The Latest Entrant In 'How Not To Do Marketing' In An Online World: Ocean Marketing Fail
from the easy-to-boil-this-ocean dept
One of the key points that we've been making for years is that, in an online world, pissing off (or simply not caring about) customers is no longer a viable business strategy. A good business today recognizes that the customers' best interests are also the company's best interests. If you don't realize that... well, then you get into a situation like Paul Christoforo and Ocean Marketing that's taken the internet world by storm today. It begins with a must read email thread posted at Penny Arcade. Seriously, just go read the whole thing.The short version for those who don't read it, is that a guy, Dave, who pre-ordered some gaming controllers that hadn't arrived, emailed Ocean Marketing and got back less than optimal customer service from Christoforo, who runs Ocean Marketing. Actually, he got back obnoxious customer service. Beyond not being helpful Christoforo is outright insulting of the customer (who has already paid for the item not yet delivered) and bragging about how "connected" he is. In response, the customer (Dave) wrote back explaining why this was totally unacceptable, and cc'd some various gaming websites/blogs. Gabe (aka Mike Krahulik) from PA chimed in, especially when he saw Christorofo brush off Dave by mentioning PA's own event PAX East. After replying to both that Christoforo won't be allowed to exhibit at PAX, Christoforo (apparently not realizing who he was dealing with) simply makes a bad situation worse:
We’re not renting a booth at pax east this year , bigger and better shows to be at we got nothing from the show . Oh so you know this guy has sold over 500 thousand dollars of product in Dec and is my main distribution arm landing us in GameStop , fry’s , Myers , Best buy , Activision , MLG , play N trade and a lot more . Were in 6 countries and you’re not going to take my money for a booth that’s a crock I can guarantee I’ll get a booth if I want one money buys a lot and connections go even further. He’s a native Bostonian from Little Italy . Who are you again ?Amazingly, this actually comes after Dave had told Mike "Please don’t cancel their booth on my account. As much as I hate this asshole, I still WANT his product and think it should be out there." Mike explains to Christoforo that he runs PAX, but Christoforo still doesn't get it:
OK Mike whatever you say lol , are you sure hour not in Boston I spoke to the person who ran the show in Boston last year. If you let some little kid influence you over a pre order then we don’t want to be a your show ,Ill be on the floor anyway so come find me , I’m born and raised in Boston I know the people who run the city inside and out watch the way you talk to people you never know who they know it’s a small industry and everyone knows everyone. Your acting like a douchbag not that it matters pax east pax west , e3 , CES , Gamer Con , SSXW ,Comic Con, Germany I’m all over the place. If we want to be there we will be there with industry badges or with a booth you think I can’t team up with turtle beach , Callibur or Koy Christmas , I can’t get Kevin Kelly to pull some strings or G4 , Paul Eibler Ex CEO of take 2 , Rich Larocco Konami , Cliff Blizinski Epic who were working with on a gears version , Activision who were working with on a MW3 and Spider man Bundle , The Convention Center Owners themselves , Mayor of Boston come on Bud you run a show that’s all you do and lease a center in Cities you have no pull in its all about who you know not what you do. I’ll see space where ever I want , with who I want when I want and where I want so many ways around you and so many connections in this industry its silly. Anyway , I have no issue with you Sean Buckley Engadget, Scott Lowe IGN and the list goes on and on. Little kids unhappy with a PRE ORDER starting trouble and you email that to us , he’s a customer unless you’re his boyfriend then you should side with the company not the customer. Be CarefulAnd it gets worse from there. Of course, once Gabe posted it to Penny Arcade, it started to get picked up elsewhere including (of course) Reddit, and from there it just began exploding. Popehat has a bunch of links including the fact that Christoforo went ballistic on Scott Lowe from IGN, after Lowe told Christoforo to stop saying IGN supported him. Christoforo responded on Tiwtter calling him a "douchebag" and suggesting that because he sent IGN review units he should support him. That tweet has since been removed, but the screenshot lives on.
