Full disclosure: A friend of mine entered the contest I’m discussing. I’m disappointed she didn’t make it, but this goes far beyond my involvement with her.
Murphy-Goode launched a pretty cool contest a few months ago: Make a video, and audition for a pretty sweet job. You can read more about it on their website, A Really Goode Job. They allowed users to vote for their favorites, causing a storm of people asking for votes. People were endorsed, big competitons went on– it was an interesting process.
My big criticism: What did the votes mean? The top fifty were not the top fifty vote-getters. Some in MG’s top fifty were in the top fifty by votes. Some weren’t. The #1 spot, according to voting? Not good enough to make the final 50. How did they make the decision?
The idea of using crowdsourcing as both a publicity stunt and as talent recruitment is pretty nifty. Find people who are passionate about your product (in this case, wine) and already good at social media, build some buzz around your brand, all for relatively low cost. Awesome!
Not so awesome? Not letting the voters actually choose the top 50, and I assume as well that the finalists who will be interviewing in Sonoma will not actually be chosen by user voting either.
Edited to add: Here’s a post from pre-controversy, on bub.blicio.us, from an entrant (my friend) who noted the confusion even before there was confusion. An excerpt:
I think a lot of us entrants are a bit confused on exactly how much effect the popular vote has. At first, it seemed like the popular vote was more of a MacGuffin, distracting us. Now I’m not so sure. Does it show that you can drive traffic or does it just raise awareness for Murphy-Goode? Just yesterday I learned that voting continues for a week after the submission process closes, but that also coincides with the week that the anonymous HR firm is picking the Top 50. So do the popular votes matter? I still have no idea.
Via Twitter, I learned today that once the Top 50 have been chosen, the voting slate is wiped clear and voting begins again. Yep – the Twittersphere is going to be full of Vote for me! through at least July 7. But again, how much do the popular votes really matter? Is driving traffic what’s important, or personality? CV/resume and experience or just a damned good video? It’s like entering a beauty pageant without knowing the categories. So, is there an evening gown competition or just swimsuit?
What Murphy-Goode ended up doing was going from a community that rallied around them, to a community that has completely turned their backs on them– in less than 24 hours.
You want to do “social media”. You want to build community. Great– then trust your community. My guess is there is going to be a bit of backlash, since many in the top fifty are not reflected in user’s favorites. Many of these people got their votes through their networks– which is how MG wants to gain momentum, right? You’re alienating not only the people who were in the top fifty, but their networks. Their vote didn’t count. So why even bother asking?
What does this boil down to? Transparency. If you’re going to make your own arbitrary choices– fine. Be honest about it. If you’re going to ask people to vote– also good, but make the vote count for something.
Apparently, I’m not the only one confused by this– they sent out an email to all of the applicants later on that said:
Hey Goode Folks!
We just sent you an email announcing our Top 50 candidates, whom we chose based on the criteria posted on our web site. As before, we encouraged you to pick your favorite. Seems there was some confusion about what “picking a favorite” really meant.
While it was great for us to see the public response to each of the videos, and we know both the applicants and their fans really enjoyed it, we will be choosing the best person for the job based on the criteria here. Sorry for any misunderstanding. We’ll remove the “favorites” option to avoid further confusion. In any event, please check out the Top 50 candidates, they’re sure to dazzle you as they did us. And please keep in touch!
Cheers,
The Gang at Murphy-Goode
I’m pretty sure I didn’t see these criteria, and they’re pretty vague. At least they’re an equal opportunity employer?
So, what do you think– was this a good PR opportunity, or an opp gone wrong?
Of course, I’m not the only one who thinks this didn’t go so well. Some good ones:
And just think: they could save themselves about $59,000 if they just sold out to Wine Enthusiast.
(If you google Murphy Goode Contest, the #3 5 (as of 6/27) hit is my other blog, which means they probably do need a social media specialist– or maybe I should have entered…)
…to remind myself that I will not have NOTHING to do.
Pimp.
