Microsoft & Edelman Make Two Mistakes with Free Laptop Fiasco

Thursday, December 28th, 2006 by Andy Beal

Microsoft & Edelman Make Two Mistakes with Free Laptop Fiasco

I wasn’t going to share my thoughts on Microsoft sending out free laptops to some A-list bloggers. I figured it was a dumb move by Microsoft, without first seeking the permission of the blogger. But now Microsoft has made a bad situation worse by asking the bloggers to return the laptops after they “review” them. Here’s part of the new request…

You may have seen that other bloggers got review machines as well…As you write your review I just wanted to emphasize that this is a review pc…I hope you give your honest opinions. Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding of our intentions Iâ€™m going to ask that you either give the pc away or send it back when you no longer need it for product reviews.

What the heck?

PR powerhouse, Edelman, was actually behind the backfiring initiative, but they really slipped-up by now acting as if they only ever meant for the recipient to review the loaded Vista OS and then return the machine. If that was the case, why not just send them a copy of Vista?

Edelman’s not had a good year when it comes to blogging. The company likes to think of itself as being at the cutting edge of blogging – especially with their hire of Steve Rubel – but they’ve had one stumble after another.

First rule of blogging screw-ups – admit you made a mistake. Edelman needs to come clean and admit they should never have sent out the laptops in the first place. Asking bloggers to now return (or give away) the machines is akin to throwing water on a pan of burning oil, in an attempt to put the fire out. If you’ve ever seen that demonstrated, you’ll know the mess Edelman just created.

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21 comments on “Microsoft & Edelman Make Two Mistakes with Free Laptop Fiasco”

MikeOK Says:

December 28th, 2006 at 10:39 am

Hi Andy

Can you give me your “evalution” PC?? Or am I just assuming you are an A-list blogger?
graywolf Says:

December 28th, 2006 at 10:56 am

It’s very easy to “shoot yourself in the foot” in the blogosphere, at Edelman we help you move the gun closer and take better aim
Bill Says:

December 28th, 2006 at 11:40 am

Giving Vista away without the proper hardware could make for a poor experience.

Acer is getting their ROI from having more people blog about their product than the original number of notebooks distributed.

The bloggers that received the notebook will also benefit from the traffic they receive. Some might actually like the product and give it a good review.

Looks like a great campaign in my eyes. The loudmouths trying to twist it into a failure are really helping the hype.
Todd Mintz Says:

December 28th, 2006 at 12:09 pm

Andy, you made a great post a while back about the value that a solid PR firm can bring to a business…what about the value that a bad PR firm can take away from a business?
Win2K_user Says:

December 28th, 2006 at 1:22 pm

“Giving Vista away without the proper hardware could make for a poor experience.”

Yeah, wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone.
Jestep Says:

December 28th, 2006 at 1:25 pm

“Asking bloggers to now return (or give away) the machines is akin to throwing water on a pan of burning oil”

I think it’s more like pouring gasoline on the pan of burning oil.

One thing is for sure, they will get some PR out of the whole ordeal.
Andy Beal Says:

December 28th, 2006 at 3:11 pm

Great feedback. I really think PR firms that claim to be engaged in social media need to think long and hard about their strategy. I think Edelman could be accused of trying to be too clever in their attempts to engage bloggers. Honestly, if you have to give a blogger $2,000+ worth of incentive, you should already know that you’ve gone too far.
nettie hartsock Says:

December 28th, 2006 at 4:56 pm

Great post Andy! I totally agree that Edelman somehow thinks they’ll outsmart bloggers but all they’re really doing is making it so no bloggers buy into their “silly rabbit tricks”.

They’re suffering under the flog scandal which they still have yet to really clear the air about and it seems now they’re suffering under the false conception that bloggers are stupid.
Deep Jive Interests » The Question (Most) Bloggers Dare Not Answer Says:

December 28th, 2006 at 6:11 pm

[...] With the recent kerfuffle over Microsoft giving laptops to bloggers so that they might try out Vista — and then quickly letting them know that they were NOT gifts after all (but had to be given away, or sent back) has gotten the blogosphere all riled up during this quiet inter-christmas-new year time period. Quite frankly, in spite of all the righteous outrage that got Microsoft to retract their offer (or change it, as it were), I’m not sure where Microsoft was wrong in all of this. [...]
Jeremy Pepper Says:

December 28th, 2006 at 7:15 pm

The glass house link says quite a bit. What happened to the days where we were behind the curtain, stayed in the background? Where we were bridgemakers, not gatekeepers? There are fundamental problems in PR, and this just adds to it.
C T Zen Says:

