Did Dos Equis' "Most Interesting" Promotional Stunt Backfire Spectacularly?

By all accounts from the various firms pitching Dos Equis' "Most Interesting Academy" party at Falkenstein Castle, it was to be the ultimate evening of "observation, recreation, participation, celebration and accreditation" of all things "interesting."

The giant corporate goodwill effort was the latest extension of the beer company's cheeky "Most Interesting Man" ad campaign, and featured DJ Z-Trip and Dallas rockers Jonathan Tyler & the Northern Lights. Attendees, most of whom were advised to take advantage of a shuttle service that made the 100-mile round trip to and from Waterloo Park, were regaled with a litany of interesting activities, such as "karate black belt demonstrations, participatory drum circles, an exotic reptile collection, sleight of hand tricks, international mohawk coiffeurists, bungee lessons, aqua slides, culinary entomologists, medieval weaponry, and a world-class car collection."

Would-be attendees, on the other hand, ended up royally screwed.

As free events like these tend to do, the party drew much more attention than organizers seem to have been capable of accommodating. Despite a guestlist at nearly two and half times capacity, publicists assured us the day before the event that "space is limited, but, at this point, they are still taking RSVPs." (In their defense, it's a fairly standard practice to plan for a much lower turnout than those who RSVP for a guestlist—then again, if you're staging a party in the middle of nowhere, it's probably a good idea to have a contingency plan in case the party is as successful as hoped.)

Nevertheless, turn out the public did, perhaps enticed by the allure of a night's worth of free entertainment during this dark economic slump, or because they had a craving for barbecued Madagascar hissing cockroaches, or because being invited to take part in a drum circle would have fulfilled some lifelong aspiration.

The problems began at Waterloo Park, where attendees had been told to expect shuttle services at 5, 6, and 8 p.m. Only the first batch of buses made their scheduled pick-up, leaving hundreds stranded in 100-degree weather with little clue as to what was going on. Another shuttle arrived later, but most of those waiting were turned away.

In retrospect, those were the lucky ones, as Waterloo Park is at least within spitting distance of Red River bars. Meanwhile, out in the Hill Country, those who had opted to make the 50-mile trek themselves were relegated to a parking lot two miles away from the venue, and faced a similar problem getting to the castle, as shuttles were also in rare supply. According to one commenter on the Do512 events page, the hundreds gathered at this parking site were even prohibited from leaving the parking lot.

At the end of the evening, the 800 or so lucky (and somewhat random) people who were admitted to the party seem to have enjoyed themselves immensely—but they were largely drowned out by the seething mob of those who were denied.

The resultant fallout has been a spectacular example of marketing gone horribly wrong. Commenters on the Do512 RSVP page have all but declared war against the pale lager and its associated firms. A newly-created Facebook page entitled "Dos SuXX" has just under 200 members. And, in a perhaps overstated gesture, someone's even suggested launching a class action lawsuit.

Heineken USA issued an apology last night, admitting that they "did not expect the response to our invitation would reach this magnitude and ... did not properly handle the number of people who arrived at the event." Similarly, some of the event sponsors, including Rare magazine, were quick to distance themselves from the actual logistical portion of the event. Some sponsors have taken to openly feuding with one another on these pages.

"Rare was hired solely to help market the event, and we were not the planners of it," wrote Taylor Perkins, the recently-installed publisher of the magazine. "Because of its unique nature we elected to participate in marketing it, and while it was a lot of fun many of you were not able to get in and were sent home by the local police once the venue had reached capacity."

For now, it remains unclear as to how (or whether) Dos Equis plans to make it up to the participants. On the plus side, the event garnered a story from the Statesman's social columnist and perennial Man-About-Town, Michael Barnes.

