On June 4, 1974, the Cleveland Indians ran a promotion that would become legend – but not in the good way.

It was a home game against the Texas Rangers. Just six days earlier, Cleveland had played in Texas. Texas not only won that game, it also featured a bench clearing brawl due to what Cleveland believed to be some cheap plays by Texas players.

Now, Cleveland was having a rough year. So, to encourage fans to attend the game, management ran a “10 Cent Beer Night” offer: 8-ounce pours with an unlimited limit. That’s about 50 cents a beer today.

What could go wrong?

25,134 fans attended that game, and there were more than 60,000 beers poured. Cleveland fans, already fired up over the earlier game, became restless as Texas jumped to a 5-1 lead. Women flashed, men mooned, and a streaker ran on field and slid into second base (um, dude?).

Things turned very ugly in the ninth, as fans began throwing items ranging from silly (hot dogs) to dangerous (batteries) on the field and firing fireworks into Texas’ dugout. Texas player Mike Hargrove was almost hit by a gallon jug of Thunderbird.

Cleveland tied the game, but they would never get a chance to win it because fans stormed the field and a riot broke out. Ken Aspromonte, the Manager of the Indians, realizing that some of the Rangers’ lives were in legitimate danger (some fans were armed with knives, chains, and portions of the stadium’s seats that they had ripped off), told his players to grab bats and help out Texas.

The game couldn’t be finished and was forfeited to Texas. Ultimately there were nine arrests, seven people had to go to the emergency room, and the field and stadium were extensively damaged.

Cleveland had three more unlimited “10 Cent Beer Nights” on their promotions schedule, but the league made them change it –  to a limit of only four beers per person.

Photo Credit: Shutdown Inning

Best Laid Plans…

What was intended as a fun way to get fans into the stadium, ended in a riot. Cleveland’s management should have seen this coming, right?

Well, that’s where this story gets tricky. In hindsight it’s easy to see where everything went wrong. The game against Texas was a perfect storm. There had been other “10 Cent Beer Nights” – there had even been “5 Cent Beer Days” – and those went off without a hitch. Even the Rangers, beneficiaries of the Indians’ forfeit, held a “10 Cent Beer Night” promotion just one week earlier.

So, knowing those facts, it’s easy to understand how people were able to overlook the looming “10 Cent Beer Night” catastrophe. But, that doesn’t negate the fact that someone should have seen it coming. “10 Cent Beer Night” was always a bad idea – a disaster waiting to happen (I can’t even image how dangerous the roads were after these promotions).

It’s thinks like “10 Cent Beer Night” that keeps experiential marketing professionals up at night. While the goal of experiential marketing is to thrill and excite your audience, to put on a show that will generate buzz good feelings, should things go wrong they can really go wrong.

As an experiential marketer, you need to be the person looking for the potential flaws in an activation. It’s up to you to make sure that your engagement is blowing up on social media for the right reasons.

Here are a few Experiential Marketing Bloopers and what we can learn from them.

That Idea is Poison

Jagermeister just wanted to jazz up its pool party in Leon, Mexico with a little atmosphere. And what looks cooler than the “smoke” created by liquid nitrogen when it’s combined with water?

While this is an impressive effect when done using a glass or cauldron of water, when used with a chlorinated pool, the results are unfortunate. When liquid nitrogen mixes with chlorine, it creates a potentially lethal gas known as nitrogen trichloride.

It didn’t take long for party goers to start to choke because they couldn’t breathe. Unfortunately, the “smoke” hid their destress, so no one was immediately warned and it took a while for people to get help. Ultimately, this mistake sent nine people to the hospital and put a 21-year-old man in a coma for 18 days.

Photo Credit: Telegraph

What to do instead of poisoning your brand ambassadors:

How are you supposed to know what happens when chlorine mixes with nitrogen? Well, you’re not; there are experts who know this kind of stuff. It’s your job to find them and make sure you get an “all clear” before proceeding with anything that may be the slightest bit dangerous (like pouring weird chemicals in a pool full of people). That’s not even considering what the legal ramifications might be.

Health and safety concerns are no joke. You want your guests to have a good time – and ensure that they are safe while doing so.

Mission Impossible III Blows Up

The Mission Impossible theme ranks high among the most iconic theme songs created. It’s catchy, fun, and gets the blood racing. There are few times when just hearing the song wouldn’t cheer a person up even a little.

That was the thinking behind a promotion for the movie Mission Impossible III, when Paramount Pictures placed speakers in 4,500 LA Times newspaper racks. When someone opened the rack, they would hear that trill as the theme song began to play.

Fun idea. Except the speaker had small, clearly visible red wires running from it to the door. It didn’t take long before several people made calls concerned there was a bomb in the dispenser. In one case, the Los Angeles County sheriff’s arson squad blew up a container because they were concerned it contained an explosive.

Photo Credit: SoCalKevinVideos YouTube

In the end, Paramount was fined $75,000 for negligence.

What to do instead of making citizens think that bombs are spread across the city:

Two things: First, on a big activation like this, clear it with the authorities. If anyone at the sheriff’s department had known about this, maybe the panic could have been stopped before it got out of hand.

Second, always do a trial run. Someone needed to make sure they knew how the devices looked in the newspaper racks. Was there a better color wire to use than red? Could the wires have been hidden better? Also, this trial run may have happened, but someone needed to check and make sure that the work was being done with care and the devices installed properly.

Whistling Past the Graveyard

In 2007, Cadbury Schweppes ran a 23-city treasure hunt to promote Dr. Pepper. The main goal was to find a gold coin worth $10,000 (the finder then had the opportunity win up to another $1 million).

Sounds like a blast. Who doesn’t love a treasure hunt?

Unfortunately, the hiding place of the Boston coin was in Old Granary Burial Ground. That’s the (at the time) 347-year-old graveyard where patriots of the American Revolutionary are buried, including John Hancock, Paul Revere, and Samuel Adams.

As you can imagine, park officials were not thrilled about the idea of centuries-old graves being dug up as people looked for the coin. Old Granary was quickly closed to the public until the coin was removed.

Photo Credit: Blue Batting Helmet

What to do instead of desecrating historic, American Revolution-era graves:

Put some thought into your location. Even if this wasn’t a “treasure hunt” where there was the possibility of people digging where they absolutely shouldn’t, just the potential foot traffic and hustle of the search for the coin could harm the area.

Also, this was done without permission. If someone had simply reached out to the parks department, this issue could have been avoided and a suitable alternative location for the coin found.

At The Trade Group, we have years of experience with experiential marketing, and there’s not a disaster to be found. Check out some of our wins, like The Riftwalk Experience, TwitchCon 2017, and the Savage Siege event, then give one of our experts a call 800-343-2005 to see how we can help make you experience a rousing success.

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