Sony Ericsson’s phones launch was dismal
By:
18 Jun
2009
27 Comments
 

Yes, the star were there – Pierre Png, Flying Dutchman, Andrea D Cruz, Dick Lee and some magician called Cyrus from Japan.

But for me, this was the worst phone launch I have attended this year. The media invite says 4pm, so I reached there at 4.15pm. But the doors were closed and like many other tech journalists there, we had to wait like idiots while Sony Ericsson got ready to start.

At about 4.45 pm, the celebrities turned up while the local tech journalists,  who were basically ignored by the PR minders, went to buy their sugar cane at the nearby hawker stalls and at Pacific Coffee at Red Dot Museum, waiting for the damn show to start.

They finally started at 5pm with dancing in the streets. They couldnt find my name tag and by the time I got into indoor hall, it was already 5.20pm. I left just as the last groups of people were streaming into the hall for the show to start.

So why am I pissed? Many. This is CommunicAsia week, which means for most tech journalists, is the time when we make our annual pilgrimage to Singaore Expo to cover Singapore’s most important tech trade show. All the telcos and phone makers used to make their song and dance there but over the years, they have left to set up their own show at their own location (read: cheaper) during the show week. While I can accept that Nokia and Sony Ericsson would like to have their own show away from the Singapore Expo, what I cannot accept it making us tech journalists wait for over one hour for the press conference to start.

Sony Ericsson needs to figure out what it wants to achieve. You cannot hold a big event and invite the whole world to see your new phones. If you are targetting the media, have a separate press conference on a different day and then embargo the information until the official launch, or have a press conference two hours before the public show starts. Please do not lump us together with Dick Lee and Pierre Png and other stars. They are great actors yes, but we have to do our work and making us wait for over one hour on Communicasia is unforgivable.

The saddest thing of course is that Sony Ericsson did have some nice phones to show yesterday and luckily for them the tech media here are generally forgiving people and SE will still get their coverage eventually. But the next time that the Sony Ericsson regional team organises an event I will think thrice before showing up.

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  • http://www.iudsideeffects.org Carson Washington

    i am always watching for any product launch on the internet as i am a gadget addict myself.-`,

  • http://www.gasdetectorsensor.com Millie Wood

    i love to see new product launches because i am addicted to shopping both online and offline.;.-

  • anon

    Princessa

    You don’t even know the situation. I set aside time just for the event despite one of my family member is in serious condition in hospital. (he has passed away).

    I am not the only person who is ‘late’ for the event. There were others who were late too. I have to stress that i m not like you a blogger who is after freebies. So, no sour grapes at all.

  • Gav

    Just to qualify my comment above refers to the off-topic comment on another launch, and does not address the Sony Ericsson story or their agency. (dun wanna kena flamed)

  • Gav

    J, I must apologize if you were inconvenienced in any way, but i do have to defend my team here. Last minute time changes, while rare, do happen from time to time and we do what we can to the utmost to work within these constraints. We’ve done what we could to mitigate inconveniences by sending out time changes headsup days in advance, followed by call downs. We even went further to see if we could do anything by way of the media gift for yourself and others unfortunately they were extremely limited without spares.

    Again, your concerns are noted and we do apologize for you being inconvenienced – however, i do hope that you could temper your comments with reason and understanding. Snafus like this do happen from time to time, and we do what we can to firefight within the constraints we are given.

  • http://www.sabrina.sg Princessa

    To anonymonous (who apparently isn’t anno.): That’s strange, as everyone in my company across 2 different magazines got the revised timing from X. is this a case of sour grapes? Tsk.

  • anonymonous

    PR people representing the various phone companies. Pls and never at events joke about : Why are you here ? Are you invited ?

    This kind of joke is offensive and you will probably end your career sooner than later.

  • anonymonous

    Problem is i didn’t receive it at all. They should just called up to inform everyone about the revised timing.

    Seriously, I think Fleishman Hillard would definitely do a better job. They usually call up until you are so fed up receiving calls while the other blasts out email with many people not receiving it.

  • Shawncentric

    To anon:

    Erm… yeah, I received the revised timing email a few days before that event..