Separately, people have turned up more examples of poor customer service experiences involving Ocean Marketing and Christoforo, as well as claims that Ocean Marketing has been plagiarizing a ton of articles from around the web on its own blog. Andrew Galbraith from Examiner.com has the details:
It seems the plot has thickened a bit further. Apparently, as pointed out by @williambgoss on twitter, Ocean Marketing has been lifting articles from across the web for their blog with little to no attribution of sources whatsoever. An article published on Forbes is clearly posted wholesale on the Ocean Marketing blog with no sourcing roughly two weeks after initially hitting the web. Moreover, the same is done with a BizReport article, appearing as Ocean Marketing's "original work" no less than two days later.The story has been getting picked up in a ton of places, but you have to wonder why anyone would hire Christoforo to market any of their products ever again. The Popehat link above notes that when you outsource your marketing, you're outsourcing your reputation. And that can be dangerous...
In the meantime, it appears that Christoforo, beyond digging himself a deeper hole, has also tried to well, dig himself a deeper hole. He first threatened to have his "lawyers" contact Penny Arcade, followed up by some begging:
"You have the power Mike Please make it stop"Of course, as Gabe/Mike points out, he really doesn't have the power. Once these things are out there, they're out there. Then comes the non-apology apology, where Christoforo apologies for not knowing how big Penny Arcade/PAX are and for getting exposed -- but not for his actual actions:
I just wanted to apologize for the way our emails progressed I didn’t know how big your site was and I really didn’t believe you ran Pax , So for what’s its worth I am very sorry. Your post has obviously made my life very difficult and I have not slept yet dealing with all the spam and personal information intrusion as well as my family being smeared on the internet.That's not a real apology at all. That's someone digging even deeper.
Update: Ah, and now reports of pretending to be someone else. Kotaku apparently reached out to
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Filed Under: customers, marketing, paul christoforo, penny arcade
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Exactly. The guy isn't sorry. He's not apologizing for the non-delivery, keeping the customer's money, keeping the customer in the dark or about calling the customer every horrible name under the sun (even while in the SAME EMAIL saying "We value our customers"). No, the two things he's sorry about are...he didn't realize how big a site Penny Arcade is, and that Mike Krahulik also runs PAX.
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he knows because its how he rolls.
He posted a self proclaimed "viral video" trying to get his real estate agent to pay for soundproofing the windows on his residence because *gasp* he could hear the traffic. (Note to self when buy a new home make sure no roads will sudden appear overnight.) In the description he lists all of his connections and how powerful he is to try and intimidate them into giving him his way. Over on reddit, someone did some digging and he isn't part of many of the things hes claimed *SHOCK*
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He may not be sorry yet, but he will be.
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Identity theft, too!
http://kotaku.com/5871400/cut-paul-oceanmarketting-christoforo-a-breakhe-probably- just-has-roid-rage
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Re: Identity theft, too!
Ah the entertainment....
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Re: Re: Identity theft, too!
Although it seems likely the roid profile is his. Someone found a post from four years ago that used his email address, myspace name, age, height, etc.
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Re: Identity theft, too!
My question is isn't this illegal? While me may not have technically 'hacked' to send the impersonation email, it certainly wasn't with permission which is about all the Fed's care about when prosecuting these things...
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familiar writing style.
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Re: familiar writing style.
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You got it wrong Mike
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Has anyone tried to contact them? Who was it, N-Control? To see if they might decide to finally do some of their own damage control.
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Yup, they're toast.
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Boojum the brown bunny
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Nevermind
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Small correction:
I misspelled his name here in the comments already, so I guess I'm not any better.
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Yet another odd tidbit
Look where it goes when you click on the copyright notice on the bottom of the page!
http://twitter.com/2010
Oh delicious! So delicious! OM-NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM
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And he's threatening retribution from Nigerians ...
https://twitter.com/#!/oceanstretagy/status/151810591013617664
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This.
