Double-edged blog power puts marketers on guard

Mazda learned the hard way. The Japanese auto giant created a blog called HalloweenM3, through the 23-year-old 'Kid Halloween', which linked to videos supposedly recorded from local public access TV. The snippets featured Mazda cars breakdancing like skate boarders. So far, so good -- the blog contained no other references to Mazda and looked, to all intents and purposes, like an innocent effort by Kid Halloween.

Unfortunately for Mazda, savvy netizens soon uncovered the blog for what it was -- a corporate PR stunt. The same videos were found posted on the website of the agency that produced them. The 'blogosphere' was instantly filled with thousands of links to the news, and Mazda pulled the site.

Mazda's story is a salient one, for it illustrates the double-edged power that blogs now possess. And, increasingly, brands are recognising that exploiting the power of these real-time open forums requires a considerably different approach from conventional broadcast communications strategies.

"Blogs can deliver advertorial without costing anything," points out M&C Saatchi head of digital David Whittle. "A great product and just one fanatical client with a popular blog can result in some effective marketing -- likewise, an unhappy vocal customer can spell disaster." Ogilvy PR Asia-Pacific president Chris Graves believes that blogging is part of a bigger trend, defined by the new phenomenon of 'folksonomy'. Instead of consuming the consensus thinking of mainstream media, users are now building online affinity groups through pattern recognition; by, for example, creating keywords and applying them to the online space to find and develop communities based around a similar view of the world.

"Think of Amazon and how your interests are tracked and become part of the massive database of interests to suggest what else you would like," explains Graves. "So instead of consuming the pre-processed consensus thinking of mainstream media, it is a giant idea mart cum dating game."

With the creation of these online communities comes a level of trust that is considerably higher than most people have with the mainstream media. And it is here that the power of the blog becomes readily apparent. "Research from many quarters continues to show that people trust someone more on a blog or website they have never met than an elected official or celebrity endorser," notes Graves.

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. For companies seeking to benefit -- rather than go bust -- from this power, the rules are simple and clear.

"Bloggers aren't 'pitched' in a traditional sense," says Walter Hueber, director of Weber Shandwick's Web Relations group in Beijing. "Remember, many bloggers took up blogging to avoid public relations-generated stories and other corporate sponsored fodder, so the battle is definitely uphill. Only honest, legitimate and knowledgeable outreach should be attempted -- when in doubt, don't pitch."

And despite Mazda's unhappy online experience, PR consultants are united in their belief that corporate blogs are a useful tool (see box).

For companies still wishing to take the paid route and put their ad up on a blog, tonality of the content is key. Sarong Party Girl's blog recently caused a stir in straitlaced Singapore for posting topless pictures of herself; clearly such a site may be better suited for a bust-enhancement product than the financial services giants of the world.

"The flavour and tenor of the blogger is important to the blog itself," summarises Graves. "Does your message match that tone?"