Coke Ignites the Brazilian Blogosphere with its Social Media Strategy
July 9, 2008
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I just read an interesting article over at TrendSpotting covering Coke’s latest foray into social media marketing that I thought was interesting enough to share.
In this effort, Coke decided to use social media as its primary vehicle to market its latest Brazilian product i9: Hidrotonico (a beverage comparable to that of Powerade). So they found 9 influential bloggers, gave each a USB Mini Fridge with i9 in it, and waited in hopes that these bloggers would blog about it.
Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately while the blogosphere and Twittersphere heated up from these reviews, shortly following was criticism by an influential Brazilian blog, Blue Bus stating that the bloggers who accepted the product were in the wrong. As Trend Spotting noted, Blue Bus, “introduced a new term to refer to the picked blogs :”blogs-de-aluguel” or “rent-a-blog.”
In response to this criticism, these bloggers rejected this accusation with “I am not a rent-a-blog blogger” manifesto. This manefesto began a larger blogger debate over the compensation of bloggers, sparking blog post rebuttles (all of which I can’t read), and even “I am not a Rent-A-Blog Blogger” badges. Social media agency
If you are like me you may be scratching your head to figure out how Coke was in the wro
ng. In my opinion as a social media marketer, Coke may have given more than required to have their product reviewed, but a mini-fridge that can only hold one bottle is far from over-compensation. On the other hand, I was not able to determine if these bloggers were writing content that was completely out of line with their blogs goals and objectives, or if these bloggers neglected to disclose this compensation. If either of these were the case, I would completely agree with Blue Bus’s point of view.
In an article from the Global Voices blog, I realize that this lack of understanding may be a result of cultural differences regarding the acceptability of blogger compensation. As Paula Goes writes, “The “monetization” debate is never out of fashion on the Brazilian blogosphere, with heated opinions both for and against the fact that bloggers may use blogs to make some money or even a living out of writing.”
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think Coke’s strategy could have worked if it were directed toward US Bloggers?
Comments
5 Responses to “Coke Ignites the Brazilian Blogosphere with its Social Media Strategy”
Got something to say?
Hello Lisa
Thanks for spreading the debate out - I didn’t know trend spotting had recycled my GVO article (published a day after mine and using the same links and my translations). Shame they didn’t give credit to it.
Best,
Paula
Hey, Lisa
Please ignore my last comment - they had given credit after all,
I don’t really see much wrong with this as long as the bloggers weren’t told they HAD to review the product and practiced full-disclosure if they did decide to write about it. Maybe it’s just a difference in culture. If a company wants to send me something for free (and it’s a product I like and related to a topic I’d typically write about) I have no qualms accepting it and writing about it.
Lisa,
Full disclosure is probably the way to go in this case - after all Tiger Woods will promote Nike (it’s an endorsement isn’t it?) A better example maybe talk radio hosts who lend their voices to promoting a certain product. And with bloggers becoming more and more influential then of course it would be natural for companies to try to leverage their influence. I would think that most .
I think the mode in which Coke went about this can be construed as being underhanded, however, almost like a bribe. But, it is a laudable effort which shows you that bloggers are players in the media market.
I hadn’t heard about this, thanks for sharing! In my opinion, I don’t think Coke’s strategy failed at all. People were talking about it, and then a debate was started, giving them another reason to talk about it. To me, this is successful social media marketing.