A Message For Marketers Looking To Help With Earthquake Relief Efforts
15 Jan
I got an email this morning from Hilton Honors letting me know that I could redeem points for a charitable contribution to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to help earthquake victims in Haiti.
On one hand, it’s a great idea to let people use their rewards points to help charitable causes.
But on the other hand….
….The email notified me that 10,000 of my points would result in a $25 contribution to the above named charities.
So much for the great idea.
Ten thousand points is almost enough to get me a free night’s stay at a Hilton Hotel. If we assume I need 15,000 points and that a hotel room goes for $150, then — to me — those 10,000 points are worth about $100.
So what — as a Hilton customer — am I left to believe here?
Simply that Hilton is more concerned in finding cheap ways to burn up their rewards liabilities than it is in helping the people of Haiti.
Marketers looking to participate in relief better make damn sure their motivations are in the right place.
Ron – at first blush, I appreciate the innovative and non-fiscally intrusive way that Hilton is allowing its customers to help with disaster relief in Haiti. As your post points out, however, it appears that their real motivation is to chew through points with an eye toward earning some quick PR love.
Unfortunately for Hilton, this is one of those situations that could pretty quickly blow up in their face. If it does, the cost of a cheap PR hit will far outweigh the damage that the campaign could do when smart customers like you see through this ploy for what it is. Let’s hope that more people take the opportunity to expose this effort for what it is.
Aaron: Whoa. Hold on a sec, here. Let’s not jump to conclusions. When you say “expose this effort for what it is”, I’m inclined to give Hilton the benefit of the doubt and say that “what it is” was a not-well thought through offer. Was their intention to burn off points or help the people in Haiti? Don’t know. What I’m saying is that the offer they put it in front of me could be interpreted as “burn off” and not “helping”.