Picture courtesy of sacred buffalo breath on tribe.net. I think it’s super creepy.

I was hoping that I’d be able to interview Dean Horvath in person sometime this past week. As you can see from the lack of video on this blog post, it didn’t happen.

I phoned Mason Horvath twice this past week asking to speak with Dean, and both times he was “in a meeting.” I left a message on Tuesday asking him to e-mail me with his schedule of availability for the interview. He never did. I find it a bit surprising that he’s suddenly become so busy, especially after a Facebook message I received from an old classmate that I haven’t seen or spoken to in years. This classmate wrote to me asking what my thoughts were on the “next best job” campaign saying that he was curious about the position so he went to the Mason Horvath office and spoke with Dean Horvath in person. Funny how Dean has the time to speak with anyone who walks in off the street but doesn’t have the time to e-mail me a reply. I suspect he’s trying to avoid me.

Some of you might not be surprised that he’s avoiding me, but I am. No PR company in their right mind would advise a client to ignore someone who is presenting a potential public relations problem. I was expecting Dean to write back with the contact information of someone at Curve Communications who would be able to represent Mason Horvath in an interview about the “next best job” campaign. I guess he figured the Q&A posted on the “next best job” blog was sufficient.

Many questions are addressed in this Q&A, but with the new ‘Privacy & Usage’ terms on the website, I cannot republish any of those answers here for comment. And here I was thinking that when Dean said that the fine print and Terms & Conditions would be changed, it meant the company was going to be more transparent. Apparently not.

I guess it doesn’t matter now anyways. The interest in this campaign seems to have taken a nose dive. Even with Vancouver blogger Miss 604 endorsing the campaign (despite having had no interest in covering the original Best Job in the World campaign), it looks like Mason Horvath has only gotten two radio interviews and 68 Facebook fans.

For my blog readers that have told me you’re sick of hearing about the “next best job,” rest assured this is my last post about it.

Questions for Curve Communications

Here are some of the questions and comments that I’ve received about the “next best job” campaign from my blog readers (strict cut and paste). I figured you’d want to address them in your next Q&A.

1. If Mason Horvath didn’t intend The Next Best Job to be a publicity stunt, then why not just hire a TOP 7 Canadian or the perfect TOP 50 candidate?
2. If Dean doesn’t want Mason Horvath to be a part of his contest, then why is the Mason Horvath logo on the emails he sent out to everyone?
3. How is Mason Horvath going to screen the “random draw winner?”  ie: how to screen weirdos from going to the final destination with the last 4 qualified contestants?
4. How will a random 140 character submission be evaluated?
5. How will the “random draw” winner be selected? Out of a hat? Best phrase? Cool supporting blog? Best advertizing for Mason Horvath?
6. How will Virgin Galactic (Sir Richard Branson) react to The Next Best Job campaign after Dean dissed TQ as a cheap means to promote? Virgin was invloved with TQ events throughout The Best Job in the World.
   
   In a press release from theage.com.au Dean Horvath blatantly insults TQ: “Unlike Tourism Queensland’s contest, this is not a publicity stunt,” he said. “This is a contest to win a real job, not just a cheap means to promote our company.”

   http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/booming-job-market-for-overpaid-beach-bums-20090408-a0y6.html

   If Dean Horvath does not intend to promote Mason Horvath by cheap means, then by what means?

