Sunday, April 15, 2007

Giveaway goes awry!

On April 5, 2007, radio station Q100 and Six Flags Over Georgia hosted a special event: free admission form 6 to 9 a.m. On the surface, it sounds like a great idea, but some errors in planning caused the event to be a disaster.

Both Six Flags and Q100 underestimated the number of people who would show up for the fun. They did not take into account that many Atlanta-area schools were on spring break, greatly increasing the number of children who could go to Six Flags on a Thursday. Also, having the promotion during rush hour was not the smartest idea. Everyone knows Atlanta traffic is bad enough, but pair that with families headed for a free day at Six Flags and you're left with one thing - unhappy drivers on packed roads. at 2 a.m., 300 cars were already in line waiting to enter the park. By 6:15 a.m., after the park had only been open for 15 minutes, it had reached its maximum capacity of 10,000 to 15,000. I-20 was backed up through the three surrounding counties. And if the traffic conditions weren't bad enough, lack of communication with GDOT caused commuters to not be informed about the congestion, creating even more congestion.

This event gone bad is the perfect learning experience for any PR professional, old or new. It really shows the value of planning and evaluating all the possible situations that can develop. Realizing that so many things are connected and effect each other - spring break means more kids with free time which leads to more traffic and back-up during rush hour. Had the radio station and park better prepared, they could have had a front page article in the AJC because of how good their event was, not how disastrous it turned out to be!

To read the AJC's article, go here:
http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/stories/2007/04/06/metsixflags0406a.html?COXnetJSessionIDbuild25=WbQbGvvQMVqTxw7dpkcsRJk23dXrHwFLYTgWGC9th7h9HZ1hFhmW!-1060416133&UrAuth=`N]NUObNYUbTTUWUXUVUZTYU^UWUbU\UZU`U`UcTYWYWZV&urcm=y

3 comments:

Nikki said...

Hey Molly,

Nice post about the Q100 debacle.

I was there. You may be interested in my post about it: Q100 Fights Crowds at Free Ticket Day.

- Nikki

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