Last year in July me and a dozen other bloggers were invited to Ogilvy’s Blogstorm. That was a pretty cool experience for a few reasons. First of all, it was great to see an advertising agency turning to bloggers to get input on ‘how’ to blog, ‘why’ to blog en ‘when’ to blog. Second, because they seemed to care about the ethics around it, about not getting burned and also because Ogilvy seemed to be preparing for some cool actions in which bloggers would become involved.
So, now we’re almost a year later and indeed, Ogilvy turned to ’some’ bloggers to have a package delivered with some Fanta products to be ‘tested’, with a small note included, inviting the blogger to ‘freely’ write about it (or not). I have a few things to remark about the way Ogilvy did this.
I wasn’t informed, and neither were Maarten Schenk, Frédéric De Vries and Hans Mestrum. I think there are plenty of others who’ve attended the Blogstorm that were left out of this ’small test’. Not to say: all of them except for Smetty. Is it wrong for me to expect that the first bloggers Ogilvy would turn to to test products of their clients would be those who’ve helped them determine the right course of action? I’m not talking about prominency or authority, but hey… what gives? Where is the basic respect? How about showing you cared about our input by at least sending us information about the project, so we ‘know’ what is going on? Things travel around in the blogospere. We will find out, eventually. Might as well tell us from the start.
Almost one year of silence. No follow-up. No friendly mails, nothing. I’ve heard nothing from Ogilvy since the event was over. I’ve written 4 blogposts about it, to recap what was said, to share the info and to tell the world how cool Ogilvy was. I’m starting to come down from that. Obviously, what I wrote ‘for them’ didn’t make a difference.
You do not launch a campaign by commenting something on a totally unrelated blogpost on a blog that’s… well. Never mind. I’m not getting personal. You just don’t. If you want to create some buzz, if you’re looking for testers, you post it on your own blog and send out emails to the bloggers you know. (I thought that was ‘us’, the participants of the blogstorm). I thought we had a foot between the door there, that we would be the guys who got to know first if something was going to happen. I guess not.
So, Franky, I see you haven’t even written about it on your own blog. You didn’t announce anything about what you were up to. Months of silence, and then a small comment to initiate a buzz. Where have you learned that? Not only do you focus on the audience of one blog, you don’t even mind to write about it yourself. Out of my RSS reader you go.
You, Franky, sum up two reasons for the blogger to qualify for the participation in your project. The blogger must write about ‘casual’ stuff and has to write about ‘blogs being a new media phenomenon’. How much more open can this be? Almost any blogger fits in that description, yet still you talk about a list of ’selected blogs’, people you have contacted. Not us. Where does that leave Maarten, Hans or me? If Luc didn’t write to you himself, he would’ve been left out too. You talk about a personal network of bloggers you’ve obtained with the Blogstorm. You might have connected with us, but a network needs maintenance. You can no longer talk about a personal network if communication stopped abruptly after the event. That’s my humble opinion about it. I know some people I’m in touch with on a very regular basis (which is called ‘networking’) think the same. People that were at the Blogstorm but haven’t heard from you since, and those people weren’t in the profile database you were putting together for this action in the blogosphere. I’m sorry. You obviously do not know anything about blogosphere marketing.
I’m not pissed off about you not contacting me. I’m pissed off about the shameful way you’re pulling this stunt off.
About the shortcomings in your communication.
About the lack of interest in the network you thought you had built up by inviting us for that one cool event.
About the laziness you display in the message you’ve sent with the product you want to create a buzz for.
About the lack of product information inside the package.
About the fact that you use a comment section in a blog to announce an action of this kind.
