Clever ASIS / GSX Social Media Marketing Campaign But Violates FTC Guidelines

JH
John Honovich
•Apr 20, 2018
IPVM

While we have criticized ASIS rebranding their show to GSX, their current marketing campaign is clever.

The deal is: Post a selfie showing the ASIS / GSX ad on social media, get a chance at a free trip to ASIS GSX 2018, including registration, airfare, and hotel.

Here are a few examples:

All together, maybe 20 or 30 people have done so. There are 10 days left to enter.

Good for ASIS: it is social proof and user-generated advertising for them. ASIS can share them and use them in advertising as testimonials.

Good for people doing it - let's say 50 people do it and it's worth ~$2,000, that's the equivalent of $40 per person who posts (note: ASIS values it at $3,250 but that includes (economy only) airfare up to $1,600 which is high assuming a NA winner).

Violates FTC Guidelines

However, ASIS is violating FTC guidelines. From the FTC's Guide:

UPDATE: After IPVM's criticism, ASIS has changed its rules to include #sweepstakes in the social media posts.

Other Contests

What do you think? Should more companies do this?

  • Hikvision selfie campaign - Win a free trip to China?
  • Arecont selfie campaign - Fix one's broken camera's?
  • Others?
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U
Undisclosed #1
•Apr 20, 2018

I got that thing in the mail the other day. I read through it and thought "this is kind of pathetic and will get very low traction on social media, making people look more desperate and pandering than anything".

Also, does this contest require any kind of disclosure by the participants? FTC Rules for Social Media Sponsorships and Contests

I don't think the security industry has enough active social media participants with enough style and panache to make things like this successful. They always feel a bit too thirsty to me.

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JH
John Honovich
•Apr 20, 2018
IPVM
In reply to Undisclosed #1

Oh? They literally mailed it to all their members? Ok, that's a fair bit of money.

does this contest require any kind of disclosure by the participants?

Good point! Evidently, it does and ASIS is not following that. From the FTC's Guide:

I've added it to the original post and relay that to ASIS.

U
Undisclosed #1
•Apr 20, 2018
In reply to John Honovich

Oh? They literally mailed it to all their members?

Well, I am not a member, so I think they may have mailed it to "everyone".

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JH
John Honovich
•Apr 20, 2018
IPVM
In reply to Undisclosed #1

30 social media posts out of ~50,000 letters, maybe I should reconsider my analysis here.....

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U
Undisclosed #2
•Apr 20, 2018
In reply to Undisclosed #1

I'm so very glad that you posted this comment first.

I like the idea of ASIS using a social engagement strategy after the show rebranding fiasco, but - like you - I dislike the image of cracking a whip and making dancing bears climb onto pedestals to maybe get a treat.  It is objectionable to me as a human being.

I do not fault those that have applied - just as I can't help feeling slightly embarrassed for them for their applications.

imo, these kinds of contests are designed to reward the ass-kisser crowd.  So most who apply try to add as much ass-kissing comments as possible relating to the contest holder in order to increase their chances of winning the all-expenses-paid free trip to ASISGSX.

 

 

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JR
Jarad Regan
•Apr 21, 2018

I actually laughed out loud at the "Arecont, fix one's broken cameras." I never thought I would do anything but cry at the mention of Arecont.

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Scott Napier
•Apr 23, 2018

I am fairly certain that zero Federal or State Government Employees would legally be allowed to do this.  

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JH
John Honovich
•Apr 23, 2018
IPVM
In reply to Scott Napier

Scott, good point. I know there are restrictions / issues in receiving gifts but I don't know how they exactly work. I did find a US Office of Government Ethics memo on 'Prizes as gifts' that talks about the issues.

Avatar
David Morgan
•Apr 24, 2018
Security Dealer Marketing

Great post John.  I wasn't aware of it.  I agree that this is a very clever marketing tactic.  I'd venture to say when it's all said and done your post should at least double their social media mentions so hopefully some from ASIS GSX says thank you to you and IPVM!  LOL

So question for everyone...why is ISC West growing and ASIS GSX is in a decline?  I've only been in the industry for 8 1/2 years so that's a serious question.   I like the design and it appears as if they hired a marketing agency from outside the industry that probably doesn't understand ours.

