Every year, punctually by November 30th, you can cancel your own car insurance. For a few years now, the budget insurer DirectLine has been using this time to provide targeted - but also very cheap - advertising. 

Insurance fraud?

Auto blog of the year? Or just a linkbait that became a farce?

The election for Autoblog of the Year only “coincidentally” coincides with the cut-off date for the car insurance – if you believe the statements made by those responsible at the PR agency commissioned by the insurance company. They just want to do something good for the blogosphere. I quote from an email to myself: “The project has always been intended as an investment from all sides in strengthening the very agile and high-quality car blogger scene.”

I agree. And the fact that 15 car bloggers in their own target group are massively drumming for car insurance, after all, everyone wants to win, just happens by chance with the 3o. November together. Understand.

This year, Motor-Talk supported the choice of autoblog again. With the PR power of the large MT community, the choice was made public.

How does this election work?

In a first step, a call was launched via the DirectLine blog to nominate the desired autoblogs. In a second step, together with the MT editorial team, a selection was made of the 15 blogs that should be selected after the Auto Blog of the Year election.

my-auto-blog was also among them. And no. We have not nominated ourselves. And no. We didn't want to join this linkbait. Linkbait? For us it is a cheap PR number that can be deducted from DirectLine. In the eyes of a PR expert, incredibly clever. A chance for the auto blogs involved? Yes, at least there is prize money. Prize money of € 2.000 has been awarded to the winner.

So the choice became a farce

Unfortunately, the accompanying PR agency of the insurance company was not able to arrange a vote that is even approximately secured against manipulation. No. They weren't even able to bring a website online that could handle the rush of voters.

mein-auto-blog used Facebook to advertise this vote among the over 11.000 mab fans! 

Yes, we I wanted to win this election! If we're going to be nominated, then we want to win. I also drummed up support for the vote several times on all social media. The feedback was often the same: “Website down” – “We can’t vote” – “We can vote for a and b, but not for you” … and so on. All this amateur programming, where nothing was programmed, a WordPress plugin was used and that was it, collapsed within a few days. At first there was talk of performance problems, which were eventually resolved. Then suddenly people started talking about “manipulation”.

Attempted fraud in the online election

DirectLine itself pulled the emergency brake and changed the procedure during the election.

What happened?

Technicians from the executing agency have identified attempts at manipulation. One blog was consistently rated 5 stars by a BOTnet, all others were rated 1 star. Not only was it possible to dial again every day, but after changing the IP address it was also possible to dial again. And as if that wasn't amateurish enough, you could not only give 5 stars to your favorite blog, no, you could also downvote all other blogs with just 1 star. Incomprehensible.

Motor-Talk jumps off, Motor-Talk doesn't support the result

From the email from the press officer to me. Quote:

Motor-Talk asked us not to be mentioned explicitly at the end. We find this a shame, but of course we respect the wish, because the company is always an important partner for us.

So people at Motor-Talk understood that an election that was carried out as poorly as this one cannot simply continue to be celebrated. I agree with Motor-Talk. The whole election for “Car Blog” of the year is a disgrace. A farce. A result cannot even be communicated. Nonetheless. DirectLine press spokesman Robert Burkhardt announces a “result”:

https://www.directline.de/blog/auto-blog-of-the-year-ergebnis/

The top 5 in the ranking

1. Lint blog (2.000 euros for a charity of his choice)
2. Sandmann's world (1.000 euros for a charity of his choice)
3. On the grid (500 euros for a charity of his choice)
4. V8 Culture
5. Teslamag

In another email to me, however, the press spokesman announces:

Quote: There is no data from the vote that can be used in the context of the campaign /would be justifiable. We have a ranking, but no winners. The ranking is NOT a result of choosing the Aboty.

Insurance fraud?

A result is announced, which should not be a result. At my request to publish the server data, preferably with anonymized IPs, one does not respond. It is said that the fraud was recognized and the result (is there one?) Corrected to the best of our knowledge. Then get out with the raw data! 

What's also unbelievable is that there are indications as to which blog was involved in the manipulation or at least was the beneficiary. But – DirectLine decides to leave the blog “in the rating”.

It is argued that the presumption of innocence applies and after all, a third party could have attempted to manipulate exactly this blog - which received a massive 5 stars, while the others only received 1 stars. Exactly, you discredit one out of 15… okay, I don't want to comment further on the explanation.

2014 was borderline!

We're all somehow to blame, aren't we? Already in 2014 there was criticism of the voting system. The choice was strange in 2014. But what has been changed in the system for 2015? Nothing. I do not currently believe that the insurance company or the PR agency, for whatever reason, wanted to discredit a certain blog - damage its reputation. But the result can do just that.

Auto Blog of the Year 2015 - A PR Gau for DirectLine

Any advertisement is probably good advertisement. There is no other way to explain the insurance policy.

mein-auto-blog grants - and it has to be said at this point - last year's winners (1+2) the placements this year too. Both Sandmann and “Fussel” created a buzz every day with cat pictures and crazy photos. mein-auto-blog simply transferred money to Facebook to make voting more attractive to all 11.000 fans. We believed in the “power” of reach.

That we all ended up falling victim to an incompetent organization and a nasty attempt at manipulation, well, it is easy ...