Newly engaged couple, Tinus van Zyl and Lia Smit started T100 Photography little over a year ago. Lia came up with the idea to run a competition in conjunction with other sponsors, where a lucky couple could win a dream wedding. When the competition fell through, the photography duo had no idea how severe the social media backlash would actually be.
“There were about five sponsors who agreed to make a contribution to the Sprokiestroue competition. Lia and I offered to photograph the couple as our contribution to the competition. Getting engaged recently made us realise that weddings are pretty pricy. Businesses use platforms like this to promote their product or brand all the time. Our aim with running the competition was to help a couple who couldn’t afford an extravagant wedding as well as to promote ourselves and our businesses,” said Tinus.
Before the winner was set to be announced, Lia went on a trip to Cape Town to visit her grandmother while Tinus worked gruelling night shifts. Realising they would be unable to update their Facebook page, the couple made arrangements with one of the sponsors to keep everyone up to date as to the progress of the competition. Needless to say, this never happened.
“I received a phone call from Lia at 2am while at work one night. She told me that she needed to get to the hospital immediately as she was experiencing severe chest pain. The last thing on my mind was the competition,” continued Tinus.
The winner of the competition was supposed to be announced at the beginning of August. Cyberspace fell silent, leaving the competition entrants at a loss, making alleged ‘scam’ accusations left and right. Lia and Tinus hit the pause button and unpublished the Sprokiestroue Facebook page.
Tinus received a message in which an entrant claimed she had cancelled her wedding venue after entering the competition. Lia and Tinus couldn’t understand how someone could be so certain that they were going to win that they would cancel their wedding venue. “In the back of my mind I knew they had to have been in contact with the other sponsors.”
Suspecting alleged nepotism, Tinus and Lia decided to end the entire competition without notifying anyone. Contrary to comments posted on social media, Tinus explained that their sponsors did not pull out at the last minute.
“I feel the situation was beyond our control. We replied to the people who contacted us and told them that the competition had been cancelled. Amid the madness, the doctor booked me off work for two days for high blood pressure,” said Tinus.
Tinus took the punch for all the advertisers, refusing to make their names public. “I thought it would suffice to inform a few people that the competition had been shut down and take full responsibility for the choices I made. We are photographers, not event planners. I don’t feel we were doing people a disservice. Our intentions were nothing but honest.”
Tinus admitted he should have let people know what was going on and apologised for any inconvenience. “People felt they were not notified and I agree that this was a mistake on our part. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to rectify the situation now.”
“We learnt our lesson with Sprokiestroue and will never do something like this ever again. Although we have received a major backlash from the public, our business continues to grow from strength to strength. This has not had a negative impact on T100 Photography.”
“At the end of the day, we cannot force people to click the like button on our Facebook page. We want people to like our page for the photography, not because of a competition or the person behind the lens. It has been a learning experience and a way of becoming famous,” joked Tinus.
With the competition clouded by unforeseen circumstances, misunderstandings and poor communication, Newcastle residents simply expected an explanation. Tinus and Lia hoped their version of events would bring clarity to all those involved, putting an end to the Sprokiestroue fiasco once and for all .