7. What does Mason Horvath intend to gain from only allowing the 49 finalists from The Best Job in the World?
8. Does Mason Horvath intend to make money off of the finalists through this publicity stunt? Through online ads or media coverage?
9. Why only 50K for two people when Mason Horvath seems to be an elite luxury tourism company selling Virgin trips to space costing $200,000 per person?
10. All of the finalists are responsible travelers that care about the environment…how does a luxury tourism company fit into this specific demographic?
11. Why does Mason Horvath want to copyright the winner and the “partner” for 6 months after their “luxury experience?” How is that going to work with all the applicants working as professional writers, journalists, reporters, photographers, DJ’s, chefs, etc.?
12. Why do the applicants have to be reimbursed for economy air fare? Wouldn’t a luxury tourism comany provide only the best service to their clients and applicants?
13. What is Mason Horvath’s “reward” for Tourism Queensland?
14. There’s no info about how many places one would have to travel to, how frequently, how far. And the last thing that got to me was, if it’s a luxury vacation thing, why the economy class airfare? What luxury traveller would do that? And especially this job, where it’s apparently all about travel… what a come-down to have to fly in non-luxury. Everybody knows that half of any travel experience, as reported to friends (or in this case to a blog) is about travel arrangements — how screwed up they were, waiting lineups, airport snafu’s, losing luggage, whatever. They HAVE to give this job person at least business class, IMHO.
15. If they already decided the top remaining 50 are qualified — there should be no need to make ANOTHER video about a hometown activity. To me that is just exercising a rerun and playing puppeteer with very tight strings. How about a DIFFERENT idea — the video is already made — test another skill of the contestants = for selection.
16. If the hired person has to research the destinations as part of his job, does that mean Dean is going to fire someone from his research staff? How much does someone in his staff earn per hour for research? It sounds like this campaign was made to find cheap labor and an excuse to fire someone.
17. What guarantee does Mason Horvath provide for the Elite Travel Correspondent and “partner” that if they decide to continue travel blogging after the six-month contract their work won’t be published on the next best job site or any other Mason Horvath site without compensation or permission?
18. Dean’s blog says that the travel correspondent has to make 1 video each week but the Terms and Conditions say 2. Which is it? Did any of the terms and conditions change??
19. One thing you didn’t mention but it stood out to me in my once-only read of their ad for the job. “Reimburse”. It made me wonder “When?” So you get paid bimonthly, presumably 1/12 of the $50K, and from that do you have to pay your airfare hither-and-yon and then apply to get the funds back? A person could go broke, depending on their schedule for reimbursement.

The list could go on and on but I don’t feel like taking up all of my blog space with questions about the “next best job.” I think I’ve already given the “next best job” campaign WAY more coverage than it deserves.

My cell phone bill for this month is going to hurt.

I just got off the phone with Dean Horvath from Mason Horvath, the company that created the “next best job” campaign. It sounds like he’s gotten a lot of flak about this campaign.

I told him that there would be no conflict of interest in doing an interview with me since I have publicly announced that I will not be a participant in the “next best job” campaign, and asked him for his schedule of availability. Understandably, he has to first consult his PR firm, Curve Communications.

I made sure to double check with him that I was allowed to write a blog post about our conversation. According to Dean, the fine print and legal statements in his e-mail and attachments were included by Mason Horvath’s lawyer and are in the process of being changed / eliminated.

I asked him the question that was bothering me most: Why was the “next best job” campaign created?

It didn’t make sense for Mason Horvath to create the “next best job” campaign. They are after all a luxury travel company that prides itself on never advertising, and accommodating only the incredibly wealthy — not exactly the same target market as the adventurous bunch of applicants for the Best Job in the World.

The answer: Mason Horvath does not want to be affiliated with the “next best job” campaign. The purpose of this campaign was to create a separate website where Mason Horvath would post videos about travel experiences and generate advertising revenues from having people visit the website.

I also asked him what he was expecting from the successful applicant and his / her partner, and told him that the requirements set out in his e-mail attachments are unreasonable.

The answer: The videos Dean is expecting from the successful applicant would be nowhere near the quality of the videos created by the Top 50 candidates for the Best Job in the World. They would be more like 30 seconds of single shot footage. Why then would people be interested in watching them? Well, I’m not sure about that one but Dean is hoping that they will. Dean says that the Terms & Conditions, including the “Services” required of the successful applicant and partner are being changed.

Tourism Queensland published a news release today about the “next best job” campaign which reads:

Tourism Queensland has been made aware of another campaign being run named ‘The Next Best Job’.  Some applicants for our Best Job in the World — Island Caretaker position have been approached by this company.  Tourism Queensland would like to confirm that we have no association with this campaign or company and encourage anyone interested in applying to read all terms and conditions and fine print.

I told Dean about this release and how it doesn’t sound like Tourism Queensland thinks it’s a good idea for any Top 50 Best Job in the World candidate to apply for the “next best job.” He had mentioned in his e-mail that Tourism Queensland would “be rewarded” by the “next best job” campaign. I wanted to know if he had actually been in contact with Tourism Queensland about this campaign.

The answer: Dean sent an e-mail to Tourism Queensland telling them that Mason Horvath would be launching the “next best job” campaign before the press release came out on Monday.

