top 10 marketing lessons learned from the ateneo bonfire incident : part 1 - background

a recap of the event:

a man, allegedly an ateneo alumni wrote the names of old and new la salle basketball players on wood, including an arrow design. this man brought the wood, and there were a lot of them, to the bonfire celebration and put the wood onto the pile of wood that the ateneo staff had put there which we assume to be during the morning of the bonfire. the wood the ateneo staff put there did not have any markings on them. the bonfire was lit, including the wood with the names of basketball players of la salle.

someone took pictures of the wood with the names of the la salle players, including one picture showing the man setting the wood with the names on the pile. these pictures were posted on the internet. the pictures elicited reactions and comments, negative, positive and indifferent from various forums, specially those internet communities inhabited by la salle, ateneo and other UAAP students and school communities. those pictures and what they meant was the singular topic of discussions among these internet communities.

so far this incident and the resulting outrage and reactions on the event have not migrated to traditional mass media. (except for one, printed today at the PDI, link to the article below, at bottom of this post.) it is largely contained within the internet world and among these specific internet communities.

the bonfire celebration was held on the quadrangle of the field of grass between the college admin and belarmine buildings. it did not rain the whole day, until around late afternoon when it rained heavily for almost an hour. that turned the field into a muddy mess and will get your shoes soaked in mud 1 inch to 2 inches high from your heels, depending on where you walk on that open field.

the bonfire has been set in the middle of the field, with metal barricades around it to prevent people from going to the wood pile. there were no lights or flood lights that lit the bonfire area. the whole place was actually very poorly lit with lights concentrated on the stage, set quite a distance from the bonfire and lights on the food and drink stalls that were located at the edges of the grounds, closest to the roads and quite a distance from the bonfire. a large part of the field had no lights at all.

walking to the bonfire is quite difficult - too muddy, too dark and very slippery. but based on the pictures, a few seemed to have made it there. but that means not a lot have seen the bonfire itself and specifically the pile of wood for the bonfire. most of the people who attended the bonfire, maybe 10,000 to 15,000 in all were spread across the vast field and adjoining streets and buildings. people were facing the stage so at most, maybe a few hundred stood around the bonfire.

but since the bonfire was not at all lit and very dark, you really can't see much of the wood that's on the pile. the only way you can see if there are things written on the wood would be if you took a picture of the pile and your flash lit the wood. you can of course read anything written on them if you happen to be looking at the pile while the flashes of cameras of other people lit them.

in other words, among the 10,000 to 15,000 people who attended the bonfire that night, perhaps as few as 300 knew there were names written on the wood. a significantly high number of people who went to the bonfire and most specially most of the la sallites and la salle community members would have not known about the names had they not seen the pictures posted in the internet.


so far, so good? reactions? additions? subtractions? please let us know.

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just got this now, 1 article in PDI online, read here : http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/you/2bu/view/20081003-164461/Stoking-the-fire


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