Not quite a media fail, however we think that Jasons Travel Media could have done better.
The general press release announcing "Stayed, Paid and Raved" came as a surprise to their advertisers - the accommodation providers that will be critiqued and work with the new customer review system.
It would seem that Jasons momentarily forgot who their customers were. They underestimated that the success of their review system will depend on first selling the concept to their advertisers. Although on-line reviews are very much mainstream and a growing phenomenon, it didn't seem to be appreciated that this will take the average motelier out of their comfort zone. For Jasons to allow their advertisers to read about "Stayed, Paid and Raved" in a general press release is not a good look.
The other oversight that Jasons made was claiming that they were the "first travel company in New Zealand to offer authenticated reviews". Unfortunately they overlooked Kiwi-owned Ezibed.com that have been operating a guest review system for some time on their popular last minute accommodatuion website.
To their credit, Jasons have made good by emailing an update to their client database last night that introduced the "Stayed, Paid and Raved" system to their advertisers and fronted up with their incorrect NZ first claim:
"We'd also like to take the opportunity to correct an inconsistency in our original press release. We had previously thought that we were the first travel company in New Zealand to offer authenticated reviews, but since going to market we've been informed by a competitor that they have been offering such a service. We'd like to apologise to Ezibed for this original claim in our press release".
For Jasons, they will need to connect and understand the psychology of their accommodation advertisers. It's going to take a series of fireside chats to warm their clients to the concept of "Stayed, Paid and Raved". We will be interested to follow how they do this and in particular, how moteliers will react;-)
We wish Jasons all the best. Their customer review system is a bold and worthy new initiative that we hope will be successful for them.
