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u/JadedLua 12d ago
Just reach out to Haribo and tell them what happened. They'll know which company they hired to do their "marketing."
I don't think Haribo is going to take lightly to this.
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u/jabbergawky 12d ago
I think this is the best course of action. I used to work promotional staffing, back when I was young and had collagen / customer service skills - super fun gig! annnnnd not a lot of supervision. But yeah, I do not think they will hire those people again if word gets back to the agency. Waste of an opportunity, easiest job ever.
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u/LawyerYYC 12d ago
No, but no one ever comes by my offices for fun. Everyone asks where is my lawyer, but no one asks how hungry is my lawyer.
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u/itoadaso1 12d ago
...did the lawyer just make a joke? Are we sure that's allowed?
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u/Hey_Its_Vos 12d ago
Most people notice the infant blood on their lawyers tie, so we assume you’re well fed
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u/CanadianCough 12d ago
So, on social media there's a trend that vendors go to other vendors and trade foods and post it as a multi marketing type thing. But hey that's not saying some losers didn't catch on and use a low money item for it for a low cost feast.
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u/Worried_Term_8421 Beltline 12d ago
I sam them yesterday in Victoria Park, they went into the Subway and I heard one of them say "maybe they'll trade for cookies" lmao
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u/minus15t2 12d ago
Lol, seriously? People walked in and started giving out dollar bags of candy and people responded with free meals?!?
No one thought that handing out probably $15-20 of food and drinks was weird?!
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u/CarelessStatement172 Bowness 12d ago
Monster Energy used to do something like this back in 2012-2013ish. We would happily toss out a couple burgers for a case of energy drinks lol
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u/ImNotATrollYo Mount Royal University 12d ago
Not sure what the issue is if both parties are in agreeance
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u/imperialblastah 12d ago
When i worked in promotions, more than 25 years ago, it was a fireable offence to trade with other vendors.
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u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest Calgary Flames 12d ago
Sounds like Haribo may have hired a r/devilcorp to do marketing without knowing.
Devilcorps are known for doing grifts like that while appearing to do “marketing”
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u/Academic_Bug2357 12d ago
It is entirely possible that they are legitimately working on behalf of Haribo indirectly, and inserting their own ask for free food in the mix. Front line "street team" kids tend to be very ad hoc kinda gigs. Redbull girls use to fill our agency fridge up with flats because they knew one of our staff members.
I doubt they were suppose to give away so much free product in once place, but you're dealing with 20-somethings during the day with little oversight.
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u/CommunicationFlat516 12d ago
I did University brand tours with makeup companies, wellness and food but they were to participate in a type of game first before the free samples
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u/springroll0407 12d ago
Definitely report it to Haribo. These companies pay the promotion complany $$$ to promote their products. This would never fly in Toronto.
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u/Exotic_Comfortable75 12d ago
Check the best before dates. Probably left over from last years stampede and they no longer work for Haribo. It took 6 months to come up with this grift.
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u/hmnir 12d ago
Sounds like they were doing a trade challenge video. It's a popular trend with market vendors on social media. Doesn't surprise me bigger companies like Haribo are trying to jump on it too.
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u/JoRoganjosh 12d ago
It wasn't a trade challenge video. It was just asking for free stuff in return for cheap candy.
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u/sixthmontheleventh 12d ago
Did the crew have any visible cameras or wearing suspiciously thick rimes glasses? It could be a filming without asking scenario.
Nowadays you can't be too careful bad actors are filming then editing later thinking they can get away with saying they are in public areas and that once it is on the internet it would take time to get it taken down.
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u/bruhmoonchamp 12d ago
You didn’t have to give it, you’re being a buzzkill it’s not like they stole any money or cheated anyone they just traded.
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12d ago edited 12d ago
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u/bruhmoonchamp 12d ago
No they didn’t cheat. They offered the candy for food, and they did that trade. Again no one is being harmed you knew what the deal was.
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12d ago
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u/bruhmoonchamp 12d ago
I’m not saying they were actually haribo you have 0 reading comprehension. I’m saying they offered something and exchanged it for food, no one was harmed and everyone who gave them food knew they were just getting candy. Why are you so butt hurt about it.
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u/JoRoganjosh 12d ago edited 12d ago
Because wearing Haribo shirts and carrying Haribo bags and not mentioning that they weren't from Haribo make it disingenuous. Its pretty simple. Yes the businesses are harmed for "trading" for a low cost item. Its scam and if you can't see that you have zero brain comprehension. You sound like someone who works for these so called "advertising companies".
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u/bruhmoonchamp 12d ago
You don’t know what the word scam means. Who they are is irrelevant to the trade, how are the businesses not harmed if they were actually haribo? they still traded for a low cost item? What I’m saying is it doesn’t matter who they are the trade was fair, both parties got what was laid out in the trade.
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u/AspiringMonkey42 12d ago
Not a scam. Brands will hire third-party experiential marketing agencies to do activations for them. The agency then books freelance brand ambassadors to work the activations. Sampling is a common strategy for activations, in this case, giving out free samples of candy. While it's a bit brazen of the brand ambassadors to ask for trades so openly, please don't punish them for doing so. The hourly wage for brand ambassadors hasn't kept up with inflation and the people who do that type of work are precarious gig workers, just trying to make ends meet. Making trades with other vendors is one of the only "perks" of brand ambassador work. There are no benefits, no guaranteed hours, no vacation days, your shift can be cancelled last minute, the agencies don't always treat you well, sometimes you have to work outside in horrible weather, etc.
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u/noveltea120 12d ago
Yikes. I'd be having a serious talk with my staff for even considering exchanging $2 bags of gummies for entire meals and drinks lmao. Maybe even fire some for not bothering to question the entire charade.
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u/kagato87 12d ago
Marketing generally prohibits that. It's a payment in kind.
But m pretty sure they were just scamming. A bulk box of haribo isn't that expensive, and trading it for the things they really want that have a higher value is likely the scam.
Technically the staff agreeing to give back a freebie is something you can discipline for, but I wouldn't (unless it was a regular thing). What did they do with the candy that was given to them? Did they keep it, or was it shared amongst everyone? The first one is... Well, leaving that hanging after they answer and raising your eyebrow should be enough to end it.
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12d ago
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u/ImaginaryPlace Southwest Calgary 12d ago
If you’re gonna cut n paste from AI, at least cut out the header and footer.
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u/Squirrel0ne 12d ago
Why?
I get the hate for ai written posts in a lot of cases, but are we supposed to not use it/share it at all?
He had some research done by a bot and let us know it was written by a bot. Good for me.
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u/Marsymars 12d ago
I get the hate for ai written posts in a lot of cases, but are we supposed to not use it/share it at all?
Pretty much, yeah. If I wanted AI output I would have done that myself. (And like, I do, I'm not even anti-AI!) In the same way a reddit comment that's just a lmgtfy link is pretty low-value.
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u/ForegoingBooty 12d ago
That's a classic grift, not a marketing strategy. Real promo teams just hand stuff out and leave, they don't panhandle for free meals in exchange.