SVS issued this statement today. It looks like the inevitable spin control to me but I hope it also suggests a new direction for them on how they will run their business.
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This statement is in response to recent allegations made by the owners and operators of “Audioholics”, an Internet Audio/Video Magazine.
Despite repeated requests from "Audioholics" over the last two months for SVS to renew our advertising contract with their website, SVS notified Audioholics on January 31, 2007 that we would not be renewing an agreement for 2007. Our decision was due primarily to lower than expected returns on our investment based on customer surveys. At no point in these contract discussions, or the recent issuance of an Audioholics “Product of the Year Award”, or during the entire previous year, had the conduct of SVS been questioned by Audioholics as less than honest and productive.
After concluding our relationship, we were surprised and disappointed to learn the next day that SVS was supposedly “fired” by Audioholics as an advertiser. Audioholics apparently used the statements of a forum member as a pretense for "firing" SVS, insinuating that SVS "planted" the forum member to create controversy and boost SVS sales. Not only are these allegations patently false, they are damaging to SVS' reputation. SVS has never asked any Internet forum member to post anything on its behalf. We can only imagine that Audioholics "fired" SVS as a preemptive strike to protect its image (we would assume that no online magazine wants to be perceived as losing sponsors).
While we regularly participate in all the major A/V forums, both to answer questions about our products, and because we are still audio enthusiasts -- we ALWAYS identify ourselves as SVS employees whenever we discuss anything related to our products, or competitive products. We are an internet-direct business, and it should be self-evident that a significant portion of our sales revenue is derived from credible on-line professional reviews and from equally credible comments by satisfied customers.
With that said, it bears repeating: SVS does not tell anyone in the public what to say, and by extension has never paid anyone (or provided other incentives) for posting comments on our behalf. Nor do SVS employees post statements without identifying their relationship with SVS. If a given audio forum member questions what he perceives to be biased and preferential behavior on the part of Audioholics’ management with respect to its various advertisers, that is, of course, his or her prerogative, based on an opinion and motivation of his own. That such actions are beyond our control should be obvious as well.
Professional integrity and honesty are the very core values upon which SVS was founded nearly 8 years ago; without them we would have already ceased to flourish. For the tens of thousands of valued SVS customers, our personal commitment to those values and audio excellence remain, even in the face of spurious accusations such as these, whatever their motivation. An even greater array of new and improved world-class products and continued dedication to open and objective discourse are our promises to you for 2007.
