I just got a nice mail from the people I mentioned (or rather didn’t mention) below. It went a bit like this:
With head hung suitably ashamed, a very valid response to my earlier request – you’re right, blogger relations is certainly an area in need of vast improvement and I think the education starts here. So many thanks.
We’ve done a couple of mails back and forth and we’re now best friends.
See the internet is great isn’t it? You can have like conversations and feedback and stuff. In real time.
In retrospect I shouldn’t have had a go at the Ogilvy PR Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics – incidentally they’re back with a V2 which you can find here. Having looked at some of the things I’ve been getting recently, people involved in this kind of activity really do need some help. So sorry for being cranky about it before, you guys are doing a good thing!
Just to make it clear I’m not having a pop at anyone here. And I’ve deliberately removed any traces of who sent it and what client it might be for as that’s not the point. The post is designed to illustrate some of the clangers that people are still making when they try to approach bloggers. Or at the very least some of the things that work (or don’t work) when you’re approaching me.
1. Why did you pick me?
From my contact form I can see how people got to the site, in this most recent instance it was through: http://scampblog.blogspot.com/. For those of you who don’t know Scamp has a very nice chart of Ad Blogs. So the fact that this person who mailed me had come from there immediately makes me suspicious.
My guess would be that most of the blogs in that chart have had an approach from this person. That makes me feel cheap and used. Not a good start point.
2. The Greeting
Hi,
Thought you might be interested in the latest [client name] digital campaign from [agency name].
Well it’s not personalised, which is bad. But at least it doesn’t say ‘Hi Crackunit.com’ which really annoys me. But I’m immediately suspecting that this person has done no research and has made absolutely no effort. Straightaway I’m thinking ‘blogspam’!
When doing blogger outreach, or whatever it’s called today, you have to realise that it’s a 2-way relationship. By putting your campaign on my blog I’m going to be delivering you traffic (at some small level), a bit of awareness and link juice (the stuff that makes your Google search ranking better). The very least you can do in return is give my ego a tiny little stroke and pretend that you’ve written a mail just for me. All it would take is to look at the title of my blog and copy my name into the mail.
Even better if it felt like you’d read my blog, and you thought I’d be interested because… Or even better be a bit honest and say something like “I’m a bit nervous about sending you a viral because I know you’ve got a bit of a thing about virals”. If someone did that I’d have huge respect for them.
But the really sad thing is that I know a few people that work in the agency that this came from. And geographically they’re only a few streets away from where I work. So a tiny little bit of research and a line that acknowledged some of that very basic stuff would have made all the difference. Honestly it would.
I’m not sure how many people this approach went out to. But I’m almost certain spending 10 minutes crafting each mail would end up driving significantly higher and more positive coverage. (Actually I bet someone’s done some research on that, or if they haven’t they ought to).
3. The Content of the Mail
Here’s a link to the campaign hub and a movie featured on the home page of the site: [link goes here]
While here’s a link to a viral that only lives on youtube:
Be interesting to hear your views on these
Cheers,
[sender name]
Well I guess it’s short.
As an aside my view on the ‘films’ in question. They’re quite good. I really love the skyscraper ads that go alongside them though. They really work for me. And I would have blogged about them if the email had been nice.
As I said I’m not having a dig. The email is a bog standard one, and I’ve had much much worse. Do go and have a look at the Ogilvy PR Code of Ethics, you’ll start to see that it’s not an easy thing to get right and there’s lots of things to consider.
It’s funny, I sort of want to like Radiohead. But I’m just not that keen on their music. I don’t not like it, but it’s just most of it isn’t that appealing to my ears.
But I like the ‘idea’ of Radiohead. They seem smart and like they’ve got an interesting take on stuff.
A good example is the pricing for their new album. At the moment you can pre-order a download of the album for however much you want to pay. Really.
In the shopping basket you enter the price…
Then if you ask for help it just confirms that the price is up to you:
I’m not sure how it’ll work out for them but I reckon:
It’ll get talked about a lot for free, which is good for them
Some people will try to get it for as cheap as possible – but they’re the people who’d be trying to get it for free when it comes out (or is leaked) anyway. But at least they’re making those guys think about it…
People (like me) who are casually interested in Radiohead (and geeky stuff) might pay a few quid for it – my gut feeling was to pay £3/4 as that’s the value I’ll probably get out of the music.
Radiohead fans will pay proper price for it – or more likely if they’re hardcore fans they’ll go for the discbox (see below)
The discbox:
This consists of the new album, in rainbows, on cd and on 2 x 12 inch heavyweight vinyl records. A second, enhanced cd contains more new songs, along with digital photographs and artwork. The discbox also includes artwork and lyric booklets. All are encased in a hardback book and slipcase.
So it’s a perfect ‘fan item’ priced at £40 and made to order. Plus you get download rights too.
“The industry has brainwashed us to believe that an experience is the equivalent of gratuitous Flash orgy Websites that pushes technology to it’s limits. Create something bright and shiny—consumers will take the bait and you’ll win an award right? Take a Flash micro site, toss in some viral for good measure, add a pinch of uninformed social media and viola! You’ve got yourself some digital marketing. Research? Who needs it?
Folks, we really need to start understanding what really motivates users. There are literally millions of enthusiasts out there producing quality content in highly search engine friendly formats. Not only is much of their content easier to find on the Web—it’s engaging, relevant, and the people who produce it actually talk back to us. It’s time to wake up. We need to get out in the field and understand people—what motivates them, and why they behave the way they do.”
Amen to that!
Read it here, really please go there and read it, I only copied a small bit to give you a flavour.
And I’m celebrating already. Not because it’s my birthday (today the 28th Sept, if you’d like to send gifts). But because I’ve been given the temporary accolade of ‘Best Link’ on BuzzFeed (for a bloody obscure post I grant you, but don’t steal my thunder just yet)…
So. Now I’m 35 I’ve become one of the top wine-box-bloggers, hallelujah. Happy birthday to me ;-)
There’s a new game coming out called Skate. I think you should be able to guess what it’s about.
It looks absolutely stunning, not sure that this clip will do it justice.
I think they’ve also done some cool stuff with the control system by the sounds of it. And it’s got some neat replay video production stuff too so you can show off your rad skillz.
As I was checking it out I noticed a campaign that’s running alongside the game which I really liked. Basically they’ve got a bunch of Skate dudes to pick a classic piece of skate ‘furniture’ from a couple of parks in Barcelona and San Fran, then installed them in various skate parks around the UK.
On the site the pros show you how to pull a trick using this furniture (in real life and in the game). They’re then running a contest for amateurs to go to the skate parks and try to replicate the tricks. Best videos of people pulling tricks win prizes.
As a campaign it’s just got a really nice grass-roots, joined-up feel to it that seems dead right for the core target audience. And it doesn’t matter if you only see the online bit, or simply a bit of concrete in a park. Either way you take away a nice feeling about the game.
I remember when people first started using email, and there was a flurry of publications on “netiquette,” the etiquette of how to use email. Social networking is at that stage now. There’s been a lot written about the potential for future embarrassment from photos or videos published on Facebook or MySpace, but I am focused on a humber bit of social networking etiquette: the proper use of invitations.
The main bit of advice seems to be: ditch the default invite message and write something about why you should be connected. It’s not rocket science, but from my experience it did need to be said. He probably says it better though.
I felt some mistrust towards a ‘digital’ awards that had a category for best interactive website. I was almost expecting a ‘best e-brochure’ category… But at least Cock-a-doodle got shortlisted (for best campaign):
