Dos Equis Promotional Effort Goes Awry

On July 15, Twitter told a tale of terribly planned promotional event; The Dos Equis “The Most Interesting Academy” at Falkenstein Castle.

After a fury of tweets and text messages the picture of what was happening hit the web.
Guests were left sweltering in the heat as self-parking spread over improvised lots, shuttle buses backed up and long lines formed outside the overcrowded faux castle.

Some guests said for the beer promotional party they waited three hours, but were never admitted. Others entered the landmark between Marble Falls and Burnet easily from other parking lots.

“Great intentions, poor transportation logistics, amazing party, lack of communication, high expectations; weak results for many,” tweeted Austin’s Marcus Ceniceros. More than one Facebook page has already cropped up with complaints about the event.

Meanwhile, inside, some of the Austin promoters were left unaware of the crisis.

“It’s amazing what Twitter has done,” says Kristin Owen of Austin’s Do512, which publicized the event and accepted confirmations from guests, along with Rare magazine. “I’m so grateful right now, I wouldn’t have even known there was a problem. I have started to receive some horror stories from guests via e-mail.”

Taylor Perkins, publisher of Rare, says the Academy: “was an absolutely incredible production and was very well-attended by local Austinites that were wanting to partake in the festivities.”

Owen and Perkins emphasized that Mirrorball, a New York-based event coordinator, along with Dos Equis, hosted the event. Attempts to reach a Mirrorball representative were unsuccessful.

“The local police force seemed to be very overwhelmed with the number of people that were attending the event,” Perkins says. “And they were less than pleasant with the guests and attendees wishing to get in to the event.”

Invitations to the party included a long list of activities : “parachutes, edible bugs, vertical wind tunnel, birds of prey, barber shop, martial arts Instruction and demonstration, bungee, and water slides along with live music, DJ’s, and celebrity
guests.”

On August 5, Yahoo! Finance featured the Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man" party on the top 10 Promotional Stunts That Horribly Backfired list.