There's been a fair amount of turnover in the marketing department over the past year and half. There aren't a lot of people who have been there for very long.
BGWFans & Busch Gardens Williamsburg
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
BGW has for a long while invited questionable sites, bloggers and vloggers. Some post things on their social media pages thats not meant for kids yet BGW sill invites them. They also invite people that will post one video thats not really focused on said event and has zero followers. Ive seen both and more. To be honest many times the media event is after they let the public see or ride new attractions. To be honest the last media event that was really spectacular was the one for Verbolten......keep doing what you do and never sellout of a free quick queue and swag bag!
To follow up what @WDWRLD said, we have observed that many (most?) of the organizations that are invited to the media events do nothing but repost press releases.
Of course I always share that copy with this Forum, as well, because we have tried to be cooperative. But we reserve our front page and social media site for our original content. We ask questions that we believe represent the community’s interests, and we do independent analysis. We believe that is the role of independent outlets. We are not on the BGW payroll; we fund our own visits (memberships, merch, food, etc); and we do not use media events as free family theme park trips. In other words, we do not work for the marketing team, and it is not reasonable to act as if we do.
Interesting aside: I have received emails from BGW marketing directing me to change the content of our published text. Naturally, I politely declined.
Another interesting aside: I heard another blogger at a media event complaining to BGW marketing that SeaWorld wouldn’t comp tickets for her and her family.
Of course I always share that copy with this Forum, as well, because we have tried to be cooperative. But we reserve our front page and social media site for our original content. We ask questions that we believe represent the community’s interests, and we do independent analysis. We believe that is the role of independent outlets. We are not on the BGW payroll; we fund our own visits (memberships, merch, food, etc); and we do not use media events as free family theme park trips. In other words, we do not work for the marketing team, and it is not reasonable to act as if we do.
Interesting aside: I have received emails from BGW marketing directing me to change the content of our published text. Naturally, I politely declined.
Another interesting aside: I heard another blogger at a media event complaining to BGW marketing that SeaWorld wouldn’t comp tickets for her and her family.
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- Feb 3, 2019
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@Zachary I've been thinking about your situation with BGW a bit more lately.
Would it be completely unethical if you registered a domain for a 'new' fansite and only posted all the press releases like BGW would like you to do?
And then you get to attend the media events under that domain's press pass; publish their press release to fulfil your obligation and put all the real reporting here?
I guess that might be risking you getting 'for real' banned from the park... And there's probably a moral victory to be had in 'doing it the right way'... But yeah.
Would it be completely unethical if you registered a domain for a 'new' fansite and only posted all the press releases like BGW would like you to do?
And then you get to attend the media events under that domain's press pass; publish their press release to fulfil your obligation and put all the real reporting here?
I guess that might be risking you getting 'for real' banned from the park... And there's probably a moral victory to be had in 'doing it the right way'... But yeah.
Yes. It would violate our beliefs about responsible reporting, and it would essentially be cheating and lying to get access to private property and restricted data.
If I wasn't instantly recognizable by everyone in BGW marketing that might be a viable strategy. It gets my hands too dirty for my tastes though. I would want a degree of separation to give everyone plausible deniability.
During the old days, I definitely did think about trying to get close allies to spin up "shell" sites that do just enough to get into these events though. The idea was that then those people could act as a backchannel to BGWFans. That is how I would do it... If i were going to do something like that... Which I definitely wouldn't...
PS: If any of you happen to run a totally legit outlet with BGW media access, my inbox is always open. ?
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- Feb 3, 2019
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this is why no one likes the press. whats next Zachary, chasing park presidents with cameras in cars?
I mean, there's clearly one obvious solution:
We need to crowdfund Zachary's plastic surgery.
Not to drum up more drama, but im curious about your take on the fake news thing. When it happened i thought it was just a joke from the park essentially having no good response and just putting out a tongue in cheek comment.
I have trouble seeing it as an effort to actually discredit bgwfans. I mean, i think that comment is used sarcastically fairly often.
I have trouble seeing it as an effort to actually discredit bgwfans. I mean, i think that comment is used sarcastically fairly often.
This is how I read it too. I didn't read it as an insult but instead as the park attempting to be funny.
- Feb 3, 2019
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I think when you take the comment in the context alongside them being black listed from park events though...
That's when the comment stops being funny.
Ha ha ha ha ha... Oh, by the way, eff you.
I'm not saying that isn't how it is perceived now. I'm just saying how I perceived it at the time. We didn't have all the context that we currently have.
Sooooo.....I'm not normally 'this guy', but I do know someone that works at SEAS, and we were talking the other day about the announced projects. She was talking about how excited they are with all the press out there. I was so tempted to bring up and make a comment on this situation, but I bit my tongue knowing it wasn't really the place to talk on y'alls behalf. I would if you wanted me to next time I talk to her.
I'm just so disappointed in BGW's marketing to be so petty. I know I already said that, but it bears repeating. Even if their "Fake News" tweet was 'tongue in cheek' joking around, they could have made the tweet a little more obvious. But when they come up with denying the news outlet with press passes, when I know some of the people that got a pass are 'jokes' of a 'news outlet' (aka I got a twitter account with 1,000 followers and I tweet a bunch of pics from parks), they crossed a major line IMO. Reminds me of the 'media day' at the White House in the fall when all the fringe media outlets were allowed access to El Presedente and the traditional news outlets were forced way in the back.
I'm just so disappointed in BGW's marketing to be so petty. I know I already said that, but it bears repeating. Even if their "Fake News" tweet was 'tongue in cheek' joking around, they could have made the tweet a little more obvious. But when they come up with denying the news outlet with press passes, when I know some of the people that got a pass are 'jokes' of a 'news outlet' (aka I got a twitter account with 1,000 followers and I tweet a bunch of pics from parks), they crossed a major line IMO. Reminds me of the 'media day' at the White House in the fall when all the fringe media outlets were allowed access to El Presedente and the traditional news outlets were forced way in the back.
We are happy to have BGW tease or even poke us a little when we do something that really annoys them. Everyone is entitled to a little fun.
The issue was really that we were randomly dropped from the HOS media list with no contact, then they called us FakeNews, then we were ignored for the Christmas Town event, and then we were flat-out denied access for this construction tour.
Little jabs back and forth come with the territory. We do things that sorta annoy them. We expect them to do things that sorta annoy us. We were happily coexisting in that sweet spot of "sibling rivalry"—we could both dish it out and take it—and at the end of the day we could still coexist with open lines of communication. If shit ever hit the fan, we would have each other's backs. BGW seems to not be interested in that relationship right now.
The issue was really that we were randomly dropped from the HOS media list with no contact, then they called us FakeNews, then we were ignored for the Christmas Town event, and then we were flat-out denied access for this construction tour.
Little jabs back and forth come with the territory. We do things that sorta annoy them. We expect them to do things that sorta annoy us. We were happily coexisting in that sweet spot of "sibling rivalry"—we could both dish it out and take it—and at the end of the day we could still coexist with open lines of communication. If shit ever hit the fan, we would have each other's backs. BGW seems to not be interested in that relationship right now.
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