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Anti-semitic
Homophobic
Both ruined and loaded with money (so it'll be OK)
Very fluent with the naughty words
Not so much with the professional words
Most definitely 38
Doesn't have a degree but is "naturally smart"
A terrible speller
Hates red haired people (that's a new one)
Thinks he's going to sue a whole bunch of people
Doesn't think "the internet" can be used in court
Insists he treats gamers the same way all the game companies do
Is in internet marketing but has no idea what Reddit is
Determined to create an offensive response to every single tweet he gets tonight, which is, I think, all of them
A terrible speller (so bad I listed it twice)
Was arrested on domestic violence (shock) and has tweeted "that bitch had it coming ok." (uhm no, not ok)
And ... is apparently going for the Douche Hall of Fame
Again, my simple opinion based upon reading his tweets
Oh, and he blames everything on everybody else ...
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Re: Yes, it was a fake twitter account
The one twitter account OceanStretagy was a fake. So that list I made doesn't apply (well, I'm guessing some still does)
Got hand it to the fake though ... had Paul's douchiness down pat!
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Slashdot commenter posts useful info. News you can use.
Now that FTC mail order rule is something worth knowing.
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ouch
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I'll bet he makes it sound like he was helping Christ off the cross, then the Romans came and dragged him away.
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they are hosted with godaddy!
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"[snip]...Your sites amateur at best my son could put together a better site than yours and you run PAX ?? Wow , Ill put my marketing team on a smear campaign of you and your site and your emails , I have about 125 dedicated people to run PR , Blogs , Articles , Videos you have no clue who I am . Thanks again"
Assuming what he says about 125 employees is true, I think they're now all out of work.
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http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/12/pr-trolling-ocean-stratagy-out-of-business-avenger-c ontroller-maker-asks-for-forgiveness/
The unfortunate side effect of this is that now the Avenger Controller is paying for Christoforo's poor customer relationship skills. This is a big lesson in double checking who you hire to represent your company.
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Nitpicking
"The reality is that once I had posted the emails I didn’t have the power anymore. The Internet had it now and nothing I said or did was going to change that."
Everything he says is true, BUT... he posted the email addresses. Claiming that it's out of his hands (and implicitly NOT HIS FAULT what happens now) is like handing a bunch of firebugs some gasoline and strike-anywhere matches and claiming you're powerless to prevent the ensuing Devil's Night reenactment.
Those email addresses would have been dug up via the internet by enterprising individuals sooner or later. It seems a bit smug to revel in the very destruction you laid the groundwork for.
Other than that, I am all for exposure of hideous customer service/PR entities. This is precisely why anyone in these fields, in this day and age, should be doing everything they can to take care of their paying customers. You sure as hell don't want the loosely confederated wrath of the internet turned against you.
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Re: Nitpicking
Also known as an Internet Counterattack (warning: TVTropes link, can be very addicting).
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"I will personally burn everything I’ve made to the fucking ground if I think I can catch [bullies] in the flames."
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Gabe didn't do anything to Christoforo. It's like when you get fired for a good reason. The boss didn't fire you, you fired you.
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Lost. It.
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His apology to Dave.
http://gamerfront.net/2011/12/ocean-marketing-a-study-on-how-to-destroy-your-reputation-with- just-a-few-emails/15199
Article was updated with it.
Yet, again, digging further. Paul ruined his own company, and he doesn't even realize it!
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Re: His apology to Dave.
“You just got told bitch … welcome to the real internet”
Memetic.
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Re: Re: His apology to Dave.
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Re: His apology to Dave.
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New opportunity
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srsly id would be impossble for me to get a job if i wrote like this1
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Why is Internet Marketing Important to any online Business ?
http://www.businessconcernonline.com/blog/why-is-internet-marketing-important-to-any-online-busin ess/
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Re: Why is Internet Marketing Important to any online Business ?
but one part is useful...
"it will suit an even bigger tool"
I've not seen bigger tools than this one outside of elected offices.... *rimshot*
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Gotta love the "Streisand Effect" of bad publicity this guy is just now learning...
and
Ocean Marketing FAIL
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Plagerism
Interesting.
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