Being a Karachiite I know how it sounds to have some FREE Entertainment-filled event and that too on Weekend night. The Action packed event of Mountain Dew happened yesterday at Moin Khan Academy where more than 3000 people showed up. Well what actually happened there is coming ahead.
The event had everything an ordinary Karachiite needs for his Weekend to be well-spent. I was invited by Team Grey Density as a blogger, before coming forward with my actual and honest review about the event, three cheers for their team to pull-off a great social media and digital campaign throughout. It was very well-executed.
#Karachi, lets witness this amazing-ness and yes dont forget the discipline! (Y) @DewPK#DewCrew#DewActionpic.twitter.com/oTLYrJ7Ze4
— Hira Saeed (@heerasaeed) April 18, 2015
The gates had to be closed by sharp 6pm as written on the pass so I reached there at 5.45. By the time I reached Nueplex, I saw hundreds of people moving forward for Moin Khan Academy having Dew bottle in hand. I was seated by one of the organizers at sharp 6.25.
My first selfie of the Evening *_*
The event kick started at 7.40, few International delegates’ cheered audience from the top and audience was equally responding in excitement. Just to mention that I was among those 400 people who were seated. Rest of the people was standing, i was feeling really sorry for them. It was very very crowded.
What happened next was the biggest smash. Sales tactic of having Mountain Dew in hand was back-fired. People started throwing Dew bottles on each other and some were throwing them open in air. Within few moments the whole ground had Mountain Dew Rain and grass was filled with empty bottles.
@DewPK When sales gimmick turned out to be a disaster! Dew bottles flying all over the place. Pathetic! #DewActionpic.twitter.com/U87xn1XzBj
— Waqas Artani (@WaqasArtani) April 19, 2015
Now when all the bottles were hand-picked by management team, people left with nothing to throw out and hence event was started. 3 bikers came and showed some breath-taking stunts. The audience was going crazy to see more of it.
Now the next happening was the arrival of Hamza Ali Abbasi where girls went mad, they had no interest in what he is saying, all they wanted is to have a selfie with him. Well, he was looking good tbh, *winks* 😉
Picture Courtesy: Zubaida Khan
I had to leave the venue at 9 because of the suffocation hence I didn’t experience the concert. I took an exit from pavilion area and reached to the gate from where I entered. Bang! What I saw there was unbelievable. More than thousand people were trying to get in and were pushing gates so hard that management guys started counting their moments of life. I asked them to give me an exit and they said “Madam, gate khola to koi nahe bachega, bahar 1000 se b zyada log hain”. There were frustrated families and kids trying hard to get out but no one was helping. Few of the families started taking exits by crossing walls, now imagine aunties and kids doing so. I did my job and clicked a picture of this redefined stunt at an event powered by a multi-national company Pepsi Co.
This is how a family took exit. Utterly Disgusting!
Well, after waiting for almost 1 hour I got a chance to get out and I took a breath of relief. Twitter was flooded with people’s anger and frustration and few were appreciating it though. Rather going into why this was happened, being an event manager myself I have compiled few things to learn from the mis-management of #DewAction event.
- Never offer anything for free if you cannot handle masses coming over to enjoy it.
- Bloggers/Media people were there to cover YOUR event, give them wifi, charging spots and out-of-crowd seats to show some respect.
- Gate of Entrance and Exit can never be the same. Any medical emergency could have taken Pepsi Co. to the court.
- Any sales gimmick/tactic should be done with all the consequences in mind, if its about numbers charging them for pass was a good option.
- Talk to your audience in their language, the host was speaking English which I bet 70% of audience didn’t understand as they were from all over Karachi.
- Time management is the foremost thing to keep an eye on.
- Passes (If free) should be available at some specific spots only. If not, write Free entry on it. Some people made whole loads of money yesterday.
For a brand like Mountain Dew, this event could have made huge buzz but sadly it couldn’t. People like me expect a lot more from a brand like Dew. You take your goodwill wherever you go, I don’t know what those international delegates thought about it but me as an ordinary Karachiite is utterly disappointed.
Overall rating: 2.5/5
More pictures of the events are attached. Pictures courtesy of Irtiza Jafri, HBN Studios, Israr Shah Photography and obvoously Me! 😉
Hira Saeed 