How PR is pulling ahead of Advertising

Its all about the Buzz. "Buzz, the modern variant of gossip, is a combination of marketing communication (which is all about telling our commercial stories) and public relations (used to narrate particular angles of a story) in a highly networked world (Angeld, 2004)." With the turn to blogging and online publications word of mouth is the new way to gain media and public attention. For example, when was the last time you saw a commercial about TiVo? When was the last time you saw an ad for it in a magazine? But the majority of todays public knows what TiVo is. Many people today even refer to non- TiVO DVR as "TiVo". My family has even made TiVo a verb. "Make sure you TiVo that show tonight!"But I have rarely seen a commerical or marketing campaign for TiVo. I distinctly remember hearing friends talk about it, and hearing salesman at the tech store tell me about it. The Public Relations team at TiVo must be doing their job. They seem to be creating the press necessary to sell TiVo without a fancy marketing campaign. Today Blogs are becoming one of the most common modes for buzz. Technology professionals and your average consumer can all access Blogs about their favorite products to talk about the good, the bad, and new ways to improve a product. With the availability to converse with other consumers about a specific product so easily, unexpected, and much appreciated buzz about a product is produced.

However, marketing campaigns can also use blogs to their advantage. For example, one advertisement by Ford for the new Ford KA was so gruesome it never made a regular running on TV. It did become a cult classic online. I remember seeing this ad several years ago for the first time, and I heard the buzz around it making its rounds through the dorms on the Ithaca campus. With the blogging technology available today this guerilla advertising campaign had the chance to be more than just an ad that never made it. Blogs are a a good resource for marketers. Marketers can not only read blogs and gain valuable information about public needs and values in terms of consumerism, but merkters could also begin to post ad campaigns on blogs all over the web. Advertising online is clearly not a new idea (stupid spam!) but when used effectively and placed strageically in places where people want to see the ads marketers could create the buzz necessary to sell a product.

Creating Buzz: New Media Tactics Have Changed the PR and Advertising Game , By: Fernando, Angeld, Communication World, 07447612, Nov/Dec2004, Vol. 21, Issue 6Database: Communication & Mass Media Complete

Problems with Blogging

Blogs have been coming at us quickly in the past few years. What used to be strictly used by "cyber-nerds", are now used as a common marketing tool. Blogs are seen as effective marketing tools because they are highly intreactive, highly efficient, and easy to use. However, some marketing experts are worried that because blogs have come on with such intensity and so quickly that they will lose their novelty just as quickly. "In our technology driven world, marketing purists and market watchers alike generally hold the belief that when big corporations adopt something that was once a niche idea, a cool concept or a clever marketing tool, then that thing has almost definitely lost its edge. It's become mainstream, manufactured and slick (Turmann, 2005, p.16)." Customers will no longer feel that the company is actually trying to reach out and get feedback. It will become like a suggestion box: common, insignificant and hardly used.

Other problems are quickly arising with marketing blogs. "Leaking of information, sharing of secrets with competitors and violating federal securities laws are a few things the blog world has introduced (Turmann, 2005, p.16)." For one company a blogger cost the company over $10 million. "A speculative post about how a disposable Bic pen can break impenetrable Kryptonite bicycle locks resulted in the company paying out US$10 million in replacement locks, thanks to the two million people who read about this via blogs (Sudhaman, 2005, p. 19). Freedom of speech is another main issue that needs to be addressed in the blogging world. How much right do employees have to express their opinions and dispense knowledge about their employers? With no way to fact check or be certain of credibility, is it safe for customers to believe and take advice dispensed on blogs? I wont even get started with comment spam!

Double-edged blog power puts marketers on guard , By: Sudhaman, Arun, Media Asia, 15621138, 7/1/2005 Database: Communication & Mass Media Complete

Blogging in danger of going the way of email in marketing , By: Turmann, Bjorn, Media Asia, 15621138, 10/7/2005Database: Communication & Mass Media Complete

Blogging! The newest marketing media

Traditionally marketing has been limited to radio, television, and print media. In the new and ever changing digital era, marketing is changing to keep up with the times. Blogging is the newest and most innovative way to reach new and younger customers. The new tech savvy marketing campaigns begun by McDonald's and other larger corporations target young customers. For example, the blog begun by McDonald's focuses on the company's corporate responsibility programs. It allows customers to reply and comment on questions posted to the forum. Even tough and potentially damaging questions such as, "What are your thoughts on the role of McDonald's and animal welfare?" are posted on the blog. However, while the blog poses challenging questions, it is not nearly as fun, exciting, or eye catching as this blog from PotatoFinger.

Today blogging is equalizing the playing field between small and large corporations in the marketing world. You don't need millions of dollars or a really catchy jingle to make an outstanding blog; just one tech savvy employee. PotatoFinger a small Potato Chip company based in Georgia, is embracing the influx of new customers brought to the company through their blog. Unlike McDonald's limited corporate responsibility blog, PotatoFinger blogs all company information from potato chip history, to awards won, to what some employees were doing while "The Big Boss" was away.

With so many free blog sites such as Blogger, Typepad, and Blogstream it is easy, not to mention cost effective, for any corporation large or small to set up a marketing blog campaign.

So, you tell me. By looking at these blogs, which is the bigger corporation: Google or Gourmet Station? The Google blog, designed by one of the biggest, richest corporations in the world, doesn't even compare to the beauty and elegance of the blog set up by gourmet foods, a small web based food service. If this is the direction that marketing is moving towards, and it certainly appears to be that way, large corporations better jump on the blogging bandwagon!