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The uproar following the announced results of a Malibu Caribbean Rum contest has once again proven that asking for user-generated content can be a tricky business.
The contest began in early May, asking consumers to create videos about Malibu Banana Rum based on the tune of the Banana Boat song and offering a prize of $25,000 or a banana grove in a tropical location, writes The New York Times.
Malibu executives said they would consider the votes of YouTube users to help select the winner. Trouble began after a winner was named without finalists being publicly named, and losing consumers who had made videos for the contest have begun claiming it was rigged.
Though Malibu has denied the charge, it is generating no goodwill by having executed a contest that alienates those who took the trouble to enter - the very consumers most involved with the brand and therefore most likely to make their opinions, positive or negative, known.
One disgruntled contestant made a six-minute conspiracy theory video comparing the winning video to a professional Malibu commercial.
Such contests can be difficult to manage and often do not generate many entries. Malibu's contest drew 270 contestants, and only 84 qualified to be posted to the YouTube site.
The Thomas Collective, the public relations agency that managed the contest, distributed information about the contest that contradicted the rules that had been posted online.
The winner of the contest, Ron Klineschmidt, said those complaining were simply sore losers. He was not working with the alcohol company, and the Malibu contest is just one of many such contests he has entered in the past few months, he said.
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