Speaking of viral – on Budget
The Up Your Budget blog-based scavenger hunt is an interesting case in point (see my last). BL Ochman and Hugh Macleod are both involved, so it’s got some serious blogerati juju going for it. It’s all blog-based, including 100% of the ad buys. And just about every marketing-oriented blog is talking about it.
In pure terms of "experiential marketing" – this thing’s got it going. It has loads of user interaction, puts the customer in the forefront by sharing their pictures and stories, has near-realtime updates, is very blogabble (link-friendly in the link-happy blogosphere) and so on. Sweet.
But I ask – what does this do for Budget? How is this building affinity for their brand? Or increase the likelihood of all these competitors picking Budget next time they need a 4-door midsize? There’s very little in here that has anything to do with renting cars, or the underlying story about how Budget’s experience is remarkable.
Again, props to BL, Hugh, et al for a very cool viral blog-based marketing effort for a big-name client. As a marketing stunt leveraging blogs, this is a pioneering effort and strong on execution to date. I would just love to understand the underlying ROI as defined by Budget.
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The campaign is based on driving for an adventure, and it’s sponsored by Budget. It relates to their advertising themes and brand identity.
That’s the connection. It is not direct marketing and its not a sales effort, it is a branding effort a la Audi, Subservient Chicken et al.
Budget wanted to jon the online conversation and this blog, which is engaging thousands upon thousands of potential customers, is a way to begin.
I’m all in favor of companies joining in on the conversation – I just don’t get how this particular viral contest makes that happen. Where is Budget’s voice in all this? The over-cited GM Fastlane is an excellent voice in the conversation, as are numerous other forarys into the blogosphere.
This competition hits on all the cool viral buttons – social, easy to show off, involves the customer/competitor, very linkable, lots of buzz within the target market (bloggers), etc. For that, as I noted in my post, it’s a hell of a cool promotion from the perspective of “how do you make something viral”. It will be oft-cited in viral/buzz marketing case studies going forward, I have no doubt.
But this doesn’t involve any identifiable folks from Budget who we can relate to, talk with, engage in conversation. The posts seem like a marketing agency-type are writing them, not a Budget enthusiast. Yes it puts out Budget’s brand as someone willing to try innovative marketing techniques, but I don’t see how Budget is now part of the conversation.
Or is there a clear next step once this campaign wraps? A lasting, personal Budget blog presence of some kind that builds of this? If this is teeing something like that up, and we just haven’t been privvy to it, I’ll be happy to stand impressed.
[...] Earlier I commented that while the UpYourBudget campaign is cool from a “let’s create a blog-based viral effort” perspective, it is NOT Budget “joining in on the conversation” as it really has very little to do with Budget’s brand, story, personalities, etc. (side note – a quote from that post got stuck up on the competition blog. Yes, I was giving serious credit, but it’s a bit out of context methinks) [...]