What happened at the Hard Rock Cafe’s “Don’t Let It Stay In Vegas Bloggers Bash” a couple weeks ago definitely stayed in Vegas. It was held in conjunction with a Bon Jovi Pre-Concert party on April 24, 2009. There were many Twitter posts, a Facebook event and a blog post from BeerandBlog.com announcing the invitation several days prior to the big event. I even found the announcement on Craigslist. The purpose for this blogging event was unclear. All I knew was that it involved free Wi-Fi, food and drinks and a chance to win 2 tickets to Bon Jovi’s sold out concert at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel. Since I already had tickets to the concert I was more interested in attending the bloggers party to meet fellow bloggers and make network connections. Unfortunately, not losing my place in line for a front row location to the Bon Jovi concert was much more important.
There were a few interesting things that I find out during my visit to the Hard Rock Hotel. When I first arrived to the hotel, I asked several employees about the Bloggers Bash and Pre-Concert Party happening at the Cafe and all had no knowledge of such party. The Hard Rock Cafe is not even part of the Hard Rock Hotel physically or legally. The Cafe is located outside across from the Hotel and they are not affiliated. That makes a whole lot of sense! The way I found this out was we tried to exchange the concert shirts we purchased from the Hotel gift shop at the Cafe and they would not let us.
Since I did not attend the HRC Bloggers Bash, I could not personally attest to the success, or lack there of, of the event. However, there was only one blog result that was returned from the search engines that did have something to say about it. Chris from likeitmatters.com wrote that “the intent of the party was to engage the Las Vegas blogger community and drum up some publicity for HRC…[their] offer of free food and drink seemed like a perfect excuse to get out and socialize…” Even the Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas Sales and Marketing representative, Diana Webber, who also twitters for them, did not have anything to say about their event afterwards. Apparenlty it was a fundraising event. She could have mentioned how much money was raised for the Philadelphia Soul Foundation or how many people were in attendance.
We learned a valuable lesson on how to implement social outreach campaigns through this experience. All in all it seems that while the event had the right intentions and was making a good effort, it fell flat. Good social media outreach isn’t like the Field of Dreams, just because you build it doesn’t mean they’ll come. Social outreach such as this would have a much better chance of success if it were fully supported with publicity and if it’s purpose had been better communicated to those involved.
What I do know is that the Bon Jovi concert was phenomenal!
I was able to update people of our adventure through Twitter and Twitpic via my cell phone (@GetOutofOurHead). And Hard Rock Cafe could have brought in more revenue if they had kept their kitchen open after the concert let out at midnight because there many us that were famished.
If you attended the HRC Blogger Bash, I would love to hear from you and your experience of it.
