the law. If someone wants to e-mail me the message, I'll blacklist their ISP.

Former ABC 702 presenter Sally Loane is Coca Cola Amatil's PR chief these days, if you feel the need to voice your displeasure.

Hill and Knowlton is a global PR group with offices in Australia.

free stuff!!!

With this product, your average speed on the waterfall ride will improved by 2.73kph

wow
it willl be up to 24

Up Hill or Down Hill ?

both
im scared of the high speeds down hill so try and stay even

Hill and Knowlton is indeed, as Jenx says, an international PR group.
They are a little unusual in that they have a digital specialist or two on staff, who I suspect are behind this.
Long story short, bloggers are considered "influencers" the same as journalists are, because just as people read newspapers and use them as a valued source of information, people read blogs and do the same.
I suspect that this is therefore a PR tactic that H&K is using to try and get the word out about Powerade without and/or beyond the mainstream media.
Is it Spam? I think it is, when you work on a definition of "unsolicited commercial email."
Anyway ... making life hard for PR people is one of my hobbies, so I may well get to write a story about this. If I do, I'll link to it here!

Hill and Knowlton is indeed, as Jenx says, an international PR group.
They are a little unusual in that they have a digital specialist or two on staff, who I suspect are behind this.
Long story short, bloggers are considered "influencers" the same as journalists are, because just as people read newspapers and use them as a valued source of information, people read blogs and do the same.
I suspect that this is therefore a PR tactic that H&K is using to try and get the word out about Powerade without and/or beyond the mainstream media.
Is it Spam? I think it is, when you work on a definition of "unsolicited commercial email."
Anyway ... making life hard for PR people is one of my hobbies, so I may well get to write a story about this. If I do, I'll link to it here!

I hate this sort of PR & Marketing crap with a passion. If a product is good enough, it'll sell based on merit rather than what some blogger has to write... And what's the merit of buying more non re-use plastic bottles that will probably end up bobbing around in the harbour or cooks river anyway...

I guess the campaign is working: http://www.bv.com.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9254

I'd be interested to hear if you get a story up on the issue...

Cheers,
Alan

Well ... I have tracked down a former H&K staffer who had a hand in this promotion. He asked how it was going. I told him this forum is debating the Spam Act. He has not replied!

i reckon its a pretty good idea for selling. Maybe its a bit of a small scale way to do it, but yeah.. free stuff

Hi All

Sorry, long time away...

I am personally surprised at this, I haven't read the BV post, but I can't see this as being a beneficial marketing scheme, whether the product works or not. Why? Because very nearly everyone hates unsolicited email. So, as is the case here, people are more likely to discuss why that hate SPAM, than how good the product is.

If I was running a blog, that would be more likely the topic rather than if it is any good or not.

Here is how I think this marketing campaign came about, someone mentioned that getting some hype into the cycling community was a good way to get the product talked about, so instead of actually thinking about it, then they went ahead of it.

Here is a better idea that would have probably had a higher rate of success, but would have cost more.

1) Find out where some club racing was happening, or some sort of road race
2) Sponsor the event, or actually show up and give the product away and encourage the cyclists to talk about if they like the product.

This is a more grass roots campaign, but in a society that is already jaded by advertisement, then actually getting out there with the product is more likely work than trying to shove more ad's down our neck.

My 2 cents worth.

James

I'm drinking the last of my free powerade's

"Caffeine pre sport"

Perhaps I should of drank it earlier in the day

I received the same email, even though my blog hardly ever mentions cycling. In a deep irony, my blog is mostly about how badly PR people behave.
Long story short, I think the whole promotion is way off the mark. I reckon that by the time a PR company goes to all the effort to reach out to a blogger and send them a few bottles of Powerade, they'll rack up a bill of around $500 per mention on a blog.
I've therefore suggested to Powerade's PR that perhaps they would be better off sponsoring DHBC for $500 or more. For $500, after all, they could get the whole club aware of their product and more kindly disposed to it.
I'll keep this thread up to date with the results of my suggestion.

I'm the bloke who gormlessly, it seems, agreed to have Powerade sent to him. Looks like this guy at Hill and Knowlton has pulled stumps on this particular promotion.

did you get free powerade?

Sorry for my obscure post: that's right, no Powerade ever turned up.