A few months back I decided to enter the Stride contest to rename their Nonstop Mint gum. The contest lasted a few months and just recently ended. With a grand prize of $10,000 and a year’s supply of gum, I took this contest as a serious assignment, spending hours thinking about and submitting potential names. I was extremely disappointed when I received two e-blasts this past weekend informing me the contest had ended without a finalist being selected due to a “technical glitch”. Do they know how much time I put into this, as well as all the other excited participants? I was irritated, so the first thing I thought about doing was blogging about it in hopes other companies will never make this mistake and risk turning loyal customers into an angry mob that can quickly crush a company’s image in a matter of minutes using today’s technology.

If you discover a technical glitch and users are submitting many of the same names, why wait until the end of the contest to announce this? Now, the Stride Marketing Team has to clean up this sticky situation. They have informed participants that a “drawing will be held in which five randomly selected individuals will each get $25,000 and the winners will be announced shortly.“ Why hasn’t this date been decided? When will this be announced? Participants who “submitted the same names as the finalists will be receiving custom packs of Nonstop Mint featuring one of the ten final names that most resembles theirs in about six-to-eight weeks.” I also received a link to print a coupon for one free single pack of Stride. I was a little peeved that all participants would be entered into the drawing as opposed to the ones who submitted many names or finalist names, but felt better after printing my coupon.

Although the contest may not have been thoroughly thought out and tested, the Stride Marketing Team utilized the right tactics to ease consumer backlash. The team acted quickly by notifying and apologizing to participants through email and making the news public on their website; providing an instantly redeemable coupon for a free pack of Stride gum; sending custom packs of the minty gum to finalists; and holding a drawing for more winners and money than the original prize. Lesson learned- always hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.