December 29th, 2006 at 1:20 am

the people crying hoarse seem to be hypocrite. On one end you are trying to take a moral high ground saying that Micrsoft did unethical and on the other end you say that microsoft is doing wrong by asking back the machines. You are some greedy guys,who are full of hate for microsft and no ethics of your own as well. you don have rights to cry and blame others.
EXCELER8ion - Online recruitment marketing, social media optimization, and interactive advertising Says:

December 29th, 2006 at 5:05 pm

[...] Microsoft & Edelman Make Two Mistakes with Free Laptop Fiasco | Marketing Pilgrim But now Microsoft has made a bad situation worse by asking the bloggers to return the laptops after they â€œreviewâ€ them. (tags: microsoft edelman laptops) [...]
Chris Clark Says:

December 30th, 2006 at 9:26 am

I was amazed to read all these elegantly written Vista blogs when I was looking for answers about why my IE7 kept crashing. In favours outweigh the very direct wording of the detractors 4 to 1 on Opinmind.com. So Microsoft got their message across.

I’m now amazed that Microsoft are pulling them all back. Nothing like giving an A-List Blogger a piece of real controversy to talk about.

Could run for months!
stef Says:

December 30th, 2006 at 9:46 am

i dont see what the big deal is. asking for them back is as weird as everyone making such a fuss about it
Edelman gives out free Vista laptops to tech bloggers, recalls them - Lost Remote TV Blog Says:

January 4th, 2007 at 9:30 pm

[...] How does Edelman PR simply not learn from past ethical lapses? As the PR firm for the Vista launch, Edelman sent selected tech bloggers a free Acer Ferrari laptop complete with Windows Vista installed. It’s “up to the blogger” whether they want to keep the $2,300 laptop or test and return it. Microsoft blogger Long Zheng reportedly broke the news, quite happily, last week. And then came the rationalization… Wrote Long: “Bloggers… put a lot of hard work into their blogs and most of the time receive little or no reimbursement for their highly valuable work. I wouldnâ€™t think it would be inappropriate at all, in fact only fair that these bloggers deserve to keep these machines as â€˜rewardsâ€™. One blogger got a whole Vista Media Center. Of course, the reviews are all raves. It’s too easy to go on a rant here. Edelman took heat, deservedly, and then asked the bloggers to return the laptops. You may remember that Edelman is the PR firm that engineered the Wal Mart travel blog disaster. Richard Edelman blogged about it, and even listed changes being made at the company as a result. Backpeddling is, apparently, ethical. Writes one of the bloggers who received – and then was asked to send back – the computers: The original email read “you are welcome to send the machine back to us after you are done playing with it, or you can give it away to your community, or you can hold onto it for as long as youâ€™d like.” Then, after the firestorm began, that blogger received this “clarification”: Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding of our intentions Iâ€™m going to ask that you either give the pc away or send it back when you no longer need it for product reviews. [...]
The Link Baiting Playbook: Hooks Revisited - Stuntdubl - Search Engine Marketing Consultant Says:

January 12th, 2007 at 8:34 pm

[...] Cons of this hook: Getting the idea past the legal team. Bloggers sometimes don’t like to be bought (or so they say). Folks on the web are pretty good at sniffing out ulterior motives, and then it turns into trouble. [...]
The Link Baiting Playbook: Hooks revisited Says:

January 17th, 2007 at 7:15 pm

[...] Cons of this hook: Getting the idea past the legal team. Bloggers sometimes donâ€™t like to be bought (or so they say). Folks on the web are pretty good at sniffing out ulterior motives, and then it turns into trouble. [...]
Make Blogs your best Marketing Tool | Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot Says:

March 27th, 2007 at 6:08 am

[...] I just love posts that are filled with anecdotes and real-life stories and today I came across an article on MSNBC (via Marketing Pilgrim) entitled Making Blogs your best Marketing Tool which is packed with some great success stories. It talks about how an online activity like blogging, can have a positive effect on real-life businesses. I suppose that the corollary is that it can also have a detrimental effect on your business if the wrong message is being sent out. [...]
Make Blogs your best Marketing Tool | Ugh!!'s Greymatter Honeypot Says:

September 3rd, 2008 at 9:50 am

[...] I suppose that the corollary is that it can also have a detrimental effect on your business if the wrong message is being sent [...]
Free Laptops - What Next? | StayGoLinks Says:

September 9th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

[...] as Microsoft found out in 2006, even with the help of top publicity experts like Edelman, those offering free laptops can run into [...]
Online Reputation Management - Issue Resolution Flowchart | Search Engine People Blog Says:

October 30th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

[...] the size of the firm being targeted … think Walmart’s Facebook Fiasco, Dell Hell, or Microsoft Vista. That said, negative mentions need to be addressed in real time to prevent/reduce the probability [...]

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