The Price of Winning Biker Prizes

Here’s the bottom line right on top: You think the prize you will get is free, but it is not. 

It will cost you your time, energy and most likely, your credibility.

In the last couple of years, the frequency with which virtual vote gathering has taken off is phenomenal. You are promised a ‘title’ that proves you are a ‘better biker’ than all the other bikers in the country. It seems highly pretentious until you remember we are in Delhi where titles matter. A lot.  

The irony is that most of us are so focused on scoring our own prizes that no one is really paying attention to others' prize. If we did, we may see the absurdity of winning based on our ability to garner enough votes.

But who cares as long as we get our 15 seconds of fame and couple of hundred ‘congrats’, ‘likes’ and ‘shares’. Usually from the same constituency who voted us in.

At the end of your vote harvesting, you may also get a fancy certificate, photo-op and vouchers for your passion for awards, ahem...sorry, motorcycling.

Obviously all these tactics are getting the required results otherwise the marketing firms wouldn’t be investing in it year after year. But what is in it for them?

Simply put, you are trading your sphere of influence to the company for their ‘award’. 

Now imagine there are thousands of bikers like you. Do the math.

There was a time when Bollywood stars had mass appeal but nowadays it’s a lot cheaper and affective to use folks like you and I who have the emotional connect with fellow bikers. Let's call it 'peer-pull'. 

It’s a typical pyramid structure where you recruit people through social media to ‘vote’ for you and get you to the top, all the while forcing other bikers to choose between mutual friends.

What no one tells you is that by the time you ‘win’ you are a mere footnote in the entire publicity stunt.

Your name may be announced from the stage but what people take home is the brainwashing done by the sponsor. And guess what? You were their chief mascot. 

Don’t get offended when people call you a sell-out. 

Many such ‘contests’ and ‘awards’ ‘by the bikers-for the bikers’ end up nurturing a culture of fake friendships. Where the individual is friendly with one goal in mind, “will this guy help me win or not?”

Just try exercising your right to say a polite “no” to a biker friend and watch what happens. If there is any depth in that friendship, it should not matter. But if they freak out or keep bombarding you to vote for them, you know you weigh less than that ‘prize’ they covet. And lets not even bother with the envy and dismay of those who ‘lost’ in this virtual biker's game.

The truth is we all want instant fame with the click of our friend’s button. We also want to be valued. And no doubt, when our adventurous side is publicly recognized it makes us feel special.

But I do wonder at times if Delhi Bikers are not being conned by crafty companies who award us for getting them maximum publicity?

Just when you thought we had escaped the
rat-race, it comes looking for us with trophies to win

And somehow instead of investing our time, talent and treasure in something new and unique, are we spending all that creative energy in trying to be ‘famous’ in the shadow of others’ success?

The issue is not the contest or winning by votes. They are amazing marketing tools. The issue arises when we believe the awards to be authentic. 

May you win all the awards in every category of all the online biker contests. May you stay sane if you don’t. Because you are much more than the sum total of your voting ‘friends’…of course minus one (me)

But, you never know, I might start asking for votes once they start “The Smartass of the Year” award.