Big Killer Concerts
by Jonathan Ratcliffe on 2009/12/15
So I went to watch The Killers in Paarl this weekend and what a concert it was! Getting there was a bit of a nightmare and so we unfortunately missed Goldfish and Zebra and Giraffe but the Killers were out of this world. The R100 extra for Golden Circle was well worth it and we had a killer time (sorry, couldn’t resist). We went to the party at the Val de Vie Polo club afterwards which was also great fun. All in all it was an awesome jol but that’s not why I’m writing.
The real reason why I am writing is because some attendees of the concert spent 4 hours getting to the concert and 5 getting back home again afterwards and I’d like to have a look at the manner in which Big Concerts responded.
The bigger question is, if a brand or organisation has stepped out of line or blundered massively, what is the best course of response action online? I’m not certain of the answer to that but lets see what Big Concerts had to say and perhaps we can let you decide the rest?
Firstly to Big Concert's credit, they were very quick, they had a press release out the next morning saying the following:
"BIG Concerts
Media Statement
Monday, 07 December 2009
Cape Town
Concert promoter Big Concerts, the organisers of The Killers concert, which
took place on Sunday, 6th December at Val de Vie Wine and Polo Estate in
Cape Town, have expressed their apologies to patrons who experienced
traffic congestion when entering and exiting the venue.
Despite a rigorous planning and risk assessment process conducted by the
organisers of the concert and regional traffic authorities, the road network
around the venue was unable to handle the sheer volume of traffic
congestion, which resulted from the event. This was the first time that the
venue had been used to host an event of this size. As a consequence of last
night’s concert, the experience gained by the organisers will surely be
valuable for future events at Val de Vie and other locations in the area.
Additional traffic officers and parking ushers were called in to assist with the
load challenge and everything possible was done to untangle the
unfortunate gridlock.
It appears from reports that most ticket holders made it in time to see the
Killers performance, despite the regrettable and unexpected traffic
challenges that they experienced.
Big Concerts has requested that all complaints and comments be addressed
to the organising team by email at info@bigconcerts.co.za, in order to allow
for the experience of fans to be considered and improved on for future
concerts."
The thing which created frustration is that they stated that they had planned thoroughly and what had happened was beyond their control. The thing with Social Media (the comments box on 24.com and 2oceansvibe) is that it does not allow one sided stories. There were 1000’s of eyewitnesses who said that it was very poorly planned and it was impossible to expect that many cars to exit on one dirt road. What made this problem worse for Big Concerts is that all these readers who disagreed with the press release were also angry and had spent 4 hours in their cars and so they really wanted to vent their frustrations.
So what unfolded was hundreds of responses across numerous websites and pretty much all of them had the same sentiment. Have a look below at a few comments from the 24.com site and just a note, I wasn’t taking the really bad ones, these were just three short comments in a row:
Colleen 12/7/2009 1:40:55 PM
"I vow to never attend another music concert. What a joke - missed huge part of the show so that we could get out of there. What a waste of R800."
Garry 12/7/2009 1:41:25 PM
"Big Concerts are always quick to pass the buck and seem to organize everything on the cheap."
"the Killers performance was one of the very best I have ever seen."
Duncan 12/7/2009 1:41:47 PM
"Meet the team - these people are responsible for the misery expressed here. thanks!"
I think this is a great example of how different today’s media is. In the past Big Concerts would have published this press release and the job would have been finished but now angry readers get to have their say and challenge the integrity of the statement for the world to see.
So this brings me back to the question on which I started this post, if there is a “Reputation Crisis” of this nature online, how does an organisation deal with it?
I think the most important answer to that question is that one must be 100% transparent and honest on every point. If an online statement misrepresents the actual events in any way the online world will expose the truth. There were 20 000 people at the concert and they all had to exit on one road and so the truth is that, the “rigorous logistics guy” should have foreseen a problem.
So being completely transparent in a case like this is important and I also think it’s vital to monitor digital media and online forums, this allows you to react appropriately when you can see a problem getting out of hand. There were 180 comments on the 24.com blog alone and yet no response from Big Concerts.
At the end of the day, I have been to plenty of Big Concerts gigs and to date and they have all been great. This is the company who have brought everything from Roxette and the Spice Girls to U2 and Counting Crows to South Africa over the last 20 years and I think that is something important to remember in times when things go wrong.
So Big Concerts, thanks for making South Africa a better place over the years but this time you cocked up, I say you stand up and own it and this little YouTube clip from Jet Blue is a great example of a company doing just that.
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