Seriously, who is advising companies about their digital strategy at the moment? Today’s news has left me cranky as 3 separate articles on fake campaigns that have hit the news.
Image by Steve - http://www.flickr.com/photos/passenger57/
The first is a bit of a stupid one as the SMH on the weekend had a front page puff piece on some chick who was looking for love after some bloke she didn’t have the guts to talk to in a cafe left his jacket there (I’m paraphasing). She decided that Youtube was the best way to find him. Yawn. *
Now it turns out that she’s allegedly been hired by Naked Communications to generate buzz for a new menswear label launching.
The SMH broke the initial story (therefore generating all the buzz they were looking for) and then today exposed it as a fake campaign. Hey SMH, why didn’t you research it before you put it on your front page? Oh…. slow news day, huh. Nothing quite like creating your own news.
The second story that caught my eye is Belkin have just been exposed for paying people $0.65 per positive (fake) review they write on Amazon. In a mind-bogglingly cynical fashion, they instructed -
“It doesn’t matter if the reviewer doesn’t own the product or has never tried it– the requester has helpfully written, “Write as if you own the product and are using it.” It even goes a step further, asking the Mechanical Turk user to “Mark any other negative reviews as “not helpful” once you post yours.”
The final fake is a real shame as it was such a brilliant campaign. Tourism Queensland have been running a campaign for “the best job in the world“. It has been amazing, I’ve had people email it to me from all over the world, it’s made news around the world and even made it onto BoingBoing (the pinnacle of being newsworthy as far as I’m concerned).
They uploaded a fake Youtube video (now removed) of a woman who apparently got a tattoo to win the job competition.
The fake video goes against everything the campaign was standing for. The winner of the “best job in the world” was going to have to blog and flickr and probably Youtube. They were going to have to be au fait with web technology - and then the marketing department decide to upload fake videos?
Very poor form and so unnecessary. I read somewhere that they were getting 2 million hits per day (don’t quote me on that) so they were already getting the traffic and the user engagement.
It doesn’t matter what technology we develop, advertisers are going to find a way to ruin it. People are switching off ads and putting their trust in social networks — ooh let’s pretend to be one of them and push our cola drink while we’re at it.
They are just forcing consumers further and further underground and creating a cynical and jaded target market. We used to trust user reviews on sites like Amazon and TripAdvisor. Companies like Belkin are destroying this for everyone, not just themselves.
Whatever happened to Customer Service being the new Marketing? You know, treat your customers well and they’ll spread word of mouth and be advocates for your brand? I guess it’s just easier to shortcut by being dishonest and pretending to be consumers.
What is so frustrating is there are genuinely good ways to participate in social media, and run excellent Youtube campaigns but they take slightly more work as you need to do it whole-heartedly and be prepared for the negative as well as the “buzz”.
But the more companies that get outed for fake campaigns, the more businesses will shy away from getting involved, when there could be a genuine conversation to be had.
* What is with people who post on “missed connections” on Craigslist or in TNT magazine. “I saw you on the train, I was too shy to talk to you, here is my number - I want to see you”.
Why not toughen up and talk to him on the train instead of chasing after him for weeks and crying about how he was probably the one.
This post is tagged under: Marketing, dishonesty in advertising, social networking, transparency
Re the “missed connections”, don’t forget MX magazine, which is surely *the* place for such flirtations. I wonder if “studly bloke with red hair and brown jacket” is constantly on the look out whenever he’s on the train in case “hot girl in tank top” is watching.
Ah true, I’d forgotten all about MX. (The biggest advantage of not working in the city anymore is I never have to see that trashy rag).
“To woman standing on platform at North Sydney station, I’m the guy in the suit that makes eye contact with you every morning”.
Do you consider flirting by fax to be a valid activity? I for one can recommend it. Authentic, tender and so much more… papery than the alternatives.
[...] Gledhill also refers back to Naked’s previous mis-steps with Coke Zero. Writing on her Moltn Core blog she says: “It doesn’t matter what technology we develop, advertisers are going to [...]
A perfect level of snark, Cheryl! Awse!
Like you, I just don’t get these fakery-driven campaigns. Surely they saw the explosions NAB suffered last year. Surely they’ve read Cluetran, Join the Conversation, etc.?
It would appear not, or that the right way to deal with people needs to be whacked into these agencies’ heads. Thank the for my new clients - an agency that want to get it right.
My take here - http://www.acidlabs.org/2009/01/21/naked-conversations-or-not-so-much/
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