  • anonymonous

    There is another PR company xPX who is terrible in coordination. They can make mistakes in the timing of the Prada phone launch event. Apparently, many missed the event as it was brought forward to 1+ instead of 3.30pm without notifying media. (they claim they did).

    No apologies made and but chuck you a media kit while the rest of the attendees walk away with a free phone (heard from other media).

  • Shawncentric

    To Mike

    The Steve McCurry Press event was under the auspice of the ACM, although as Epson are one of the sponsors, they invited some of their media contacts down – mainly tech media.

    I got the vibe that Epson & their PR agency, TRS, weren’t in control of the event management.

    When I confronted PR reps from both Phish and TRS about the lack of refreshments at the same time- the Phish person shrugged her shoulders, said “Sorry” then scuttled away. The TRS person managed to find a bottle of distilled water for me. I heard later that the Epson PR manager went out and bought drinks for the media.

    It’s simple courtesy to provide some refreshments for the media attending your event – I’ve been to hastily convened sessions where the host ordered coffee delivered, and I wasn’t expecting much… but then I realised that I was there for three hours without even an offer of a drink.

    The fact that the Phish people were sitting at their table with bottled water for themselves, but totally failed to offer any to the media – or INFORM them that there were no refreshments, is indicative of their blase attitude.

  • lena goh

    all i can say is, i will try to promise never ever to do that to you guys man…poor thing

  • why kid

    oh.. this sounds all too familiar… making everyone wait forever, when all the journalists want is to go through the product introduction as quickly as possible in order to go back write their stories quick, so that the newest info can be delivered to the target audience… isn’t this what the mobile phone company wants?

    sometimes, some PR practitioners are really not thinking hard enough… and it makes us wonder how they survive? perhaps we are all just too forgiving…

  • Mike

    Hi Shawncentric, good guess and yes I was at the exhibition. However I was minded by another PR agency, instead of the organizers Phish. I thought all the agencies there did alright. But yes, come to think of it, they didn’t offer me water, but I carry my own water bottle :) At least I am glad there was no magic show!

  • Shawncentric

    Like Gin, I got to the SE event at 4pm – because the email invite said – Time: 4.00pm (4.30pm registration). That to us means that the registration is from 4 to 4.30pm – not that registration starts at 4.30pm – and it actually started much later at about 5pm.

    My main gripe isn’t about the song and dance, cheerleaders, etc. It’s a regional media event during CommunicAsia week, so you can expect some extravagance. The fact is that from a local tech journalists standpoint, it was badly managed and organized – the PR team failed in their event and contingency planning – you could tell that some of them were simply clueless on what was happening, which indicates that a proper pre-event briefing was not carried out.

    Secondly – it was more like trying to squeeze into Zouk on a guest-DJ night than a media showcase!

    If you are running a regional event, media registration is actually quite simple – you Require each individual country ‘media minder’ to hand you a form of their confirmed media attending – then you give them the nametags, etc to distribute to their media before the event. The whole registration cluster-F, where I saw Sylvia Toh Paik Choo wandering around bemused and sweaty in a jacket, was totally avoidable.

    Mike@ I will specifically name an Epic Fail at the Steve McCurry exhibition opening by the ACM and their PR agency Pish Communications that you mentioned. I was there from 4pm to 7pm – and in no time was I offered even a simple drink of water – they simply didn’t care about the media!

  • MelC

    Lol, I arrived slightly late and didn’t get a seat. I think there were about as many people standing as there were sitting.

    Btw, did anyone find out who actually won the phone? We were each given a key to the showcase, but next thing I knew, showcase was open, phone gone.

  • anonymonous

    To Sherwin

    I am surprised that they treat Straits time’/Digital Life people this way. Who will want to write for them in future?

    I think we should start a blog of PR companies to avoid. :)

  • Sherwin Loh

    Well, anonymonous. got it right.

    Registration was a pain and to add to that – there were actually two media lines, one for local and one for foreign ones to register. Without anyone guiding the media, we filtered into one of the two lines.

    Imagine my surprise after waiting under the hot sun for 20 minutes, only to be told by the PR at the table that I was to have registered at the next table. It would have been so much easier for her to just reach over to grab my pass, which she did after noticing my evil eye.

    And in the end, I’m sure I got my pass. I wouldn’t know because they printed my name wrong.