Sometimes it's better to do something vs. nothing but clearly many of us here don't agree with their execution of it.  Does anyone have any ideas on how ASIS GSX can make improvements?  

Getting back to the original question, I agree with John that this is a very clever idea but clearly, postcards alone aren't enough.  One of the groups that we work with that had an event at ISC West, generated a significantly greater return with the lionshare of their marketing being in 3 key areas:

1. Facebook

2. Email

3. LinkedIn

Results generated were in that order.  Believe it or not Facebook was the # 1 driver.  We didn't even bother with Twitter ads but I'd bet you a beer (or 2 or 3) that even Twitter would significantly outperform just postcards. In their defense I did see that they posted this promotion on LinkedIn organically on their company page, but clearly that approach alone won't get it done.  Without me getting into details, the specific group that I referenced above had the most RSVP's in their history for this event and more importantly 4 times as many prospects as they've ever had in the events annual history.  Looks like someone hired the wrong agency LOL. 

Clearly, things having changed, and they are experiencing it.  Everywhere I go (industry events) I see individuals from SIA ISC West.  They have a very well executed and aggressive marketing strategy. Maybe ASIS GSX should consider asking for some help from ISC or even John for some friendly advice.  Thoughts???

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JH
John Honovich
•Apr 24, 2018
IPVM
In reply to David Morgan

So question for everyone...why is ISC West growing and ASIS GSX is in a decline?

It's actually a good question. From an outside perspective, it is not so clear why this would be the case. ASIS has far more end user members, far more enthusiastic participants than SIA, and far better training. And yet SIA's ISC West is beating them badly, now more than 50% bigger in attendees.

My hunch is (1) ISC West is always in Vegas while ASIS / GSX goes from city to city. Vegas is easy to get to, most people know where to stay, eat, etc. year to year. By contrast, ASIS is in Chicago, Philly, Dallas, Orlando, Anaheim, etc., which can be harder to get to and/or not as familiar or attractive as Vegas. (2) More new products are introduced in the beginning of the year, which draws more people. (3) Having a show right after summer is not a great time.

Believe it or not Facebook was the # 1 driver. 

Can you elaborate on that? More people RSVPed for the even off of Facebook vs email? I ask because it sounds atypical and I am trying to understand. Generally, if one has a good email list, nothing else comes close.

Maybe ASIS GSX should consider asking for some help from ISC or even John for some friendly advice. Thoughts???

ASIS 'partners' with any and every media company, regardless of how small, except for IPVM. My read is that they cannot handle criticism, which may be another reason for their challenges.

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Avatar
David Morgan
•Apr 24, 2018
Security Dealer Marketing
In reply to John Honovich

Thanks  for your thoughts on why there is a decline.   They do make sense to me as contributing factors.  

Regarding Facebook you’re absolutely correct. All things being equal, email will kick almost anything else in the rear with regards to its ROI and results.  Without me getting to the exact specifics, all things were not equal in this particular case which is why Facebook slightly outperformed  email but not by much.

An interesting fact that we have not shared publicly until now is we have a rather large database of industry professionals that is 96+% dealers and integrators.  With the recent advertising capability of LinkedIn whereas you are able to upload a database and have it be a custom audience for your marketing purposes  I would think that they would have a higher percentage take rate in LinkedIn versus Facebook. To our surprise, believe it or not Facebook has a much higher tale rate versus  LinkedIn by over 15%.  Also the engagement, available inventory and CPM’s are considerably different on both platforms.  I don’t have exact data to prove why Facebook engagement is stronger in our experience vs LinkedIn engagement however my hunch is probably for a similar reason as to why most IPVM users in engage anonymously versus by using their name.  In LinkedIn,  whether purposely or not, we are much more cautious about how we engage with other posts as opposed to Facebook we are more free spirited. When he was on the thread may not have a Facebook personal profile however it’s the fact that seven out of 10 Americans do indeed have a Facebook in my statements are general ones not exact specific ones to us individually.

 

JH
John Honovich
•Apr 30, 2018
IPVM

Update: ASIS has modified the rules to meet FTC guidelines, now directing entrants to use the hashtag #sweepstakes

You are welcome, ASIS.

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