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October 27, 2004
Media Watch: Madison Avenue blogs
by Doug Millison for SiliconValleyWatcher.com
Any doubt that blogging has moved into the mainstream, and that the Apocalypse has in fact arrived, vanished with today's publication of a New York Times story about advertising agency blogs.
So far, Madison Avenue seems to be using blogs as a way to follow advertising trends, reports Nat Ives, in "Madison Avenue Ponders the Potential of Web Logs."
The Big Question:
"Blogs are in fashion, and it is easy to hop on the bandwagon and say that every company should have one," said Linda Sawyer, managing partner and chief operating officer at Deutsch in New York, a unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies and an agency without a blog. "The questions any smart marketer should be asking are, 'Does this provide a platform to connect with their most relevant audiences and how will this address business objectives?' "
Penetrating Insight: "The growing number of professional blogs often lack the qualities that made earlier blogs big hits: attitude, irreverence and an apparent interest in kicking up a fuss."
Prediction: It's only a matter of time before the agencies start seeding the blogosphere with blogs that, subtly and otherwise, tout the benefits of specific branded products, services, and companies.
Silicon Valley software wizards are, at this moment, hard at working concocting a bs detector that, when combined with next-generation RSS news readers, will be powerful enough to sniff out propaganda from personal perspectives worth reading.
Links:
Madison Avenue Ponders the Potential of Web Logs by Nat Ives, 27 October 2004
Some of the blogs mentioned in the Times article (the links that work, that is):
Association of National Advertisers links to two blogs, "ANA Marketing Musings" and "ANA Regulatory Rumblings"
Adrants by Steve Hall
Daily Kos political blog
October 27, 2004 08:19 AM
