Digital Moms, Distributed Media & Brands
Hot on the heels of fellow Digital Agency Razorfish’s report on The Digital Mom (worth a read), we recently launched an initiative with Mercedes Benz which taps into the idea of Mom as influencer-in-chief in more ways than one. While “blogger outreach” programs are nothing new, (PR firms have been conducting them for some time), there is something to the idea of putting your product and brand in the hands of a real person who’s got an audience willing to listen and letting them say what they want.
Amy Allen fits the profile of the Gen X Mom who not only would consider purchasing a car like the Mercedes GLK, but influences all the purchases her family makes, not to mention the influence she has within her own community of peers. With several thousand followers on Twitter and blog that discusses the realities of all things mom related—Amy Allen is an uber “Digital Mom” who’s savvy about products, motherhood and wired to the teeth.
What we did with Amy was simple, Mercedes Benz handed over the keys of ther GLK model to her and she wrote about her experience with it. Was this bought media? Sort of. Real Girls Media works with individuals like Amy on these types of reviews and handles the media arrangements. There is a cost involved. But what’s interesting is how this takes the concept of a “media buy” and evolves it into something slightly different than it used to be. Traditional buys were placed in targeted content destinations whether it be ESPN.com or on Yahoo! But enter the digital mommies, daddies, kiddies, etc. who are curators of communities and more than ready to try out your products as long as they can say what they want.
It’s an evolving dynamic. Upon looking at Amy’s blog post—she generated nearly 500 comments in just over a day (there was an gift card incentive), but if you peruse through the numerous comments, an insight or two can be found:
“This is a good looking ride. Impressive that it’s so affordable – I don’t associate Mercedes with affordability. Does it get good gas mileage?”
There’s an opportunity for Mercedes Benz to engage right there. What was the thought behind producing a more affordable ride—and does it get good gas mileage? One of the things we’re thinking about more is the distribution of content and experiences knowing that the action doesn’t always happen on your properties or the traditional content properties we’ve come to rely on in the past. It’s interesting to see how the digital (insert niche here) will play role in the battle to be seen, heard and found on search engines and elsewhere.
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The 500+ comments (currently at 937) are indeed a major source of insight for Mercedes-Benz and Critical Mass. To the delight of the brand and agency, Amy Allen Clark has offered to compile some of the most common questions in the comments section (gas mileage, baby seats, etc), send those to MB product managers to be answered, and then respond to her readers armed with information the brand has supplied back to her.
From the perspective of CM Media, this is an incredibly positive sign and a testament to how a client’s investment can be stretched further when a brand interacts fluidly with content and people. As the post mentions, this was a media buy (albeit one that doesn’t fit the “traditional model.”) There were certain expectations that the blogger was asked to live up to but her offer to take things a step further and answer the questions of her readers was something that she recommended on her own. Amy offered to do this because she understands that her readers look to her for advice and regardless of the fact that Mercedes-Benz partnered with her on producing this content, she heeded the call from her audience to answer their questions.
By being the smart blogger that she is and giving her readers the information they seek, the brand benefits as the conversation around the GLK continues. This formula is just a small example of the evolving role of media and how the planning process is becoming much less rigid. Traditionally, a campaign would cost “X” dollars to yield “Y” results and would live for “Z” time frame.
By moving into distributed media, these variables are much more flexible and have a greater potential to benefit the brands that leverage them. Even if the dollars remain a controlled factor, the results are deeper and the time frame becomes essentially infinite as conversations, unlike display banners, do not get taken down.
[...] Let a mother who blogs use Mercedes GLK, and gift certificates were given to readers each [...]
Can you provide more information on this? i have read other websites that are on similar subjects.
Thank you for great post!