Its headline? "Parking, Heat Problems Dog Promotional Party."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Allen Y Chen in News on July 17, 2009 9:04 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

William D. Goose

I agree with EYEMAJENIUS, stop complaining. If ewe did not get in, too bad, get over it. There was a limit. All the cool people got in. We got in and ewe did not. Again, that is just too bad. Next time, find out what all the cool people are doing. I just recommend that ewe not go to events like this. Stay closer to home if this sort of thing does not work out for ewe.

Sondra

I have a hard time feeling sorry for the people who showed up late and then were so upset that they couldn't get in. We all got the email stating that attendance would be limited and that people would be turned away when it reached capacity. Folks, it reached capacity and THEN some. It was beyond full, to the point that it was hard to get around. The lines for the bars were really no worse than trying to fight the crowd up to a bar on Sixth on a Saturday night. I heard people bitching and moaning about having spent the money on gas to get there so they weren't leaving without a party: really? Does $10 worth of gas, split between you and a friend or two, really entitle you entrance when you show up hours after the party started?

I got there early, got parking, and got in with no problem (for those who would whine about having to work until 5, we left Austin at 5:15). We could tell by the number of places we were hearing about this party that the bus was not the way to go, and anyone with common sense should have seen that coming too. There were FAR more than 800 people inside, probably more like 2000+. The Castle is a privately owned venue, and I'm sure the owners weren't happy that the numbers were exceeded by that much, but the organizers let everyone in that they possibly could: it was PACKED.

What this boils down to is that a bunch of entitlist people who didn't exercise common sense are pissed off that they got there too late. There were no guarantees; in fact, there were promises that if you got there too late, you would be turned away, so it's no one's fault but your own. Dos Equis et al put on a neat party, and I'm glad I was able to attend.

joshuahuck

From Daysha at Earthbirdmusic (a local promoter):

"I swear to you... local promoters did everything right. Mirrorball did not tell us that Rare was also promoting. When we did find out, we were told that rare only had a list of 50-100 people. We did not find out that they turned in list of 3600 until only a few hours before event start. Needless to say, I am furious as well. That list should not have been honored (but im not the coordinator). And why they even let their list reach 3600 on a 1600 capacity event with multiple promoters is CRAZY."

kenneth1

Wow, I guess I was one of the 800 lucky ones. Baking in the sun at Waterloo was the worst part. But the party itself was cool, great food, and the beer guys did an excellent job of keeping everyone soused, passing out bottles from right off the dolly.

Still, I don't go along with some of these "It's just free beer. Get over it" posters. SXSW is a piss poor analogy. If you get to a SX day party & it's at capacity, no prob. Just mount up and ride to the next one a few blocks away.

This was out in Timbuktu, and hundreds of people waited/drove for hours to get to this FUBAR of a soiree. Dos XX doesn't owe me anything, but they do owe a big fat mea culpa to the folks who got screwed out of a night in their lives, when they could've been at Fashion Week parties in good ole River City.

kenneth1

Oh, and I agree with those who say Dana, the AA girl, needs a spanking.

wattage

I guess my point was that people should have seen this coming, yet they never ever do.

Which is why I also said that it doesn't let the planners off the hook for sucking.

(As far as I am concerned, if you were really that interested in going to a party at a castle and drinking free beer and listening to Z-Trip, you kind of deserve to get punished and losing a single night of your life is a small price to pay)

AjayMiranda

Listen to Wattage! He knows what's up.

Also, that American Apparel underwear ad is getting me all hot-n-bothered. BRB... in about 6 minutes.

Wes

I usually don't care for American Apparel ads but that chick is hot. I'll keep coming back to Austinist just to see it.

wattage

6 minutes? Unless it's the scrunchie ad, I'd say 3 minutes. Tops.

DrafthouseHenri

You know, the parking lot was only part one of the Fail at that party. The inside of the party was a big huge Fail as well, and don't let the other 799 people who got in fool you.

