Red Wings Marketing Department Strikes Again!

by joehass on Dec 11, 2008 10:00 AM CST Comment 4 comments

I noticed the Red Wings have a promotion involving showing holiday spirit in which you send photos of your house to the Wings, they'll post them, and then people vote, then they vote again on the night of the faux New Year's Eve game, and the whole thing has the kind of complexity that makes you wonder why they'd bother.

(As an aside: in a previous life, I helped create a contest for a mobile phone carrier that didn't run (long story). One of the clients said, "Isn't this awfully complicated?" My reply: "Yes, but that's part of the excitement!" The rest of the staff laughed. The client didn't.)

Here's the prize structure:

First prize: two Delta Airlines tickets

Second prize: two tickets to Winter Classic II.

Third prize: a Winter Classic II authentic jersey.

The winners are determined on December 30, during the game.

So let me get this right: The Red Wings are running a promotion that has nothing directly to do with the Red Wings (it's not the best Red Wings holiday display, just the best holiday display), gives a non-Red Wings prize as first place, and awards as second prize something that requires the "winner" to figure out how to get 288 miles away 38 hours later to use it or lose it on a night in which any hotel in the region you're going to will charge an exorbitant rate because it's New Year's Eve. And couldn't you see someone winning first prize and going, "I'd rather have the game tickets?"

That, ladies and gentlemen, is quality marketing!

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I thought the same thing – I’d much rather have the Winter Classic tickets than airline tickets.. weird.

www.SecondCityHockey.com

by Matthew Dirt on Dec 11, 2008 12:41 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Good Grief

It’s 4 hours from the Joe to Wrigley. The game starts at 1pm. So leave at 7:30am. Big friggin’ deal. If I didn’t already have tickets and I won them, you can bet I’d be on a bus, on a train, or in my car headed down I-94 for Chi-Town…..

teri

by tdspringer on Dec 11, 2008 4:17 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

A train? You’re paying for a hotel on New Years Eve because the first train into Chicago doesn’t arrive until 12:59 pm ET (and costs $111 per person roundtrip). A bus? Same thing: first bus into downtown Chicago is 3:30 pm ET.

I’m speaking as someone who has done Detroit/Chicago at least 100 times in the past 27 years: The only way you get from Detroit to Chicago in 4 hours is to speed, and I mean “ticketable, no doubt about it” speeding. You also have to roll the dice as to how bad traffic downtown is going to be (whether you decide to go Lake Shore, Skyway, or Bishop Ford). Having seen traffic jams in downtown at all hours of the day, it’s always a crap shoot.

Let’s backtime: 1:00 ET start. You want to get to your seat there reasonably early: 12:30. If you’re driving, you have to find a parking spot in Wrigleyville, which is a challenge in and of itself, so you need to get to the Wrigleyville area by noon to find a lot if you don’t know where to park. The average of Yahoo, Google, and Mapquest is 4:45, plus a 15-minute break at some point, so departure time from Joe Louis of 7:00 a.m ET (and woe be you if you live on the east side or the northeast suburbs like New Baltimore). If the game ends at 3:45, give yourself 30 minutes to get back to your car (and hope you’re not boxed in), and you have another five hours home. You’re home at 9:15 pm ET, with 10 hours in a car. Hope you aren’t going to work on Friday!

And if you have kids? Or a pet? Then you have to frantically try to find someone to take care of them.

Had anyone asked me: the first prize would’ve been a flight to Chicago the 31st, a hotel, two tickets, and a flight home on the 1st as the first prize. I can get a roundtrip on Northwest (which is the same as Delta) to Midway for $91/person. Hotels.com has a night at the Club Quarters downtown for $104/night (I’ve stayed there: it’s just fine for what you need). The Wings aren’t paying for the tickets. If you really want to be a sweetheart, give ‘em $100 for ground transportation and incidentals. So $400 out of Wings pocket to do it right (assuming Delta doesn’t comp them the tickets: they’re K class tickets, the super cheapos, so I can’t imagine the airline wouldn’t mind, in which case it’s $200 out of pocket!)

What this reminds me of is when Oprah gave away the cars. Lots of people thought that was so sweet and nice and generous, but no one actually thought out the whole idea behind it, so these people suddenly faced huge tax bills. Same deal here. I’m sure no one in the Wings office thought, “What happens if they win?”

by joehass on Dec 12, 2008 5:09 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Well....

Totally agree…except that to say it’s not their event isn’t not totally accurate. They do have be in on it to participate and they do get a ticket allocation which is why in a small place like Wrigley there aren’t many tix available for the public…it’s all Chicago season holders, some Wings, the NHL and a small amount for Joe Public. Take into account that many of the lower field level seats will NOT be among the better seats in the house and you’ve got it all sorted out.

by josephus on Dec 11, 2008 5:32 PM CST reply actions 0 recs