In case you haven’t heard, in the UK it will soon be illegal to talk about your own product or service under the guise of somebody else. The new UK law, which goes into effect May 26, requires companies that use fake word-of-mouth advertising to clearly identify who they are. The law even extends to bloggers who are paid to write reviews.
Because word-of-mouth advertising is so effective — consumers tend to trust other consumers the most — many advertisers have latched on to the idea of faking word-of-mouth advertising (known as “astroturfing” in the US) by pretending to be a consumer and giving themselves good reviews or dissing the competition.
At the most basic level, companies will use an alias to give themselves positive reviews on discussion boards, forums, and ratings sites such as ResellerRatings.com, PriceGrabber.com, and others. Many larger companies have started to get pretty elaborate though, as shown by Sony’s All I Want for Xmas is a PSP viral effort in 2006.
Wal-Mart also started a flog (fake blog) called Walmarting Across America, supposedly maintained by a couple of Wal-Mart junkies as they visited various stores across the nation. Turns out that the supposed Wal-Mart enthusiasts were actually getting paid by the retail giant.
Although Sony and Wal-Mart both got busted by the public, companies continue pushing the ethics boundaries. Because it’s so effective (and the new law difficult to enforce), you can expect to continue seeing fake postings from fake people on fake fansites. But you probably won’t even know that all the astroturfing and flogging is going on as advertisers get better at covering their tracks.
While the say-or-do-anything-to-make-the-sale attitude has long been the standard in marketing, it has caused considerable damage. Today’s consumers are more weary of company claims than ever before, choosing instead to place more trust in complete strangers they meet on the Internet.
With astroturfing, flogging, and other similar questionable tactics growing in use, even consumer-to-consumer trust is dying.
Get In On Astroturfing While You Can?
So the question arises, should you get into astroturfing while there is still something to be had from it? Personally, I say no. If you want to gain the trust of consumers, then be as transparent in your marketing as you possibly can. Being that it is in such short supply these days, consumers appreciate honesty in a company.
Both Sony and Wal-Mart’s flogs could still have been just as popular and effective had both companies simply told people up front that they were faking it.
February 12th, 2008 - Stuart Lisonbee, Content Director
At my previous job, I spent a few years working for a company’s in-house marketing department. I still have a strong interest in marketing, so I tend to try and keep my finger on the pulse of the marketing world. Uh… that and I also work for an online marketing company.
I watch the marketing world closely enough that I actually know some of the various big ad agencies and who they do commercials for. For example, how many people know that it was Crispin, Porter & Bogusky that brought back the Burger King, or that TBWA is the one that makes those whacky Skittles commercials? Well, I do.
Recently Advertising Age, one of the many marketing publications I subscribe to, asked the following in a recent survey:
Do you think viewers remember which brands are advertised in which Super Bowl spots?
I was only allowed to answer yes or no to the question, even though I feel that there are more factors determining whether a commercial is remembered or not than if it airs during the Super Bowl.
Nonetheless, I answered “yes” because I think that if a commercial is done right, even the wackiest Super Bowl ad will strengthen a company’s brand and consumers will remember who the ad is for. My thinking seems to have been in the majority, but only barely. Survey respondents were split nearly straight down the middle.
Although I answered “yes” to this poll, I’ll be among the first to point out that Super Bowl commercials are more likely to have the advertiser forgotten than “regular” commercials. Why?
Well, the Super Bowl has long been celebrated as the most watched event in America, and therefore commands the most expensive airtime for advertisers. As such, advertisers go all out to ensure that their ad stands out from the rest. This has more and more meant creating the craziest, wackiest, most eccentrically zany commercial in an effort to cement a message within the brains of those who view it.
Marketers thus become so involved in creating what they think will be a memorable ad, or trying to create buzz, they forget that the purpose of an ad is to increase sales or strengthen one’s brand. Thus the most memorable part of the ad should be the brand.
Now, if you have a very strong brand you can usually get away with paying less attention to it. Strong brands are already cemented in our minds. That’s why we don’t go to the video rental store, we go to Blockbuster. In the South, people ask for a Coke instead of a soda. We Xerox documents instead of making photocopies. When we bleed we don’t go looking for a bandage, we break out a Band Aid. We blow our noses into a Kleenex, not tissue paper.
Nike can show their swoosh, Intel can play their jingle, Wiley Publishing can flash the black and yellow cover of one of their For Dummies books and consumers will know instantly who the advertiser is.
So what are the rest of us to do if we don’t have that kind of strong brand recognition? When it comes to viral marketing, whether you’re making a game (Burger King’s Sneak King), a video (the Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment), or interactive program (Office Max’s dancing elves), the key is to make sure that you make whatever it is you’re selling the star.
To read a quick case study of Office Max’s viral Christmas elves and to get a few tips for your own viral marketing, read Advertising Age’s They’re the Little Elves That Could.
And don’t forget: one of the best ways to make something viral is to make it fun and zany, but the purpose to viral marketing is to make sales or strengthen your brand.
In case you haven’t heard, in the UK it will soon be illegal to talk about your own product or service under the guise of somebody else. The new UK law, which goes into effect May 26, requires companies that use fake word-of-mouth advertising to clearly identify who they are. The law even extends to bloggers who are paid to write reviews.
Well, the Super Bowl has long been celebrated as the most watched event in America, and therefore commands the most expensive airtime for advertisers. As such, advertisers go all out to ensure that their ad stands out from the rest. This has more and more meant creating the craziest, wackiest, most eccentrically zany commercial in an effort to cement a message within the brains of those who view it.