Anny Chih

Picture courtesy of sacred buffalo breath on tribe.net. I think it’s super creepy.

I was hoping that I’d be able to interview Dean Horvath in person sometime this past week. As you can see from the lack of video on this blog post, it didn’t happen.

I phoned Mason Horvath twice this past week asking to speak with Dean, and both times he was “in a meeting.” I left a message on Tuesday asking him to e-mail me with his schedule of availability for the interview. He never did. I find it a bit surprising that he’s suddenly become so busy, especially after a Facebook message I received from an old classmate that I haven’t seen or spoken to in years. This classmate wrote to me asking what my thoughts were on the “next best job” campaign saying that he was curious about the position so he went to the Mason Horvath office and spoke with Dean Horvath in person. Funny how Dean has the time to speak with anyone who walks in off the street but doesn’t have the time to e-mail me a reply. I suspect he’s trying to avoid me.

Some of you might not be surprised that he’s avoiding me, but I am. No PR company in their right mind would advise a client to ignore someone who is presenting a potential public relations problem. I was expecting Dean to write back with the contact information of someone at Curve Communications who would be able to represent Mason Horvath in an interview about the “next best job” campaign. I guess he figured the Q&A posted on the “next best job” blog was sufficient.

Many questions are addressed in this Q&A, but with the new ‘Privacy & Usage’ terms on the website, I cannot republish any of those answers here for comment. And here I was thinking that when Dean said that the fine print and Terms & Conditions would be changed, it meant the company was going to be more transparent. Apparently not.

I guess it doesn’t matter now anyways. The interest in this campaign seems to have taken a nose dive. Even with Vancouver blogger Miss 604 endorsing the campaign (despite having had no interest in covering the original Best Job in the World campaign), it looks like Mason Horvath has only gotten two radio interviews and 68 Facebook fans.

For my blog readers that have told me you’re sick of hearing about the “next best job,” rest assured this is my last post about it.

Questions for Curve Communications

Here are some of the questions and comments that I’ve received about the “next best job” campaign from my blog readers (strict cut and paste). I figured you’d want to address them in your next Q&A.

1. If Mason Horvath didn’t intend The Next Best Job to be a publicity stunt, then why not just hire a TOP 7 Canadian or the perfect TOP 50 candidate?
2. If Dean doesn’t want Mason Horvath to be a part of his contest, then why is the Mason Horvath logo on the emails he sent out to everyone?
3. How is Mason Horvath going to screen the “random draw winner?”  ie: how to screen weirdos from going to the final destination with the last 4 qualified contestants?
4. How will a random 140 character submission be evaluated?
5. How will the “random draw” winner be selected? Out of a hat? Best phrase? Cool supporting blog? Best advertizing for Mason Horvath?
6. How will Virgin Galactic (Sir Richard Branson) react to The Next Best Job campaign after Dean dissed TQ as a cheap means to promote? Virgin was invloved with TQ events throughout The Best Job in the World.
   
   In a press release from theage.com.au Dean Horvath blatantly insults TQ: “Unlike Tourism Queensland’s contest, this is not a publicity stunt,” he said. “This is a contest to win a real job, not just a cheap means to promote our company.”

   http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/booming-job-market-for-overpaid-beach-bums-20090408-a0y6.html

   If Dean Horvath does not intend to promote Mason Horvath by cheap means, then by what means?

7. What does Mason Horvath intend to gain from only allowing the 49 finalists from The Best Job in the World?
8. Does Mason Horvath intend to make money off of the finalists through this publicity stunt? Through online ads or media coverage?
9. Why only 50K for two people when Mason Horvath seems to be an elite luxury tourism company selling Virgin trips to space costing $200,000 per person?
10. All of the finalists are responsible travelers that care about the environment…how does a luxury tourism company fit into this specific demographic?
11. Why does Mason Horvath want to copyright the winner and the “partner” for 6 months after their “luxury experience?” How is that going to work with all the applicants working as professional writers, journalists, reporters, photographers, DJ’s, chefs, etc.?
12. Why do the applicants have to be reimbursed for economy air fare? Wouldn’t a luxury tourism comany provide only the best service to their clients and applicants?
13. What is Mason Horvath’s “reward” for Tourism Queensland?
14. There’s no info about how many places one would have to travel to, how frequently, how far. And the last thing that got to me was, if it’s a luxury vacation thing, why the economy class airfare? What luxury traveller would do that? And especially this job, where it’s apparently all about travel… what a come-down to have to fly in non-luxury. Everybody knows that half of any travel experience, as reported to friends (or in this case to a blog) is about travel arrangements — how screwed up they were, waiting lineups, airport snafu’s, losing luggage, whatever. They HAVE to give this job person at least business class, IMHO.
15. If they already decided the top remaining 50 are qualified — there should be no need to make ANOTHER video about a hometown activity. To me that is just exercising a rerun and playing puppeteer with very tight strings. How about a DIFFERENT idea — the video is already made — test another skill of the contestants = for selection.
16. If the hired person has to research the destinations as part of his job, does that mean Dean is going to fire someone from his research staff? How much does someone in his staff earn per hour for research? It sounds like this campaign was made to find cheap labor and an excuse to fire someone.
17. What guarantee does Mason Horvath provide for the Elite Travel Correspondent and “partner” that if they decide to continue travel blogging after the six-month contract their work won’t be published on the next best job site or any other Mason Horvath site without compensation or permission?
18. Dean’s blog says that the travel correspondent has to make 1 video each week but the Terms and Conditions say 2. Which is it? Did any of the terms and conditions change??
19. One thing you didn’t mention but it stood out to me in my once-only read of their ad for the job. “Reimburse”. It made me wonder “When?” So you get paid bimonthly, presumably 1/12 of the $50K, and from that do you have to pay your airfare hither-and-yon and then apply to get the funds back? A person could go broke, depending on their schedule for reimbursement.

The list could go on and on but I don’t feel like taking up all of my blog space with questions about the “next best job.” I think I’ve already given the “next best job” campaign WAY more coverage than it deserves.