Forbes, Sony, Blogs, Marketing, PR and Creativity
Cover story in Forbes is, "Attack of the Blogs". The article is wrong headed, backward looking and a corporate fear-based response to bloggers. "They will destroy the brand! They can say ANYTHING! Here is how to shut them up." (If you aren't a registered member of forbes.com from bugmenot a username is forbesdontbug and a password is forbesdontbug)
I look at things through a few lenses at the same time.
1) Media
2) Political
3) Marketing
4) Communications
5) Spiritual
The writer of the article approaches the bloggers as illegitimate pissants trying to usurp the media and the corporate message. The editor of the magazine knows enough to know controversy sells and that a message of, "Those damn nasty bloggers are messing up your brand!" will be well received by their corporate advertisers and readers, most of whom are in the business of making and selling products that can be easily criticized by people in this new fangled medium called the internet.
From a political point of view, this take on blogging is part of a larger style of communication that politics has used extensively in the last 5 years. Attack the messenger, not the content of the message. It doesn't ask the question, "Are they right? It asks, "How can we shut them up or marginalize them?" This is what Rove does with any challengers. They want to know how they can we go deep and destroy them critics. (After first pretending they don't exist.)
I find it ironic but not surprising that this article comes out at the same time I know that the marketing/PR community is striving to understand, "What makes bloggers tick? How can we pitch to them? How can we trick them or manipulate them or co-opt them?" A few smart ones are clever enough to ask,
"How can we engage them so that they talk about us or with us in a POSITVE way? Or, if it isn't a positive message, we can at least learn what dissatisfies them.""
Which brings us to this commercial for Sony and The BRAVIA Commercial
its new LCD screen.
I first heard about the Ad on boingboing.net. Today they had a link to the ad it self. It involves dropping 250,000 colored superballs down a street in San Francisco.
Now besides the commercial itself, they will be generating a bunch of links/hits from the blogs that find this beautiful and fun. The ad itself falls under the title of "cool things you would do if you had the money and were still 14 years old." It also, because of the music, is hauntingly beautiful in almost a spiritual way. The people at boingboing called it "relaxing". I've watched it 3 times. Partly to hear the music but also to see the spectacle and appreciate the beauty.
To my mind THIS is a creative way to get your message out. Yes it uses an ad, but it also acknowledges that there is a community of people who talk about this. They might have sent notes to a few bloggers in the art community or the LCD geek biz to talk about this. (They did include a "behind the scenes" link that I haven't watched.)
I'm sure Sony also monitors the cranky people blogs, but I'm guessing they are more inclined to figure out their issue and try and make them whole and convert them to satisfied customers rather than attempt to destroy them. That is Rovian thinking.
That kind of thinking makes your lots of potential customers the enemy? Why would you want to turn an unhappy customer into an enraged one? Isn't it better to make things that delight and astonish customers? To engage them artistically, intellectually or technically?
Doc Searls and the Cluetrain Manifesto people wrote about the conversation that companies want to have with their customers. The influence of the Bush years tells the corporations that if someone doesn't get in line, crush them. It might make sense in politics where you have one competitor and you only have to convince 51 percent of the engaged voters. And it might also work for some monopolies who have a lock on the market. But way go that route? Is there that much anger stored up toward potential or unhappy customers that you want to go nuclear on your critics?
When Sony does a brand Google search on this topic, they will find this post. They will note the good will it engenders for the company. They might note that I know the product name, the band name and I know that color has something to do with what it does. They have brought me to the market place. My next step will be to the world of reviewers. If they can win there or be in the first three I'm going to consider them. In my mind that is an investment that has paid off almost perfectly.
Dear Sony product manager reading this blog: If you would like to give me one of these BRAVIA screens in exchange for using my comments here I won't turn it down, but I didn't wrote this post with the expectation of ever getting one. I just like to encourage positive behavior and creativity when I see it. Perhaps it will be result in more creative communications efforts.
LLAP,
Spocko
I look at things through a few lenses at the same time.
1) Media
2) Political
3) Marketing
4) Communications
5) Spiritual
The writer of the article approaches the bloggers as illegitimate pissants trying to usurp the media and the corporate message. The editor of the magazine knows enough to know controversy sells and that a message of, "Those damn nasty bloggers are messing up your brand!" will be well received by their corporate advertisers and readers, most of whom are in the business of making and selling products that can be easily criticized by people in this new fangled medium called the internet.