You expect bloggers to go crazy just because there’s a soda with a new taste. Dude. You’re treating us like kids. (No RSS reader scans comments too, if it wasn’t for Luc, I probably never found out before friday, when you sent out the packages)
Ogilvy, and you, have definitely missed the point of the entire Blogstorm day. You don’t have a clue about how to talk to the blogosphere. There needs to be more than a small note with promises and a can of mango Fanta to create something viral. Sure, the people you sent it to will blog about it, but it’s going to be pointless talking because you didn’t offer anything to talk about, and most of the bloggers you contacted are just so amazed about a marketing company contacting them that they will focus on that instead of talking about the product you’ve sent them. Most bloggers you contacted had never heard of a Blogstorm. I’m wondering how you created that list of selected bloggers. What were your criteria?
Nice way to juggle with the buzzword. Sorry to break the news to you but blogs are no longer a ‘new’ phenomenon, they’re already a fact. Furthermore: you guarantee exclusive content, but from the post Luc Van Braekel made (in English), I can hardly believe how lame the content actually is. You’re doing nothing but a senseless superficial promo talk. Is that your idea of exclusive content? Luc even had to go look for more details somewhere else on the web, to be able to write something useful about that one can of new flavor you sent out. That’s not really good, I think. You’re doing this wrong, and not just a little.
Technorati reveals exactly 5 other posts in the last 3 days. Some buzz you have created. Was it worth it? Did it feel good? (shouldn’t have written this)
Seriously. You need to rethink your concept. You need to ‘tighten’ your relations you thought you had with us, the bloggers from the Blogstorm. I’m disappointed in how you dealt with this. You should be ashamed. I wrote you an email on wednesday to tell you it’s ok to contact me if you plan activities related to the blogosphere. I’m still waiting for a reply. It’s ok to send me stuff, but make it worthwile blogging about. A can of soda is bit… undone. If you send two or three, we could discuss it with friends and blog about the conversations we had while drinking. That would be your good deal. One can in a box is like a car with three wheels. It’s just not working. You could’ve blogged about it on your blog, asked for advice, contacted the ‘network you established’ to get sincere feedback. Now you get a post like this.
Jason
February 12, 2006 at 1:04 am
If only the referenced posts were in english. Then I could read them. And I’m too lazy to fire up an online translator. I for one have never been impressed with Fanta. Though the girls in their commercial were cute, their voices and that song were terrible.
Huug
February 12, 2006 at 3:15 am
Ach en wee , daar is de eerst huilebalk al! Snifsnotter, ooh wat e-r-u-g. Heeft Frankieboy je laten zitten ? Sjoeke toch! (Gniffel) Afijn lees mijn reacties maar op : http://huugendruug.blogspot.com/2006/02/nieuw-analanta-mango-uit-thailand-in.html
Dag schat !
Bart
February 12, 2006 at 12:13 pm
“The key is to establish a relationship before you need it.”
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/02/the_art_of_schm.html
Smetty
February 12, 2006 at 1:13 pm
You do not launch a campaign by commenting something on a totally unrelated blogpost on a blog that’s… ?
…not as relevant as yours Miel?
Did you read that “unrelated blogpost”? I was writing about getting sponsored as a blogger. But hey, let’s leave the “getting personal” track.
I agree with you. It would have been better to contact all the “blogstorm” contacts. A few more cans of Fanta and your blogpost could have been a positive one.
But I had also this thought. Your are working for iMerge now (as a student, but so what). So stop crying and do it better yourself. It’s easy to shout, but Franky is the first who tried. I’m looking forward Miel to your first action as a marketeer.
Karel
February 12, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Als ik het goed begrijp laten bloggers zichzelf dus (mis)gebruiken door reclamebureau’s.
Alleen maar door het feit dat de 1 iets heeft wat de ander niet heeft maakt het blijkbaar voor beide partijen bijzonder.
Coolz0r
February 12, 2006 at 3:04 pm
@ Smetty. I’ve read the blogpost. I read your blog. That doesn’t mean I have to like everything you write. It’s a matter of personal taste. If you like to call yourself relevant, then those are your words. I never said I was better. That’s something you assume.
What I mean is that Franky’s call to bloggers is totally unrelated to SNBA. SNBA contacted you via email, personally, they did not comment somewhere.