Dos XX didn't have enough bars or the ability to give away their product (and apparently Red Bull had offered to set up another 8 bars and Dos XX refused them). The inside of the castle was INSANELY hot. So the lines for *everything* were too long, and ultimately most of us just spent our time sitting on rocks, drinking warm beer, and getting bit by fire ants.

The lighting design was pretty bad ass, and the skydiving simulator thingy looked really cool, but ultimately bringing a flask to a carnival in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart would've been more "interesting" and a lot more fun, too.

wattage

Also: Nothing I said above absolves Dos Equis and the planners for the other stupidity (a la trapping people in a parking lot, etc).

wattage

Actually, an RSVP never means your spot is secured unless someone explicitly says something like: "RSVPing guarantees admission"

I'm always baffled by the naivety of people in Austin when it comes to free events. If you've attended 5 minutes of SXSW in the past 5+ years, you have to be aware that RSVPs don't mean anything, getting there early is imperative, there will never ever be enough room, and there will never ever be enough free anything.

For a laid back town, no one is laid back when they are told that they won't be able to get $12 in free beer. I know the economy is killing peoples' pocketbooks right now, but isn't your time (and dignity) worth more than $12 in free beer? I can't believe people fall for this stuff over and over and over... and then get worked up over and over and over.

(On the other hand, if people didn't fuck up the logistics and people didn't get worked up, the Austinist would be reduced to discussing mixed use variances and White Denim updates only... so maybe it's for the best that stupidity continues to ensue?)

Candace Birkelbach

While I realize this party was free and emails warning to "be prepared for disappointment" were sent out, it just seems cruel to let hundreds of people believe they were getting into this amazing party, not just possibly get in. An RSVP means your spot is secured, otherwise what's the point? It's not that the people who didn't get in were late, but plain unlucky. Our group got in line at Waterloo around 4:40pm to find a mild line, thinking if we don't make the 5pm shuttle, surely we'd catch the 6pm. We were two spots away from catching the first round and told the wait would be about an hour because buses were stuck in traffic. (Who knew rush hour was at 5pm?) Already drenched in sweat, we decided to wait for the promise of sweet, air-conditioned buses within an hour. We didn't step on the bus until about 7:45pm.

We arrived at, not a castle party, but a dimly-lit state park around 9:45pm. Everyone rushed off the bus perplexed to find no castle. A few minutes later we see our bus driver pulling out with only two people on board. He mumbled something about those two having stamps and that a shuttle would come to pick us up. About 20 minutes later we see several buses and people frantically run to each bus driver trying to get an idea of what's going on. They all say the party is full, cops are turning people away and that there are no more buses. Screaming ensues. Eventually, someone convinces one poor bus driver to drive us to the castle, which as promised was barricaded with cops. A friend and I decided to sneak in, while the rest of the group formed an angry mob to get in.

I understand the party received a higher response that expected, but the organizers knew that several days in advance.. why not hire more buses or tell the later RSVPers, "sorry." What I don't understand is we were allowed on the shuttle to begin with if the party was reaching capacity and then why we were left stranded in a park with no instruction. That's not just poor planning, that's accidents and riots waiting to happen. I'd say Dos Equis got off easy with only one semi-angry mob pushing their way in.

poshdeluxe

to give rare some credit, they did send out an email in advance, warning people that the shuttles were gonna be crazytown. we opted to drive out there ourselves and got there near the beginning of the party, so we had no problems getting in.

i think some of these issues will arise anytime there's a huge party with free beer (see: many, many sxsw day shows). on the other hand, it was obvious that the party planners didn't really know what they were doing. if you're going to spend the money to rent out a freaking castle, you MIGHT want to hire a good logistics person too.

AjayMiranda

Hey, thanks for including my post in the "related" field. Very cool.

-Ajay

nitesblog.com

'NITES, a blog for Austinites

EYEMAJENIUS

if you didnt get it in. get over it. there was a limit. it was reached, for safety reasons others had to be turned away... 800 people is a lot of enjoyment. bitter.