Another Anniversary

We have passed the 1st anniversary of our winning of the LIVE 88.5 Pimp My Biz marketing prize. We have detailed a great deal of our experiences, especially the early events, here in our blog. Now, 12 months later, we have a review of our overall experience.

The prize was for $50,000 in marketing services. 10K in radio spots at LIVE 88.5FM here in Ottawa, 10K in the Metro News, 10K in graphics for the store and a vehicle wrap from K6 Media, 5K in web spots with Ottawakiosk.com and 15K in marketing consultancy with the Curam Group. We knew a new store was coming and wanted to save the radio, print and graphics for that purpose. All these companies came through, provided services as advertised and were great to work with. The remaining services, the web work, we were ready for immediately. It didn't quite work out that way.

Ottawakiosk, just weeks ago, started to run our classified-style ads. Banner work is still in the draft stage but should be up in a few days. The marketing/web consultancy service from the Curam Group has been a nightmare. After less than 3 hours of meetings, they have abandoned us and their commitment to the prize. Calls and emails do not get returned by Greg, the top dog and contest contact at Curam. Seriously unprofessional service.

Here's our dilemma. Should we be satisfied with a $35,000 win when $50,000 was advertised or should we expect more - the full array of services as announced? Imagine winning the lottery - say $2mil. You spend all day Sunday thinking about the win and how you'll improve yourself and those around you with the winnings. Now, on Monday when you go to cash in your ticket you learn that you were not the only winning number and you have to share money. A win is great but is now slightly tarnished now that you can't do all those things you planned.

Ho would you feel and what would you do? Let us know.