Getting sponsored is not the same as getting freebies to blog about. Getting sponsored is by means of contracts, fixed payments. There’s a big difference there.
It’s not about the Fanta can. I don’t care about that. It’s about the fact we’ve spent an entire day ’sharing our wisdom’ and when it finally starts we’re left out of it. We get nothing in return. At least some information about it would’ve been welcome.
Coolz0r
February 12, 2006 at 3:14 pm
@ Karel. Je begrijpt het niet. Het gaat niet om het hebben. Het gaat om wederzijds respect. Ik vind dat Ogilvy op zijn minst een kleine mededeling had kunnen doen naar de bloggers waarvan zij zeggen dat ze er een ’speciale band’ mee hebben.
We hebben ons goed geamuseerd in Brussel op die Blogstorm, klopt. We hebben al onze kennis gedeeld, en met graagte.
Als er dan iets gebeurt vanuit Ogilvy dat met blogs en marketing te maken heeft, dan hadden ze dat wel even mogen laten weten.
Dat wil niet zeggen dat ik verwacht dat iedereen automatisch gratis spul toegezonden krijgt. Dat wil niet zeggen dat ik graag dat blikje had gehad. (ik had er waarschijnlijk niet veel positiefs over te zeggen, gezien de gebrekkige communicatie). Het gaat om een elementaire beleefdheid en een ‘dank je’.
Hans Mestrum
February 13, 2006 at 9:06 am
Het gaat inderdaad niet om de fanta, of om sponsoring. Ik heb daar zelfs aversie tegen, maar veel meer om communicatie, conversatie. Tijdens de blogstorm hebben we meerdere malen geattendeerd om het belang van goede communicatie met de juiste mensen. De vraag van Ogilvy was zelfs of we mee wilden werken aan bepaalde projecten en we hebben daar uitgebreid over gediscussieerd. Jammer dat dat onvoldoende is aangekomen. Maar laten we het positief benaderen. Ogilvy kan met dit fanta-project nu ook zijn voordeel doen. Eens kijken wat hun reactie richten de ‘blogstormers’ en de rest van de blogosphere is.
Franky
February 13, 2006 at 9:37 am
Miel,
According to plan – all participants of the blogstorm were all to receive an e-mail with detailed explication of what/how/when today. So, that they could get even more information then the ones selected in the list. Including a ‘thank you’ (!), because this action is clearly a result from your input.
And my mistake, I’ve should have done it earlier. I apologize for not being as quick as the die-hard blogging community. Important learning. Thanks (again!).
Joe
February 13, 2006 at 11:34 am
It sounds an aweful lot like a blogger didn’t get a piece of the pie and is crying now all over the blogosphere.
Grow up.
All the possible valid points you are perhaps making are completely overshouted by your ‘whiney’ tone of voice (no offense meant).
Perhaps you (and most bloggers) are overestimating your relevance, it would help if you would realise this. I am sure you would then be able to get across the message much better.
ps. Fanta sucks anyhow.
Marketing.Interactive » Blog Archive » Ogilvy laat bloggen voor de nieuwe Fanta
February 13, 2006 at 12:38 pm
[...] De actie laat in ieder geval geen stiltes na: uiteraard wordt er over gescrhreven en eveneens duiken al de eerste kritieken op. Waar Ogilvy immers onvoldoende rekening mee heeft gehouden volgens sommigen is de communicatie en het onderhouden van de relaties met de deelnemers aan de Blogstorm. [...]
Hans Mestrum
February 13, 2006 at 2:15 pm
@franky: lessons learned ;-) Goed dat je het communiceert. Ik ben benieuwd naar je email. No hard feelings anyway.
Coolz0r
February 13, 2006 at 4:16 pm
tracks :
http://i-wisdom.typepad.com/iwisdom/2006/02/first_blogmarke.html
http://www.mediafact.nl/comments.php?id=11393_0_1_0_C
http://www.blogologie.be/2006/02/ogilvy_en_fanta.html
Coolz0r - Marketing Thoughts » Ogilvy Talks Back
February 17, 2006 at 4:43 pm
[...] How Ogilvy Missed The Point How Ogilvy Screwed Up [...]