    I just wish we had more hands-on time with the three devices, but with everyone squeezing and shoving, anyone was lucky to even touch the units.

  • Andrew

    Well, I am a PR guy, and it isn’t professional to ask a journalist to wait two hours for a product launch. Especially not a tech journalist, and especially not during CommunicAsia.

    It is also inhumane to make someone wait without air conditioning. I pity the poor foreign journos who come from cooler climates…

    And besides, nothing wrong with commenting on what went wrong – so that we all know in the future what to avoid.

  • Alfred Siew

    Hi Min Goh,
    You wrongly slated Gin Lee for being late – he turned up earlier than the 4.30pm stated on the invite because he came from another appointment.

    It was me who was late – you probably read my post previously and did not check. It’s true I should have been on time, but the show already started when I turned up, so NO, it wasn’t because of me that it was delayed. I certainly didn’t expect a crowd of hundreds to wait for a blogger/DL contributor to turn up!

    What we did not like was the fashion shows, etc, which took up so much time and the fact that there was no time for the media to check out the phones.

    As for the tech media, I think you should ask seasoned PR veterans how it is dealing with media from other sectors – you’ll be surprised how many of them will say the tech media, particularly from Singapore, are some of the easiest folks to work with.

  • anonymonous.

    I was at CommunicAsia 2009 and i was early at 3.45pm. Board the bus and waited till 4.15pm before it finally sets it’s journey to Red Dot Museum.

    When the bus with just a couple of journalists basically from overseas. No one directed us on what to do. We were looking around for media registration. Saw a queue there, we lined up and passed our name cards. Guess What!! Our pass cannot be found.

    I am more pissed when someone at the outdoor bar counter asked me if I am part of the party (apparently i have no pass) and I was asking for another cup of Coke. It was so HOT out there waiting under the sun.

    The PR girl later just walked away without giving any indications. I just hang around feeling like just going over to maxwell market for a drink.

    I waited till 4.30pm, i asked the PR guy, he quickly passed me a media pass which has no name on it…. simply unprofessoinal.

    While the crowd were squeezing into the so booody crowded place. I don’t even have a place to sit in the media area.

    I found a seat at last but it was so far back, making video taking an impossible mission.

    The magic show was great but the launch was just old stuff. While it is time to take a closer look at the phones, the crowd of media and probably fans of some celebrities were all squeezing on the same lane.

    While it did generate some buzz, it is definitely not good for us, the media. It is totally imposssible for us to take any photos at all!. I gave up and didn’t. bother. So are other media from other countries.

    Most of them left frustrated. The food is terrible too.

    I wonder who is the organiser this time round. It is the worst PR job i have ever seen.

  • ginlee

    Hey Min, I turned up early for the event and waited an hour for the event to start. Maybe you misread my post. Unforgiving is when we dont write about their products. Forgiving is when we rant about it so they know how to improve next time, and we still write about their products.

  • Min Goh

    I think that you are just being as unprofessional as you think the PR people at SE are.

    First, you are not respecting the organiser by turning up late for the event. It’s probably because so many people turn up late like yourself that caused the delay in starting the event.

    And you are so wrong to say that tech media are forgiving. If you are forgiving, you would not have bitched about it here.

    I think you are just abusing the fact that you are media and you can say whatever you want on this blog.

  • Albert

    I guess on the plus side (in the previous post) the product launch did have some very good eye candy.

  • raf

    hopefully their product launch does not reflect the kind of product they have.

  • Mike

    Ha… reminds me of one time eons ago at a certain event when the PR wanted two of us, me and the interviewer to wait till the end of ceremony to do the profile shots we needed. We wanted to use the break time to grab the shots, but the PR wanted us to hang around until everything’s over. The interviewer basically threw a fuss and the PR relented.

    Today I was at two events, and I heard that originally the two events clashed in timing. So somehow the two organizers changed their timings so attendees can make it to both events. And the organizers of the later event even arranged for transport so that we can get from event A to event B on time. Kudos for the well thought-out logistics.

  • Alfred Siew

    It was really a bad event for a tech journo. All we want to do is get something done and move on. Parties like these can be separate from the media event, so everyone gets what they are there for – quickly.