There’s a passionate video response by YouTube blogger Kristina Horner about working with brands. Motivated by some criticism of her work with Ford Fiesta, she argues that for both bloggers and brands to be successful they need to accept that traditional advertising is not-effective (and even rejected) and that publishers like Kristina can find a win-win situation where a brand supports their work without compromise.
If you work in advertising and marketing and are trying to understand the social media space, this video is a must watch. Kudos to the team at Undercurrent who orchestrated the Ford Fiesta campaign by getting a response that supports the work they do there. Here’s the original piece Kristina created as part of the campaign.
And this was the response when she found out she won a car for 6 months:
Cute.
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Another part of the campaign fyi – from the press release:
“Gaming site OMGPOP just released Hover Kart – it’s totally addictive (more than a million plays already). They have hidden a Ford Fiesta in the game for you to unlock and race with. Once you’re registered and logged in, type in the classic Konami code on your keyboard: up arrow, up arrow, down arrow, down arrow, left arrow, right arrow, left arrow, right arrow, B, A, and enter key. The Fiesta-kart gives you an extra item slot and the drift kit, so it gives you a slight advantage without breaking the game for everyone else…”
http://omgpop.com/
July 20th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
It’s strange – we seem accept sponsorship without question when it comes to endorsements by sportspeople, but condemn it when it relates to blogger opinions and reviews. Any ideas why? More here: http://eskimon.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/influencing-influence/
July 21st, 2009 at 1:45 am
Do we actually condemn sponsorship it when it doesn’t come from sports people? Or just when we’re feel like we’ve been had.
Sports people are upfront about sponsership–they do it for the money. Perhaps we just take exception when someone who’s not in it for the money changes the the social contract we have with them (by taking the advertiser’s nickle) without telling us. If they came from a position of “I’m in making a career of this / I’m in it for the money” we might not mind so much. But if they claim to be doing it for the love of it, then we don’t tolerate much more than a few adwords to help with the hosting. They can’t have it both ways.
In my mind this is more like the (noble) amateur / professional split we had in tennis for a while.
r.
PEG
July 21st, 2009 at 8:45 am
So she’s got a car. A “free sample.” What’s new about that? It’s a marketing technique that’s as old as time. Let her blog away.
The funny part is that even though, yes, she’s adorable, I find myself quickly bored, wishing she’d selectively edit her favorite parts and leave out the rest. But if audiences prefer that over content that’s more slick and polished, so be it.
July 21st, 2009 at 11:23 am