Trust, blogs, wikipedias and viral marketing - big business gets it wrong

Big business often gets the Internet so wrong. A current example - from close to home involving the BBC – where, it appears unintentionally, a viral marketing campaign has upset an online community.
It involves a fictional creation – Jamie Kane, a boy band star – and central to an interactive drama created by the BBC - with an invitation on the BBC Online site to play, and a fictional website devoted to the 'star': http://www.jamiekane.co.uk/. Kane, who supposedly died in a helicopter crash, is part of an interactive game that asks players to solve the mystery surrounding his death.
However, articles about the singer appeared on Wikipedia and are currently being reviewed by the online community. The character's appearance on Wikipedia--as an apparently real person--has raised issues about online trust. In a world where anyone can post, how do you know what's real?
The BBC was promoting the game through "viral marketing," spreading clues and tidbits of information around the Web. Those clues included fake articles from the BBC and fake "Top of the Pops" appearances
Rob Cooper, the Senior Producer on the game, issued a statement:

"Just to confirm, the BBC would never use Wikipedia as a marketing tool. The first posting was simply a case of a fan of the game getting into the spirit of alternative reality a little too much. The follow up posting was made by a fan of the game who happens to work for the BBC and was made without the knowledge of anyone in the Jamie Kane Team or BBC Marketing."

It’s another example of how easy it is for big business to get things online wrong. Shel Israel & Robert Scoble quote the case study of Vichy, a division of French cosmetics giant L’Oreal.

“When Vichy was ready to bring a new anti-aging cream to market, it decided to use a blog as part of an integrated marketing program that linked the blog to advertising and PR efforts, etc. It was awful. They started with a fake character named Claire who whined about the difficulties of getting enough sleep while attending too many parties in a voice that was clearly cut, polished and contrived.”

The online community spotted the deceit and kicked against the ‘blog’. L’Oreal were forced to revise the site and turn it into a much more ‘honest’ promotional tool. What comes out of this is one thing that is encouraging – communities online are very quick to spot spam, marketing guff and PR flam. It annoys them and isn’t good for business.
So in terms of trust – are consumers online more prone to believe what they read from fellow bloggers, rather than content produced by corporations? Or are they more sophisticated consumers, who are happy to read corporate content, so long as it’s transparent as to what angle it is coming from?

Matt

Comments

[Jozef Imrich]

Indeed, big media and business fail to put on the shoes of the consumers and citizens ... In June 2005 Reportage Medialog noted that Margo Kingston’s webdiary can really be considered as an example of citizen journalism. ‘Webdiary is in fact a pioneer of this kind of journalism and Margo has an incredible commitment to working directly with her readers - many not at all of her own political persuasion - to engender real participatory discussion.’ Citizen Journalism Alert Margo Kingston today closed her Webdiary at Fairfax and hang her shingle up at a new site. Media is filled with many preachers and academics, but it is rare to find inspiring practitioners. Margo Kingston does as she says: Personal opening statement to Webdiarists Citizen Journalism Alert Double diary, as Margo Kingston goes freelance