I also want to blog about my concerns regarding the poor service I received from Air Transat from a marketer’s perspective.

I have found there are generally two types of people that enter sweepstakes as a hobby: 1) people who do it for the fun and 2) people for whom this hobby allows them to have things in life that their income bracket would never allow.

The first questions I want to pose to you would affect the second type of entrant.  If you were on a very limited budget and upon attempting to exit Britain were told you had to pay an exorbitant amount to get your overweight luggage home, money that you didn’t have, what would you do?  You couldn’t return any of the items you purchased.  Unless you could add items to your friend’s luggage (if they happened to be underweight) you would have to throw them away.  Imagine what a devastating end that would be to an amazing vacation, a wonderful win.  Would you, at that point, only feel unfavourably towards Air Transat or would your feelings also turn sour towards any or all of the other sponsors?

The second set of questions focus on the experience level of the winner.  How extensively in their life have they travelled and how many trips have they won previously?  If you have travelled extensively, you would probably find it easier to navigate the many experiences and differences you encounter while on vacation.  What if this was your first trip win?  How you would feel towards air travel if a squished coach flight was your first airplane trip?  How would you feel upon entering a one-two star hotel room?  How would have handled the low security at the hotel?  (There may have even been more “obstacles” to a perfect vacation that my travel experience helped me to avoid, overcome or not even come across.)  Again, I ask; would you only feel unfavourably towards one sponsor/service provider, if at all, or would your feelings also turn sour towards all of the other companies involved in providing the prize package if you found yourself unsatisfied with the trip?

When I was in college (Marketing 101) we learned a happy customer, on average, would tell three other people about their wonderful experience.  The disgruntled customer, on average, would tell eleven other people about their poor experience.  Now, with the advent of Internet, if I am disgruntled, I won’t tell eleven people, I’ll tell eleven thousand people!  (Pete Blackshaw wrote Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000.)  As a marketer, does that fact change how you do business?  How you follow-up with your clients?  With your winners?  Who you choose to partner with when running a promotion?  It should.  As a winner, how many people would you tell?

As a marketer, I advise all companies running a sweepstakes to not only do front-end marketing, but back-end marketing.  Follow-up with your winners so you can ensure the positive message you originally intended to create by running a sweepstakes does not turn sour, or worse, run amok!