In Summary

After reading the comments and blog posts about the “next best job,” Dean admits that “everyone is right” and there are a lot of things that need to be changed about the “next best job.” The requirements of the position will be reduced, the fine print is in the process of being changed / eliminated, and he does not expect great quality videos from the successful applicant. The purpose of this campaign is to generate advertising revenues from a separate website that would feature travel videos and Mason Horvath does not want to be associated with this website.

It sounds like the “next best job” is going to get a lot better and I’m looking forward to seeing what changes will be made. Stay tuned for my future in-person interview with Dean Horvath!

I wish I could make these documents public so you could give me your two-cents worth too!

Oh boy, I feel like I’m in a tough spot. After reading all the comments on my website, through Twitter, Facebook, and the IslandReefJob Ning forum, I was going to provide all the information I received from Mason Horvath on my blog. That way, most of the questions would be answered and I could provide my two cents about it all at the same time.

I posted the e-mail invite I received from Dean Horvath on my site yesterday because it didn’t contain any information that would be harmful to his company or campaign. If anything, it only helped spread the word and increased the number of hits to his site. Though several media outlets in Vancouver received the news, the only one I’ve come across that bothered to write about it was The Vancouver Sun.

However, I don’t think I can post Dean Horvath’s reply to my request for more information without being charged with slander or at the very least scolded rather badly for it. It wasn’t a mean e-mail by any means — he was quite polite and sounds like a fun guy. But, there was a lot of fine print and legal jargon in the attachments that made it sound like I’d be put in jail if I made anything public. Plus, I don’t think people would be all that impressed with the grammatical errors either. I know I wasn’t. Oops. Was that too much information? Am I not allowed to say that either?

Sorry, I’ll usually let grammatical errors slide if they’re in an e-mail from a close friend or whatever, but when it’s an e-mail from the head of a million dollar company (according to BC Business Online, Mason Horvath generated $8 million in revenues last year), I expect there to be someone on staff who can proofread.

This is grumpy me talking. I don’t like being silenced by fine print. Actually, I don’t like being silenced at all. I also don’t like feeling like I’m being controlled or used. This is another reason why I’m not sure this is really the “next best job.” According to the Terms and Conditions (which is readily available on the website, and therefore according to item 10, I am allowed to re-publish and comment on)…

7. You and your partner each agree that all designs, plans, inventions, discoveries, improvements, software, copyright, know-how or other intellectual property, whether or not patentable or copyrightable, created by you and/or your partner, during the course of the provision of the Services or pertaining to any service, matter, thing, process or method related to the provision of the Services, or that may be useful or of benefit to Mason Horvath (collectively, the “Works”), and such Works created during a six (6) month period after termination or expiry of your provision of services to Mason Horvath (regardless of the circumstances for such termination or expiry), shall be the sole and absolute property of Mason Horvath. Without limiting the forgoing, you and your partner each hereby irrevocably waive all moral rights in the Works and the assigns and transfers to Mason Horvath the entire right, title and interest, domestic and foreign, of you and your partner in such Works, or, at the option of Mason Horvath, a lesser interest therein.

I understand the need for a legal clause stating that anything created within the six-month contract that relates to luxury travel and is a direct product of work in the “next best job” position would be the property of Mason Horvath. But for six-months following the contract too? Zellie commented on this clause on the IslandReefJob forum as well. I agree that it seems unreasonable to claim rights to everything produced after the contract has expired, particularly if your partner is a creative person, software engineer etc.

And then here’s the part where I said to myself “Are you serious?? Do you know how much time it takes to create a good quality video?”:

1. You and your partner must be available to provide the following services (the “Services”) to Mason Horvath or its nominess:

© produce and submit to Mason Horvath a minimum of two videos per week, such videos to be a minimum of two minutes in length, reporting on each Destination and/or Activity you and your partner have visited or participated in (as the case may be), such video to be prepared according to the guidelines and criteria maintained by Mason Horvath;

(d) produce and submit to Mason Horvath a thirty-second video on a daily basis from each Destination and/or Activity you and your partner have visited or participated in (as the case may be), such video to be prepared according to the guidelines and criteria maintained by Mason Horvath;

This is in ADDITION to the research of each destination and activity, “continuous updates” and daily blog posts, media interviews, and “other services.” Oh, and don’t forget you still have to create a video about a luxury activity in your hometown (which you have to source yourself) to even be considered for the Top 4. And then you have to go through a process of elimination “consist[ing] of challenges over one week that will require the contestants to search out and report on luxury experiences [ie more videos!] in this exotic location.”

