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Samsung's Mob!lers (read Mobilers) IFA 2012, an event held in Berlin, Germany for electronic makers to showcase their latest and to be launched products, turned out to be an all out fight between bloggers.
It all started after a blogger wrote about a couple of Indian participants in the programme who were allegedly threatened by Samsung. The blogger claimed that the Indian participants were told that they would be left back in Berlin because of not meeting the company’s demand.
They were asked to pose as ‘promoters’ with its devices at the event wearing Samsung’s uniform. They opted to attend as ‘reporters’ and not as ‘promoters’ as per choice given in the invite, but they were forced to attend as ‘promoters’ in Berlin.
Clinton Jeff of ‘Unleash the Phones’ and another blogger who asked to remain unnamed were two of the ones who were chosen as winners of a contest ( Samsung Mobilers) and given Mobiler perks.
“Engaging with the programmes means that they get access and they get to bring news to their respective audiences,” the blogger has written. In short, their hands were forced. They attended the event, in the Samsung shirt, but did opt to not stand and demonstrate the phones, he said in the blog.
On not doing so, Samsung informed them saying their flight will booked for September 1 (to be shuttled home as soon as possible), instead of being in Berlin until September 5, covering the rest of IFA.
However, another blogger in contrast has written that if someone mentions that they were not informed about this, then its clearly wrong because everyone in the group were CCed and everyone knew about Promoter Activities.
“Along with this they were still given a choice to become a Reporter and join the IFA event if they didn’t wish to continue as a Promoter,” he wrote.
When asked Samsung, the company said, “Samsung Mob!lers is a voluntary community of active Samsung mobile device users, who are offered the opportunity to participate in our marketing events across the world.”
At these events, all activities they undertake are on a voluntary basis. No activities are forced upon anyone, it said.
Samsung said it regretted there was a misunderstanding between the coordinators and the relevant blogger, as it understood he was not sufficiently briefed on the nature of Samsung Mob!lers’ activities at IFA 2012.
“We have been attempting to get in touch with him. We respect the independence of bloggers to publish their own stories,” it added.
>ronendrasingh.s@thehindu.co.in
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