04/15/2005
Personas and fictional blogs
Earlier today in an e-mail exchange with a fellow marketing blogger, we agreed that much of the sturm and drang around fictional blogs (see yesterday's post for my definition thereof) reminded us both very much of the brouhaha that occured when the World Wide Web went "commercial" in the 90s. Purists were aghast at the pristine Internet being used for commercial purposes. Well, we know what happened with that :-)
One of the main beefs that purists have about fictional blogs is that the author of the blog is not a real person, which they argue perverts the authenticity of the blog experience. I don't agree. As I commented on Paul Chaney's blog yesterday and he blogged today: what matters is the intended audience. As long as they know they are reading a fiction and interacting with a character, if the blog is well done, creative, entertaining, and the intended audience enjoys it, who are we to criticize. If you aren't the audience, it just doesn't matter what you think about it.
So I started thinking about other fictional personas that I have interacted with in my 20-odd years in the business (word choice intentional). And I came up with a fairly well known tech persona that is a fictional character with whom people have interacted with in the pages of PC Week (now e-Week) for many many years: rumour columnist Spencer F. Katt
Spencer has his own e-mail address, and a fairly rich back story that has been created over a number of years. Everybody knows that the column is written by someone or someones at the magazine, but that hasn't prevented people from engaging with the character.
So I ask the question: if the folks at e-Week decided to change the delivery format of Spencer's column to a blog, would that be any different than any of the current examples of fictional characters with blogs that are being pilloried: the Moose, T. Alexander and Captain Morgan.
Nope.
And in my book, it would be just fine as long as the intended audience enjoys it, and the company is honest about the fictional nature of the blog.
UPDATE: Tris Hussey dug a bit deeper and discovered that Spencer is indeed blogging (and flogging his column in every post I might add). So, given that we haven't had any backlash against the Katt, whose blog appears to have started in March, either the people reading it don't realize he isn't really a 20+ year old cat or it's okay for a blog to be written by a fictional character as long as you like him.
Since I think most people realize Spencer is fictional, I'll go with option 2. Which proves the point. If the intended audience enjoys it, a blog by a fictional character is just fine. If the audience hates it, it will die the death it deserves. Therefore, incumbent on marketers to create good, fun enjoyable blogs, whether written by real or fictional folk.
Posted @ 10:04AM in Blogging, Fake/Fictional Blogs, Weblogs
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Comments
Susan, in my opinion you have hit a home run on this again. So much so, yours ought to be the default answer on the matter.
The only ones we are having to convince on this issue are bloggers, and they don't really factor so far as I'm concerned. Where marketing blogs are concerned, it's the consumer we need to be concerned about.
I'm not advocating the use of deceptive practices, fakery, or cons. The one caveat that sets blogging apart from other forms of advertising/marketing is that it does represent genuineness and authenticity. However, those philosophical cornerstones do not have to be circumvented just because the blogger is a character rather than a "real" person.
Jolly good show, Susan. Jolly good!
Hear, Hear!
The Spencer F. Katt example is perfect...so when is he going to start blogging?
Spencer IS blogging! http://blog.ziffdavis.com/katt
Thanks Tris for digging a bit deeper and finding Spencer's blog. I've updated my post accordingly.
20 is pretty old for a cat. They must be feeding him the premium stuff! No "Meow Mix" for him! ;-).
Great insight for sure and I agree all the ways. I'd like to think those of us at P&G got it right with the new "blog" at www.sparklebodyspray.com. The site is meant to be a fun promotional site for teens that just so happens to be structured in a blog format. You can easily tell that this isn't a real blog and instead something meant to be fun.
Thanks for your comment. Your audience (teen girls) will let you know whether you got it right -- if they like the blog and get into it, you've got a winner. And if they don't, kill the blog, and figure out some other way to reach them.
It won't make a bit of difference to your success whether a bunch of bloggers like it or not. The control, as always, is in the hands of the consumer :-)
Susan
I love this idea: bloggers are elitists; consumers are real.
Bloggers: they're into this "real conversation" stuff. "Consumers" (let's keep using that term as much as we can; focus on consumption, after all) won't care about this nonsense at all, all they want is to be entertained, after all.
This is just great:
The one caveat that sets blogging apart from other forms of advertising/marketing is that it does represent genuineness and authenticity. However, those philosophical cornerstones do not have to be circumvented just because the blogger is a character rather than a "real" person.
Let's set up more fake genuine sites that represent authenticity!
Keep up the good work. Jolly good!!
Tom: Thanks for stopping by. I think though that you are missing my main point, which is that we should just let the intended audience decide. If something is crap, if the blog by the fictional character doesn’t engender interaction and fun for the visitors, both with the character *and* with each other, then the blog (or blog-like marketing site if you prefer) will die the death it deserves.
There is never a single right answer to any conundrum.
Best regards
Susan
Nice touch, Susan
By the way, czech out: When Blogs Are Fictitious Filings by Natasha Kohne
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1113555913116
{The National Law Journal}
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Susan Getgood posted more on the whole character blog issue--Marketing Roadmaps- Personas and fictional blogs--and mentioned Spencer F. Katt and what if he were blogging. Spencer is clearly a character, a pe... [Read More]