When I first heard that Trinidad was hosting the first Red Bull Flugtag in the Caribbean, I got excited. When I realised a colleague from work was actually in one of the participating 40 teams, I got more excited and rounded up the Pepper team to support Box Full of Piggy. We even printed t-shirts! What I, like hundreds, or even thousands of supporters didn’t realise is the gridlock of traffic to Chaguaramas. Of course traffic was expected, but not that mess! From 7am on Sunday morning I saw the Facebook updates, BBM statuses, reports on the radio and live notices from friends stuck in traffic. I was tempted to back out but didn’t want to disappoint my cousins so decided to go brave.
At 12:20pm we came to a stop at Movietowne and remained there for an hour before crossing the first lights. I knew we had to turn back but to prove a point to my cousin, I decided to spend another hour in traffic until the next traffic light, amusing myself with the other vehicles – people got out and took food and drinks from their trucks, urinated on the side of the road and even danced to soca. We looked at that lights for an entire hour until we could reach to make the turn back into freedom. It seemed Transformers won over Flugtag. It took us literally 2 minutes to reach Movietowne, so a 2 minute drive took 2 hours! We couldn’t help but laugh at ourselves! At least we tried and had an experience to share.
As a Marketer and Event Planner, it’s obvious that the Red Bull team could have done simple things to alleviate the crowd. Now, I admit that maybe no one could have foreseen the number of persons to be interested in the event (event on Facebook had 30,300 attending as of Saturday evening) but this is T&T and there is not a lot to do on a Sunday especially as SEA results just came out, CXC and A Level exams are over and people just love a free lime! Here are some considerations for future events of epic proportions.
- Crowd control – a free, fun event that is open to everyone could potentially have 1.3 million people attending. Ticket system works. Even if its free tickets, this would limit the number of entrants. Distribution could be on a first come first serve basis, just as entry to the event. According to reports the first 27,000 people got in, thousands of others got left out. I feel sorry for the residents who got stranded in their homes or couldn’t make their way back home until nightfall.
- Congestion – make use of the water taxis. Attendees could have parked securely in the parkade downtown and taken the water taxi for a minimal fee or even Redbull could have sponsored this. The traffic started at Movietowne, so have people park in the Stadium and Queens Park Savannah and take a PTSC bus to the event. Only allow residents of the Western peninsula to use the roads in private cars.
- Research – before setting an event date, find out what else is there on that day, especially in the same location. The St. Peter’s celebrations only added to commuters’ frustrations.
- Venue selection – one way in, one way out = recipe for congestion!
- Contingency Plan – I shudder to think if a natural disaster occurred or some emergency that required immediate evacuation arose, what would be the result. Maybe the Police could have assessed the traffic situation and advised people to turn back so they wouldn’t waste their Sunday in hopelessness.
- Promote alternatives – Triniscene broadcast the entire event live. Maybe if more people knew this they would have watched from the comfort of their homes or made a lime by a friend’s house. If I was Derek Chin, I would have gotten permission to broadcast Flugtag live on one or two of Movietowne’s screens at no charge and let people pre-order tickets.
I must admit that Red Bull did an excellent job at marketing and promoting this event. From billboards to radio and online and posters everywhere you turn, it seems that everyone knew of this event. Being the first in the Caribbean and seeing how great other Flugtags around the world were, it’s obvious that we in T&T who relish a good lime would want to be part of the action. Looking at the videos after, the presentations were awesome! We really are a creative bunch. I’m sure those who made it to the venue had the best time.
My question is, did this event cause more bad than good to Red Bull’s brand image? Would people when they think of Flugtag, remember the horrors of that traffic gridlock and the disappointment of missing out on such a fantastic event, or for the lucky ones who made it, switch energy drink brands and relive the awesomeness of Obi Wanted Red Bull? What do you think?
