Suntukan sa Ace Hardware (English: Brawl at Ace Hardware / Fistfight at Ace Hardware) was a Facebook event that took place on April 15, 2016 at an Ace Hardware branch in SM City Lucena, supposedly for a free-for-all fistfighting match. Thousands of Filipino netizens responded "going" on the event’s page, which attracted attention from local news sources and made the event become an Internet meme. [1] [2] [3]
| Native name | Suntukan sa Ace Hardware |
|---|---|
| English name | Fistfight at Ace Hardware |
| Date | 15 April 2016 |
| Time | 15:00 PST (UTC+08:00) |
| Venue | Ace Hardware, SM City Lucena, Lucena, Quezon, Philippines |
| Motive | Hold boxing matches at the SM City Lucena branch of Ace Hardware |
| Organised by | "Bulbulito Balagbag: tuberong kulay green" |
| Participants | more that 54,000 online participants |
| Outcome | Ace Hardware held a promotional event; no actual fist-fighting took place |
Contents
The event was created by the Facebook page "Bulbulito Balagbag: tuberong kulay green", whose name is a crude Tagalog reference to pubic hair, sometime in March 2016. [4] As of March 31, 2016, more than 54,000 Facebook users have sa >[5] The original event page has since been taken down for unknown reasons, prompting others to post copycat and/or spinoff events on Facebook in response.
Please be informed that no such event created nor organized by Ace Hardware. Ace Hardware does not condone nor tolerate violence of any kind. Please be guided accordingly.
We appreciate the excitement created by the April 15 ‘Suntukan sa Ace Hardware’ event that went viral on Facebook. However, we do not encourage this type of digital publicity. No such event was organized by Ace Hardware in SM City Lucena or any of our branches. Thank you.
On March 31, Ace Hardware Corporation denied any involvement in the event. [6] Netizens were quick to express their “disappointment” over the advisory, saying that they cancelled prior commitments, such as wedding and even a childbirth, to attend the event. [7]
Leigh Reyes, Pres >[8] criticized Ace Hardware’s stern reaction to the tongue-in-cheek event, saying that disavowing any involvement and condemning those who organized the stunt is not an effective business strategy, but fame is. Reyes suggested using the ensuing publicity to their strategic advantage by offering discounts to actual attendees for example. [9] [10]
On April 4 and 11, 2016, Ace Hardware posted a countdown [11] and released a poster [12] for the fictitious event on their official Facebook page after distancing themselves from the event earlier. [13] On April 15, the day of scheduled brawl, Ace Hardware prepared a small mock boxing ring where customers can take photos. The date also coinc >[14] [15]
Forget guest lists at Revel or Pool Club at the Palace: Suntukan Sa ACE Hardware is the HOTTEST event now!
We’re pretty sure you’ve come across this eponymous event, “Suntukan sa ACE Hardware” on Facebook, and it beats pretty much any event page you’ve come across.
As of now, it has more than 14,000 people attending.
Looks like it’s giving Pacquiao vs. Mayweather a run for its money. (And my, that’s a WHOLE LOT of money.)
It seems that no one really knows how this started…
Or who’s even fighting in the first place:
Some people seem to already be confused on what this is about:
Rumor has it that certain celebrities are attending:
People are already planning the thrilling programme:
As well as the exciting prizes to be won.
Spectators are already placing their wagers…
Hold on to the edges of your seats.
And of course, because the internet really has no chill, ACE Hardware already clarified the whole deal:
(In case people were ACTUALLY wondering if the whole thing was true.)
The internet can really get creative sometimes.
You decide: Meron ba talagang suntukan sa ACE Hardware o wala.
It’s not everyday I get invited to a brawl.
Suntukan Sa Ace Hardware (“Brawl at Ace Hardware”) is the same serendipitous silliness that leads to mosh pits, where strangers unite around a strange act and derive quite a fair amount of happiness from it. Filipinos on Facebook have certainly been enjoying it these past couple of days. (FHM did a primer.)
But Ace Hardware is having none of this silliness. This was its polite, gently scolding response:
I visited the event page and didn’t stay. There was a lot of NSFW venting and crude humor in it. But — and this is important for the marketer to consider — there was no outright negativity towards the Ace Hardware brand itself.
By now, the original Suntukan sa Ace Hardware event has been taken down, much to the intense (albeit brief) dismay of people who will soon be moving on to the next ad hoc melee.
I’m dismayed for a different reason. I see something that could have transformed a marketer’s career and won an Effie.
“Disclaimer” is not an effective social strategy. “Business as usual” doesn’t bring in extra eyeballs, consumer consideration, or twice the business growth.
You know what does? Fame.
The human attention span has shrunk to eight seconds in 2015 from twelve in 2000. Algorithms show you more of what other people also want to see more of. Unless you’re a brand on Facebook, in which case you have to pay to boost. In this world, no one has the patience to click through to the next page of search results. Low-involvement categories become even more low-involvement. (What else do you think “showing you more of what’s relevant to you” means?) If you’re not interested in hardware in the first place, there’s no way you would have even spared Ace Hardware a status update or a reaction (a.k.a. “earned media”).
Fame is the real metric. From AdAge:
When IPA crunched numbers from the case studies, “fame” campaigns had a 72% chance of being effective, compared to 61% for more information-based campaigns. Similarly, fame campaigns had a 39% chance of boosting corporate profits, compared with 24% for more information-based campaigns.
Filipinos are more social-savvy. While our sarcasm detector can sometimes fail us (watch how quickly anything from the adobochronicles goes viral), the humor of this Facebook free-for-all was more than obvious.
Ace Hardware missed a chance to turn (free!) serendipity into business opportunity. Here’s what it could have done instead.
- Say thank you for the attention, and create a one-time discount coupon for April 15 that people can download in exchange for personal information. If there’s no existing CRM program, now would be a great time to start one. Turn hecklers into customers.
- Open other event pages, at least 10. #salesaacehardware#summerspreesaacehardware#schoolprepsaacehardware#screwdriversaacehardware and match each one with a local store marketing component.
- Quickly come up with a mock “Suntukan” v >Other companies spend actual money to get attention like this. All Ace Hardware had to do was convert it, not throw a wrench into it.
PS. This is free advice, and we all know what that’s worth. 😉 I have no personal or professional stake in the brand. It just seemed such a waste.