This morning I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about how a blog owned by Miller Brewing was the first to break the story about Bud launching a new brew called Budweiser American Ale. The story goes on to make it seem scandelous that Miller was able to “beat the giant brewer’s own publicity machine to the punch.” However, I’m not sure how hard AB’s “publicity machine” would have had to work in order to get the kind of publicity it’s getting from this. In this new age of communications you certainly have to be ready to launch your product, but the best way you do it may be unconventional. I’m not saying that AB gave the story to the blog in the hope that this would happen, but I think PR professionals could learn from it. One could ask, how wise is it for Miller to “help” Bud break the news about their new brew? I’m also surprised because the “story” doesn’t seem to be as big as the Wall Street Journal’s trying to make it (Page One? Come on.).

Related posts:

Taking Down YouTube

Social Media Sprouting

Free Product Placement

I recently read an eMarketer article on advertising dollars surrounding user generated content (UGC). While I realize that there is a significant advertising market there, and some companies are even setting up UGC aggregation sites around their brand, I believe this is old-advertising thinking. Innovative advertising thinking is about getting users to be your brand advocate by creating UGC that promotes your brand. In this new world of advertising, you shouldn’t always have to create your own advertising. The goal should be to create a solid enough brand that loyal customers will use UGC outlets to tell others about your brand – and developing the brand well enough that you don’t have to worry about different messages being communicated by your brand advocates. It’s easy to slap your advertising on a UGC site, it takes a little more innovative effort to get your loyal brand advocates to create UGC about your brand.

Related posts:

No related posts

Now that Blogging might better be called a market segment rather than a market niche, it’s useful with regard to positioning the marketing message to understand what a Blogger looks like, as distinguished from the rest of the population. According to the BIGresearch Simultaneous Media Survey, 26% of all adults say they regularly or occasionally blog. Of those:

• 53.7% are male


• 44.7% are married


• 28.4% hold a professional or managerial position


• 10.4% are students.

Bloggers tend to be younger, averaging 37.6 years old, compared to 44.8 for adults 18+ (the “general population”). Ethnically:

• 69.7% of Bloggers are White/Caucasian (vs. 76.1%)


• 12.2% are African American/Black (vs. 11.4%)


• 3.7% are Asian (vs. 2.0%)


• 20% of Bloggers are Hispanic, compared to 14.8% of adults 18+

In addition, Bloggers report a lower income ($55,819 vs. $56,811) and are better educated (14.3 years of education vs. 14.2).

Political blogs are becoming increasingly common, especially in this election year, where 24.6% of registered voters say they regularly or occasionally blog. Political affiliation of regular/occasional Bloggers look like this in 2008:

• 37.6% of Libertarians regularly/occasionally blog


• 26.9% of Democrats


• 25.7% of Independents


• 22.9% Republicans

Analysis of Bloggers shows that they are using most forms of new media significantly more than the average market.

Regular/Occasional New Media Usage (Top 5)
	% of Bloggers	% of Adults 18+
Cell Phone	93.0%	87.5%
Instant Messaging	75.3%	49.3%
Download/Access Video/TV Content	72.2%	45.0%
Video Gaming	66.9%	47.5%
Text Messaging	65.5%	45.2%
Source: BIGresearch, January 2008, N=15,727

Although Bloggers are more likely to use new media, the analysis finds that more conventional forms of media trigger their Internet searches. Magazines, at 51.6%, rank highest, followed by:

• 48.8% reading an article


• 46.1% broadcast TV


• 44.5% cable TV


• 42.5% face-to-face communication


• 39.7% newspaper

Related posts:

How Businesses Use Blogs

Blogging a Big Business

Product Launch PR and Blogs

I just discovered a site I thought was cool and interesting and thought I’d pass it along.  I discovered Mogulus.com – a site that let’s anyone build their own online streaming TV station.  The site hosts the stream for you and gives you some pretty impressive producing tools to do both live and recorded broadcasts.  They make their money by inserting commercials into your content every 10 minutes or so.  I’m not sure how many people can come up with content to fill their own personal TV station 24/7, but I’m sure some will try.  I was just impressed with how accessible it is for anyone to be able to create their own online tv channel.  Here’s my channel…

Related posts:

YouTube Goes Local

Paying for Online Content

Newspaper Readers Stay Local Online