From a political point of view, this take on blogging is part of a larger style of communication that politics has used extensively in the last 5 years. Attack the messenger, not the content of the message. It doesn't ask the question, "Are they right? It asks, "How can we shut them up or marginalize them?" This is what Rove does with any challengers. They want to know how they can we go deep and destroy them critics. (After first pretending they don't exist.)
I find it ironic but not surprising that this article comes out at the same time I know that the marketing/PR community is striving to understand, "What makes bloggers tick? How can we pitch to them? How can we trick them or manipulate them or co-opt them?" A few smart ones are clever enough to ask,
"How can we engage them so that they talk about us or with us in a POSITVE way? Or, if it isn't a positive message, we can at least learn what dissatisfies them.""
Which brings us to this commercial for Sony and The BRAVIA Commercial
its new LCD screen.I first heard about the Ad on boingboing.net. Today they had a link to the ad it self. It involves dropping 250,000 colored superballs down a street in San Francisco.
Now besides the commercial itself, they will be generating a bunch of links/hits from the blogs that find this beautiful and fun. The ad itself falls under the title of "cool things you would do if you had the money and were still 14 years old." It also, because of the music, is hauntingly beautiful in almost a spiritual way. The people at boingboing called it "relaxing". I've watched it 3 times. Partly to hear the music but also to see the spectacle and appreciate the beauty.
To my mind THIS is a creative way to get your message out. Yes it uses an ad, but it also acknowledges that there is a community of people who talk about this. They might have sent notes to a few bloggers in the art community or the LCD geek biz to talk about this. (They did include a "behind the scenes" link that I haven't watched.)
I'm sure Sony also monitors the cranky people blogs, but I'm guessing they are more inclined to figure out their issue and try and make them whole and convert them to satisfied customers rather than attempt to destroy them. That is Rovian thinking.
That kind of thinking makes your lots of potential customers the enemy? Why would you want to turn an unhappy customer into an enraged one? Isn't it better to make things that delight and astonish customers? To engage them artistically, intellectually or technically?
Doc Searls and the Cluetrain Manifesto people wrote about the conversation that companies want to have with their customers. The influence of the Bush years tells the corporations that if someone doesn't get in line, crush them. It might make sense in politics where you have one competitor and you only have to convince 51 percent of the engaged voters. And it might also work for some monopolies who have a lock on the market. But way go that route? Is there that much anger stored up toward potential or unhappy customers that you want to go nuclear on your critics?
When Sony does a brand Google search on this topic, they will find this post. They will note the good will it engenders for the company. They might note that I know the product name, the band name and I know that color has something to do with what it does. They have brought me to the market place. My next step will be to the world of reviewers. If they can win there or be in the first three I'm going to consider them. In my mind that is an investment that has paid off almost perfectly.
Dear Sony product manager reading this blog: If you would like to give me one of these BRAVIA screens in exchange for using my comments here I won't turn it down, but I didn't wrote this post with the expectation of ever getting one. I just like to encourage positive behavior and creativity when I see it. Perhaps it will be result in more creative communications efforts.
LLAP,
Spocko
2 Comments:
Well said, Spocko! It is fascinating to watch the corporate mind struggle with the blogosphere, fearing the truly free and democratic exchange of information and ideas, yet wondering how to get a foothold in it.
They want to manipulate this new medium, but it has grown faster and wider than anyone has ever expected. I think the blogs even took the Rovian master plan by surprise, the one thing they had not considered in their quest for world domination.
The common man has a new and powerful voice.
Hiya Spocko!
It seems to me that many of the denizens of the Blogosphere actually are illegitimate pissants (present company roundly excepted) and probably should be whipped with their own mouse cords, but all the while I'll still defend their right to say what they like (damn my social conscience).
There can be concord, but everybody involved (that is to say- everybody) is going to have to give a little. Allegation (rather than fact) has been enough to sink a business or a political career for many years, it's simply several orders of magnitude easier now. Freedom of speech and accountability are not mutually exclusive, however, and can live together peacefully even in cyberspace if the humans involved would simply pull their heads out and do something to make it happen (like not being such a bunch of weaselly asshats), but I'm not holding my breath.
The Making Of video on the Sony website is interesting, I think the thunder of a quarter million superballs bouncing off of cars, houses and occasionally people would probably be good for the Sony: Sound like.no.other campaign.
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