If I were the event company I'd just bar Virool from future events. I'd have though making enemies would be more detrimental than gaining a finite number of clients, but equally, I may not be the most informed person to make a judgement in this situation.
Your judgement sounds pretty good to me. In fact this is exactly what I was thinking when reading the OP, mainly because he spent 2 hours printing "hundreds" of fliers and packing them into envelopes only to gain what, 15 emails?
And how many of these emails were unflattering remarks by the competitor or panel manager?
This whole article reads like some spastic marketing douche who is running too hot to consider his own actions and how they reflect on his company. Not to mention fixing typos and poor phrasing in his company blog.
I agree. Was it clever? Yes. Would I at least check the website? Yes, I'm curious. Would I do business with him? Probably not.
If I control a the marketing resources of a high profile brand (He mentions Pepsico, so I'm assuming the target is other large companies), I'm not sure I want to be associated with a business that pulls stunts like that.
Part of it would be avoiding guilt by association for being unprofessional. I also wouldn't want backlash if Virools methods turn out to be complete sleaze and something crazy like getting all of my Facebook likes or youtube views reset (viral equivalent of being Panda'd?)
