I was trying to get the details on the Oppo fraud press car access

[Danny Korecki]

Link:

[ClassicDatsunDebate]

haha thats awesome

[Stef Schrader]

Ha! He's not wrong.

I think I remember who it was, but I don't want to put the wrong person (or anyone) on blast, really. I got the vibe of "honest mistake" more than "intentional grift." Someone wanted a review car, and cool, I guess. I thought it was a Lexus, but it's been a long time.

[e90m3]

Since we're our own entity, you think a manufacturer would go for it now?

[Stef Schrader]

I don't think you'd get a response in its current format, to be honest. Oppo at least looked like a blog when he tried to do that, and I think it was still when it was oppositelock.jalopnik.com.

Either way, I don't recommend it unless there's someone kind of tamping down on that stuff. What makes press cars not a big grift is that they're work. You write a review and give an honest evaluation of the thing. It's not a perfect thing per se (life happened and got in the way of reviewing a couple cars I had out last year, for example), but that's generally the gist. There's at least social media posts of whatever I get nowadays, too, FWIW.

If Oppo opens back up a blog and it's getting decent traffic, I wouldn't mind if it so long as someone here is keeping an eye on what folks have gotten to review, if they've actually reviewed it and if they're doing right by whatever PR-type they've been in touch with. You don't want to gargle OEM balls or anything, but you do have to keep in mind that it's a working relationship, and be fair to the dudes you're interacting with. Base criticism of the car itself in honesty and only anger folks for good reason, in other words.

[ClassicDatsunDebate]

@stef-schrader I believe a medium-term idea is to have a FP style landing page for Oppo with some curated content.

[Stef Schrader]

Yeah. I saw some of the longer-term ideas with more of a post-then-comments layout, and I liked that a lot.

[Danny Korecki]

@stef-schrader said in I was trying to get the details on the Oppo fraud press car access:

I don't think you'd get a response in its current format, to be honest. Oppo at least looked like a blog when he tried to do that, and I think it was still when it was oppositelock.jalopnik.com.

Either way, I don't recommend it unless there's someone kind of tamping down on that stuff. What makes press cars not a big grift is that they're work. You write a review and give an honest evaluation of the thing. It's not a perfect thing per se (life happened and got in the way of reviewing a couple cars I had out last year, for example), but that's generally the gist. There's at least social media posts of whatever I get nowadays, too, FWIW.

If Oppo opens back up a blog and it's getting decent traffic, I wouldn't mind if it so long as someone here is keeping an eye on what folks have gotten to review, if they've actually reviewed it and if they're doing right by whatever PR-type they've been in touch with. You don't want to gargle OEM balls or anything, but you do have to keep in mind that it's a working relationship, and be fair to the dudes you're interacting with. Base criticism of the car itself in honesty and only anger folks for good reason, in other words.

I agree with this except the traffic bit.

I commented on another post asking if Oppo could start asking for press cars now, that getting press cars is more art than science.

I have been to events and met people whose sites/articles barely net 1k views an article and somehow get a steady flow of cars where some sites/writers get 50k an article and have never been invited. I won't be saying who or what sites those are, but there isn't a "oh you hit 25k readers here's your first press car" type thing.

[Danny Korecki]

@stef-schrader said in I was trying to get the details on the Oppo fraud press car access:

Ha! He's not wrong.

I think I remember who it was, but I don't want to put the wrong person (or anyone) on blast, really. I got the vibe of "honest mistake" more than "intentional grift." Someone wanted a review car, and cool, I guess. I thought it was a Lexus, but it's been a long time.

Do you have the information enough to share if they were able to turn it into a career in this industry? Because that would be awesome.

[Stef Schrader]

Oh, press folks do cherry-pick a bit and (putting this less charitably for lack of a better phrase) play favorites, but I get that there's more in play than just traffic: relevance to an audience and their likelihood to buy the thing you're selling, for one. (Also, if you think they're a dick and vice versa deeeeefinitely factors in.)

I don't remember exactly who it was, and I feel like, OH! YOU'RE THE OPPO PRESS CAR GUY! would've stuck with me if he landed at a major outlet somewhere. I mean, that's some initiative, so everywhere's stupid for NOT hiring that guy at that point.

[Danny Korecki]

@stef-schrader said in I was trying to get the details on the Oppo fraud press car access:

Oh, press folks do cherry-pick a bit and (putting this less charitably for lack of a better phrase) play favorites, but I get that there's more in play than just traffic: relevance to an audience and their likelihood to buy the thing you're selling, for one. (Also, if you think they're a dick and vice versa deeeeefinitely factors in.)

I don't remember exactly who it was, and I feel like, OH! YOU'RE THE OPPO PRESS CAR GUY! would've stuck with me if he landed at a major outlet somewhere. I mean, that's some initiative, so everywhere's stupid for NOT hiring that guy at that point.

If you like initiative, I got a story from one of my early jobs. I worked for Bethesda Softworks (maker of games like Skyrim/Fallout).

I sat next to a fellow newbie and he told me a story. When he was like 13 he walked straight in the doors and tried to hunt down the CEO to get a job. He eventually found him (security must have been shit 10 years ago) the CEO pulled him into his office and after a long chat said the initiative you took to find me.....when you are older I am happy to help get you a job here.

I thought it was just a story until weeks into my contract, damnit if the CEO didn't walk downstairs and come to say hi and check on him.

[Stef Schrader]

Ha! I love that. Then again, I did get routed to the right people for an additional scholarship in college by calling the university's president directly. Hey, the number's on a letter back to me. Sometimes you just have to do the thing.