SIX WEEKS / BLOGGER VS. BRANDS
25 August 2009
London-based blogger Paul McCrudden has become the first to be paid for time 'owed' by brands after spending hours waiting around for different services and receiving poor responses from staff.
- Media Type
- Online
- Social Media
- Source
- News
- Tags
- Blog
- Perception
- Consumer
- Social Media
McCruddon, who works in 'digital strategy and future technologies' at Imagination Digital, details his crusade on his blog, Six Weeks (www.paulmccrudden.com/sixweeks.htm). Here,
he talks through the time he has spent sitting, viewing, queuing and
waiting in restaurants or shops, put into context by contrasting with
watching TV or sleeping, over a six-week period.
According to his calculations, he is owed more than £6,000 and has sent out invoices to over 50 companies. Pret A Manger is the first company to have paid up £62 with an amusing and now very public response. EAT have also sent food vouchers to the value of £15, whereas Cranberry's MD have asked McCrudden to pay for the 12 minutes of time it took for him to read the initial letter.
McCrudden is playing out his Six Weeks campaign on Twitter (as @crudden), actively reaching out to brands and having conversations openly about bad experiences. To his credit, he is also applauding brands that respond well and has become a one-man advocate for their services: 'Squat + Gobble, a small cafe on Charlotte St, are the second company to value my time & it's a great reply'.
Many a company is showing its true colours in the way they respond to this campaign, and it's clear that employing a clever approach to social media is worth plenty more in reputation than the cost of an invoice from a consumer thinking outside of the box.
'Yes, those lost minutes and hours are pretty priceless to me. But to those companies who have my attention, my time is worth one hell of a lot,' says McCrudden, who is attempting to challenge the assumption that consumers are subservient to brands - and succeeding.
www.paulmccrudden.com/letters.htm
According to his calculations, he is owed more than £6,000 and has sent out invoices to over 50 companies. Pret A Manger is the first company to have paid up £62 with an amusing and now very public response. EAT have also sent food vouchers to the value of £15, whereas Cranberry's MD have asked McCrudden to pay for the 12 minutes of time it took for him to read the initial letter.
McCrudden is playing out his Six Weeks campaign on Twitter (as @crudden), actively reaching out to brands and having conversations openly about bad experiences. To his credit, he is also applauding brands that respond well and has become a one-man advocate for their services: 'Squat + Gobble, a small cafe on Charlotte St, are the second company to value my time & it's a great reply'.
Many a company is showing its true colours in the way they respond to this campaign, and it's clear that employing a clever approach to social media is worth plenty more in reputation than the cost of an invoice from a consumer thinking outside of the box.
'Yes, those lost minutes and hours are pretty priceless to me. But to those companies who have my attention, my time is worth one hell of a lot,' says McCrudden, who is attempting to challenge the assumption that consumers are subservient to brands - and succeeding.
www.paulmccrudden.com/letters.htm
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