The marketing folks at Budweiser Canada have red goal lights and glasses in homes across this country. With the World Cup of Hockey beginning for Canada last night, there was a mighty push to get people talking about these red lights. I was even sent a glass.
.@budcanada has sent me a Red Light Glass. When my team scores, my glass lights up. I've got to try this... pic.twitter.com/KsTlU1LXz3— Toronto Mike (@torontomike) September 13, 2016
Setting up the glass was easy enough. I installed an app on my Android phone and connected to the glass via Bluetooth. I tested the connection and all was well. Then, instead of drinking from the glass, it was put in on display in the living room so the kids could enjoy the show when Canada scored.
With the youngest two asleep for the night, the rest of us tuned in Canada vs. Czech Republic and waited. It didn't take long for Sidney Crosby to score, and we all looked to the glass. Nothing happened.
I tested the connection again, and it worked fine. We ended up scoring six times and the red light went off precisely zero times. It became quite the humourous joke in our home.
I tweeted about it, and quickly learned I was not alone. Nobody's Budweiser red light glasses worked last night. I actually felt bad for the marketing team that worked so hard for this Saturday night only to have technology fail them.
Budweiser did tweet at me that the problem has been fixed and it should work next game, but that first impression is shot. There's a marketing lesson to be learnt here. Take notes, kids.
@torontomike we're working on a fix asap Mike (Red Light app technical issue). We tweeted out an update. More goals to come!— Budweiser Canada (@budcanada) September 18, 2016