Wanda
March 27, 2006 at 3:05 pm
You Gotcha one of the nicest blogs I have seen.
User generated advertising grows up. at Emakina Web 2.0 News
June 6, 2006 at 1:58 pm
[...] User generated advertising grows up. Published by Christian June 6th, 2006 in Uncategorized Tags: user generated advertising. At first there was the buzzwords, user generated content, user generated advertising, authentic media and whatnot. Then there where the early adopters, advertising agencies eager to be one of the first to jump on the bandwagon. Hey look at us! We did a user generated campaign! They didn’t “get it”. They read the blogs, understood where it was at, but when it was time to get creative with it they failed miserably. Tahoe, and locally, Fanta and Electrabel come to mind. The traditional agencies smirked, and they had every right too. The buzzwords unmasked as empty hypes. But user generated content is back. Ideas had time to mature and there have been lessons learned from mistakes. In the last week I came across several campaigns that rocked. On http://www.here4bl.com you can upload a picture of someone holding up a card with “I’m Just Here For The Bud Light”. Great idea, controllable but not over-controlled. And this Nike campaign allows you to upload a movie of someone, or whatever really, as long as it has a football coming in from the left and exiting though the right. To be edited into a chain of football players. Cool! [...]
roflpops.com » Blogging About Stuff
July 20, 2006 at 8:08 pm
[...] I wanted to write a post related to companies giving out products to bloggers in exchange for posts about them (word of mouth, awareness, links, pools etc) but I made it so long I thought nobody would be arsed to read it. And it also had a rant about what I read on coolz0r(*) about Ogilvy teaching people how to blog better only to fail miserably with their attempt of creating some buzz around a new Fanta flavour but I guess it had its happy ending. [...]
kiddo » Scriem despre chestii?
July 20, 2006 at 8:24 pm
[...] Aveam eu (si aici) o insemnare lunga legata de companii care cauta bloggeri sa scrie despre diverse chestii – motiv pentru care intrebasem de curiozitate despre ce ar scrie lumea daca ar avea ocazia – dar am decis sa nu postez de nici o forma pentru ca o dadeam in boala ‘e prea lung si neinteresant, nu ma obosesc sa citesc’. Si continea si un pic de critica la adresa unui proiect facut de Ogilvy in Belgia (detalii pe coolz0r, un blog foarte tare de la un tip din Antwerpen) care se decide sa ii invete pe ‘local bloggers’ cum sa scrie mai bine, sa atraga public catre blogurile lor dar esueaza in momentul critic doar ca sa aiba o redresare la cateva luni dupa. [...]
» Ogilvy Belgium - Coolz0r - Marketing Thoughts
July 21, 2006 at 1:51 pm
[...] This post is a public reply to those who’ve inquired about the fact I don’t write about Ogilvy’s online blog actions anymore. Hm. I’ve got to be careful how to put this because I work for an agency that’s in the same field and apparently it’s ‘not done’ to tear down work of other agencies. I’ve been really quiet about all the (failed) efforts of the local Ogilvy to play around in the Belgian blogosphere. That’s not a coincidence. It’s on purpose. My personal opion is that they don’t seem to get their ship to sail in the right direction. Recent efforts for some clients to start ‘blogbuzz’ can be filed in the “let’s never mention this again” category. Most of the time the actions weren’t even worth participating in, and ‘buzz’ wasn’t really part of the outcome. That’s not only my opinion, it’s shared by a number of bloggers and their readers. The roundup of a certain campaign for a powersupplier was in fact downright pathetic. They target blogs for buzz way to often and for all the wrong reasons and products. Ogilvy ignores me because I’ve been a bit rude about their entire Fanta debacle (here and here). So I’m no longer eligible to participate in their online actions. Damn how I wish I could burn down their online ship. But I can’t. It’s not ‘allowed’. [...]