- When : Saturday 14 November 2009
- Who : Rentabiliweb (audience monetizer and audience builder website, event organisators) and Mailorama (website that pay Internet users for reading their emails and visiting selected websites, owned by Rentabiliweb)
- Where : Paris, 7th arrondissement, Champ-de-Mars / Eiffel Tower
Last week, Rentabiliweb announced that they would distribute 100 000 € in cash (5€ to 500€ bills) to anyone that would be by the Eiffel Tower at 2 p.m. on Saturday 14 November. The objective was to promote their company Mailorama and to increase their audience.
The event was cancelled for security reasons which led to major disorders and violent incidents as between 5000 to 7000 people had come. Broken shop windows, knocked over cars, vandalized stores, rocks thrown on the Police...
It obviously sparked off a lot of reactions from the public, the Media and members from the Government which put the Internet company in the spotlight of the debate. And Rentabiliweb is famous for that ; a few months ago, they also launched a website called "Fais mes devoirs" (Do my homework) offering to Junior High and High School students the possibility to get their homework done or corrected by professionals in exchange for money. The website was closed three days later but the buzz was huge as well for the company as for the employee who came up with the idea. Same employee who came up with the idea for Mailorama cash distribution by the way...
...???...
So what to think about this kind of event ?
It has been done before in France (Easyjet dropped free plane tickets in Paris La Defense from a dirigible airship) and in other countries such as the USA and Canada and it went pretty smoothly. Then again, it wasn't always announced so does it make the surprise factor important ?
Is it a good idea to use money as promotion ?
So many questions I am hoping you can give me your opinions and reactions on !
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