Here's what the guide has to say about this session: Lingo from web 2.0 and social media are irresistible to ad hacks seeking to stay buzz compliant. 2007 saw a boom in ad campaigns abusing jargon like widget, blog, mashup, and "consumer-generated-whatever." This panel of bloggers and marketers will dissect ten terrible ad campaigns that abused the ideals of people-powered media, then award The Suxorz Trophy to the worst. Bring your rotten tomatoes.... Panelists: Henry Copeland (Founder, Blogads.com), Steve Hall (Publisher, Adrants), Jeff Jarvis (Blogger/Prof, Buzzmachine/CUNY), Rebecca Lieb (VP & Editor-in-Chief, The ClickZ Network), Charlotte Selles (Global Brand Mgr, Beam Global)
I'm always skeptical of "the 10 worst" or "the 10 best" lists because I think some people will throw something in just to be inflammatory. I do like Jeff Jarvis -- who's always interesting -- so I'm hoping this panel will turn out to be good, though.
The room's nearly SRO....let's see what they have to say.
Just a note: The comments I attribute to panelists here are approximate quotes. I'm not as fast as I used to be at the keyboard.
Nominee #1: Molson used its Facebook group to encourage consumers [aka college students] to send in pictures of themselves "using the product." Nominated by Charlotte Selles...thought it was really irresponsible for an alcohol brand to market in that way.
Nominee #2: Carlton Beer nominated by Rebecca Lieb. Everyone loves the YouTube ad for Carlton Beer -- no one knows what the ad was for. Get it mixed up with all kinds of other beer.
Nominee #3: Payperpost.com. It's a human splog....only point is to raise Google ranking. Shows a video of a mom who has her two kids destroying a digital camera which supposedly shows how much they love HP cameras instead. Yuck. Nominated by Jeff Jarvis.
Nominee #4: Wal-Marting Across America. Nominated by Steve Hall. No surprise here. This campaign from Edelman was roundly criticized last year....it was not originally not a transparent effort, leaving unsuspecting blog readers to think a couple folks just loved RVing around to various Wal-Marts.
We just voted...most agree, Payperpost is this round's worst campaign.
Nominee #5: Rahodeb, nominated by Selles. John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, who famously posted --anonymously -- on message boards in the middle of trying to buy another company.
Nominee #6: Cisco. Wrote an entry on Wikipedia for "The Human Network Invented by Cisco." Denied doing it. Encouraged bloggers to write about "The Human Network." Jarvis: It's just another ad. I agree, this is bad, but it's hard to wrap your arms around this. How is it different than newspapers using a press release for an idea? I think the Wikipedia part is the worst of this.
Nominee #7: Mentos/Diet Coke. Nominated by Hall. When the videos started happening, Mentos said, hey this is a great thing. Coke PR person said, we really don't think this fits with our brand. Finally, Coke invited the Eepybird guys to perform in front of their headquarters. Message: Took Coke a while to really get it.
Nominee #8: Vespa. Vespa started a blog with some Vespa enthusiasts...but then lost interest in the project and lots of the posts became "Vespa won't return our calls...." or "I guess I'll go blog somewhere else about Vespa." Nominated by Lieb.
Cisco wins this round. Funny jokes about how the voting is going...Jarvis urges that we count Florida's votes this time. Copeland says we'll try a caucus next time.
Nominee #9: Agency.com, Subway. I can't remember if I've seen this before. Nominated by Lieb. Instead of doing a regular pitch, they did a YouTube video urging Subway to hire them. I don't think I've seen it, hearing the description. It sounds awful. Lieb compares it to a Court TV reenactment. Haha.
Nominee #10: Target Rounders. Clandestine buzz marketing on Facebook. Bad, bad. Nominated by Hall. Oh man. Hall shows an email Target sent to the "Rounders" -- those recruited to shill for Target, secretly. Target apologized. Already, I don't know how to vote this round.
Nominee #11: Giuliani campaign. When Rudy Giuliani started his MySpace page, it was closed. Jarvis compliments Obama's use of the Internet, says Giuliani is the exact opposite.
Nominee #12: All I Want for Christmas Is a PSP: Another fake blog.
Wow, overwhelming for Agency.com. I voted for Target.
Jarvis: These all show a few characteristics: You can't buy us, and don't lie to us, either.
Copeland: Is the message here, just don't get caught? Are there lots of other folks doing this that we don't know about?
Lieb: These kinds of practices hurt the credibility of the Internet.
Selles: From a brand perspective, we have years of putting out a message where no one responds. What marketers don't understand is, in a social world, it's a two-way conversation.
Payperpost/HP wins as the worst campaign.
Great point from Hall: A lot of marketers think there are no rules. That the Internet is a playground.
Jarvis: Doc Searles would tell us it's not a medium, it's a conversation. So these efforts at false humanity are in opposition to the conversation.
[Technorati Tag: sxsw2008]
