The blogosphere has now expanded to include more of corporate giants. 24 of Fortune 500 companies (5%) are blogging. HP, Nike, McDonalds and Ford have started to engage with their audience via official blogs. Other companies like Sony, Honda and Volvo take the route of sponsoring blogs that reach out to their target audience.
On the local front, apparel company "Local Brand" sponsors Wendy, otherwise also known as "XiaXue" as per her blog (http://xiaxue.blogspot.com/). They aim to reach out to the youth traffic that visits her blog.
What started as a internet diary for the man on the street, blogging is now turning into another channel for advertisers. The power of "word of mouth" via blogs have seen advertisers recall their faulty products, increased the popularity rating of their brands and more.
The extensions of blogs are transparency and authencity. Advertisers need to consider these extensions in their dialogue with their audience if not they will risk turning them off. Mazda's failed attempt clearly violated those extensions and suffered greatly.
Corporate blogs:
HP: http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/104417-0-0-225-121.aspx?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN
Nike: http://blog.nikebasketball.com
McDonalds: http://csr.blogs.mcdonalds.com
Ford: http://blog.ford.com/blog.cfm
Corporate sponsored blogs:
Honda: http://2talkabout.com/honda
Sony eSolutions division: http://www.lifehacker.com
Ducati : http://motoblog.it |
