Tuesday 6 December 2011

6/12: Aggreko Pin Removed From Catalogue

I have been asked by Aggreko, via a third party, to remove their pin from the catalogue listing.

Apparently, they are unhappy that collectors know about their pin and have contacted them to request pins. They do not have pins for collectors and will not be distributing them to the public.

I've tried explaining to them, that my site exists only to provide a comprehensive catalogue of all London 2012 pins. The website has never encouraged collectors to contact sponsors, not has it ever published information as to how to contact organisations.

Despite my arguments, Aggreko does not wish to engage with us and has actively sought to suppress information.

I should point out that at no time have Aggreko contacted me directly to discuss this or listen to my opinion.

Other sponsors have also been in the same position as Aggreko in that they are unable to issue pins to collectors, but these organisations have allowed their pins to be shown and managed the situation with a message on their website or emails to individual collectors. Unfortunately, Aggreko decided not to take this stance. There's is more of a "shoot the messenger" approach.

Apologies to collectors that, at the moment, I am unable to keep the catalogue as complete as possible, but I will endeavour to bring you as many pins as I can.

Should the pin appear on eBay, then I will republish the listing as at that time, I can consider the pin to be in the public domain.

11 comments:

Pin master said...

Nice to see they enter the spirit of he Olympics, bit of a PR fopar

wookie said...

It's strange, but I really thought that sponsorship was all about gaining public goodwill and promoting their company. Too many companies seem to have had a goodwillotomy!

Pippin said...

This is real pettiness on behalf of Aggreko. I have been in the construction industry for 25 years, and I can't say that I've ever heard of Aggreko generators before. You would have thought that they would have taken all the free publicity they could get?

If you look at Aggreko's web-site, they display the London 2012 logo, so everybody knows that they are bound to have a pin badge, even without being told about it.

Acer said...

I would have just left the pin up just to see if the people at Aggreko actually had the cajoles to
contact the site or just talk about doing this. I
would be willing to bet on the latter. This is not the best way to make a name for yourself as a sponsor. Whats that name again? Oh yeah, AGGREKO!

wookie said...

AGGRO-CO

noel 9 said...

Why act like this. Its only making THEM look bad. They must have a very low opinion of pin collectors, and maybe the WHOLE Olympic Message. Think of the free advertising they were receiving via the Collectors Blog. It's not very friendly, clever or bright..... Maybe they should sack their Public Relations dept.... Talk about AN OWN GOAL !

Anonymous said...

This is what I call public relations...

Anonymous said...

This is hilarious. What is Aggrecko thinking?
Why did they pay the big bucks to be a sponsor/partner. So they can hide.
Honav should educate the sponsor/partners as to how the pin hobby works and the consequences of them putting out a pin. However that requires Honav to understand the pin hobby and not just be interested in selling more pins. Once a pin is produced the collectors around the world will find out regardless of the pin being on a website and want the pin. Collectors around the world know there is a Aggrecko pin and will continue to contact Aggrecko whether they took this action or not. A little late to close the barn door once the cows are out. They certainly are getting their moneys worth of goodwill and marketing. Why produce a pin and hide it? Everyone knows they are a sponsor/partner.

Acer said...

Aggreko has finally found a new way to tell those who ask for their pins why they are not allowed to have any. They just don't respond at all! They have certainly lowered the bar for Olympic Sponsors.

Anthony said...

pin now on ebay paul, get it back in the inventory!! :-)

Pippin said...

... and how much do you think the employee will get for their staff-only pin? I'll wager it will be over £100.