I just wish large companies spent a little less time pissing their marketing crap on the internet and a bit more time paying attention to its culture. Companies like KPMG think they can move in to our spare room and start organising the kitchen roster. Doctor Pepper Seven Up had all the information at their fingertips, but decided to go ahead and try and subvert the medium with their
Raging Cow
blog subversion campaign. Never mind that the net or blogs in particular are not particularly well suited to shifting FMCG, they just didn’t think. Their big idea was more about using the net than participating in it.
If you’re an FMCG marketer and you’re reading this, here are the rules, it’s simple, really. If you advertise your mayonnaise client’s products with big graphics and pointless flash animations no one’s buying pattern will be changed. If, on the other hand one of your mayonnaise client’s employees genuinely cares about something and wants to talk about it, we’ll listen. If he’s engaging, curious or interesting, he might even build an audience.
I’m sorry to get all preachy about this, but the main rule hasn’t changed since the dawn of the internet. You have to give to get.