More commentary on UpYourBudget

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)

BL posted a comment, which I still disagree with (although a big thanks for the response!):

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.

All I can say is go visit the site – yes, the scavenger hunt may involve driving around to find clues, but if the point was to tie back to Budget’s brand identity and advertising themes, I think you missed. Seriously – what brand identity? Looking through the UpYourBudget site, it’s hard to tell Budget even sponsors the competition (tiny logo, footer) and the voices in the blog, as far as I can tell, are those of BL. Yes, Budget is working to make their marketing fun (from Doc Searls’ post) and they deserve credit for that. But as far as joining in on the conversation? Not quite.

Johnnie Moore and Evelyn Rodriguez hone in on another valid point – don’t just pull a hype stunt, but rather make your product unique, exciting, and more valuable than the next guy’s.

Evelyn:

I have a time budget. I’ve no time for contests. Yet give out $160,000 to the most disruptive ideas – from employees or customers – who cares where the best ideas come from? – and I’d been intrigued to participate in investing in my own future customer experience. Why not incent us to come up with reasons so that a mere $3/day or $5/day or $15/day difference won’t make us fickle? (You know you’re a commodity when I have to look for the rental agreement jacket to remember which agency to return the car to at the airport.)

Again though, I’m glad they are at least paying attention to blogging. It’s a start. Johnnie Moore says it better:

Here’s the good news, from my point of view. If a company starts blogging in a dull way, it’s not a big problem. The blogosphere will soon take care of creating a much more interesting conversation. I suspect Budget will be reading these voices and it will learn something. So let’s welcome them to blogging and wish them a pleasant climb up the learning curve.

Cheers to that. But look hard at Evelyn’s advice as a better start. Create buzz by making your product buzz-worthy, not just by creating a whirlind marketing campaign. Yes, you’ve got quite a lot of us talking about Budget online, but I still have no idea why I would go to your counter vs. Avis or Alamo.

As far as my original points about 1 – genuinely joining the conversation and 2 – actually integrating your brand and service into your otherwise well-designed blog competition, some thoughts:

Show your voice – get some employees or executives out there blogging about what makes Budget unique. Don’t filter it. Encourage them to share good, bad, ugly stories from the local branches. Make budget stand for something beyond Yet Another Rental Place. We will trust you more, and may trust you more with our business.

Involve the local branches in the competition - UpYourBudget has some great action going on in cities across the country, places where you no doubt have Budget locations. Why not tie them in somehow – get the employees out there interacting with the scavengers? Make your cars a part of the hunt. Just tie it back to Budget in a clear and meaningful way.