Yes, I do realize a lot of this sounds like the original Best Job in the World. But, with the original campaign the successful applicant will have had four months to prepare video ideas, not have to source and negotiate deals for the activities on his / her own, have a home to go to at the end of the day to edit the one required video each week, and be paid twice as much.

I did the math. You can do it too. John from Channel Whitsunday had asked the Top 50 candidates a series of questions, one of which was “How many hours would you estimate that you have put into your campaign?” Not counting the time it took the applicants to create their video, or any work that they do on weekends, take the average amount of time each applicant spent per day on their campaign.

My application video, with the help of my sister and brother-in-law, took 14 hours to film and edit. This was a continuous 14 hours and does not include the time spent researching the Best Job in the World or creating the storyboard or background props. 14 hours per 60 seconds. You can take a different ratio if you like. Use whatever you think is a reasonable amount of time to create a good quality 60 second video. Now calculate how much time it would take to make seven 30 second videos and two videos that are each two minutes long.

If you add this to the average number of hours the successful applicant would spend on blogs and interviews each week, what do you get? How much time is left to plan, research and negotiate deals on activities at various destinations? How much time is left to enjoy the activities? Now calculate how much the successful candidate ends up earning between him/herself and his/her partner per hour and then take into consideration that anything created six-months after the contract is up is no longer his / her intellectual property. How much does each person earn during that year?

By my calculations, it really doesn’t sound like the “next best job.” And here I was thinking about how bad it’d be for the environment for someone to take this job!

PS Mason Horvath, there’s a grammatical error on your ‘Application and Selection Process — Video Submissions’ document as well. You’re missing ‘as’ in the paragraph after the Resume Evaluation portion of the Quality Assurance section, right before “personality testing.”

The NEXT Best Job in the World

Hi Anny,

I’ve been following the Island Reef Job contest from the start and I’ve been amazed with the quality of all of the shortlist contests’ video submissions. Unfortunately, only one person can get the best job in the world, so here’s what I want to do: I want to give you a second chance.

Who am I? My name’s Dean Horvath and I own Mason Horvath, a luxury travel agency here in Vancouver. I want to offer you a chance at another job, The Next Best Job in the World!

As Mason Horvath’s Elite Travel Correspondent, you’ll travel the world for six months, searching out the most unique and mind-blowing experiences normally reserved for the rich and famous. Experiences like a private candlelight dinner on the Great Wall of China, racing a Ferrari through the winding back roads of Tuscany, and spending the afternoon picnicking in the Moroccan desert.

Why are we doing this? It’s simple. Mason Horvath has always provided our clients with the most unique and exclusive experiences the world has to offer and now we want to share them with the world.

What are the specifics? First thing: you’re going to be traveling around the world living in the most luxurious hotels and resorts imaginable, taking part in the most unique and exclusive experiences money can buy. Then, you’re going to share this with the world through the website thenextbestjob.com. You’ll get to experience well over half a million dollars worth of travel and we’ll pay you USD $50,000 to do it!

Also, you’ll need to find someone to come with you as well. All of this luxury is too much for one person to manage, so you’ll need someone to help out.

How do you enter? Simple. I am inviting all of the shortlisted candidates from the Island Reef Job to submit a 60 second video to Mason Horvath describing the most unique and out-of-this-world experience in your own home town.

Feel free to visit the contest website at www.thenextbestjob.com and our corporate website at www.masonhorvath.com for more information.

So, are you interested? If so, simply send me an email at [xxx] and I will forward you the specific rules and regulations.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,
Dean Horvath

—
Website: www.masonhorvath.com

So what do you think? Obviously this campaign won’t be nearly as successful as the original, but what do you think about “the NEXT Best Job..” idea? Many companies have tried to replicate the Best Job in the World campaign these past few weeks or tried to latch onto the existing campaign by offering free products to the successful applicant (*cough cough* Fosters *cough*). But, this is the first campaign I’ve heard of that’s only open to Top 50 applicants.

If you didn’t make the Top 50 shortlist, you can enter the random draw to be the 5th “wild card”-type person to be flown in directly to the interview stage by clicking HERE. You do not need to create a video to be eligible for this fifth position. The remaining four candidates will be chosen from the Top 50 Best Job in the World applicants that apply.

Do you think the Top 50 candidates will apply? Should they apply? Why or why not?

And another question I had: Did Julia from Russia get an e-mail too?