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Panasonic’s influencer campaign at CES

by Robin Grant in News on 12 January 2009 at 14:25

Bloggers Speak with Panasonic NA Chairman Yoshi Yamada

Brian Morrissey in Adweek covers the latest influencer campaign from Panasonic:

Among the hundreds of journalists at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week there are five people producing reams of copy, photos and video about the show, new product demos and press conferences. Unlike the reporters, though, they are popular bloggers in Las Vegas courtesy of Panasonic.

The Panasonic program is one of several undertaken by brands carving out a new take on the old notion of advertorial. Rather than relying on magazines, they are contracting with influential bloggers who bring with them their own powerful distribution networks. Rather than a long-form narrative, content is fit for the Web via blog posts, Twitter updates and YouTube videos. And the key differentiator: instead of dictating the content to lead to a sale, brands typically keep their distance to maintain credibility.

Panasonic wanted to build cachet among Internet influencers for its array of tech products. As part of its “Living in High Definition” push, Crayon [a social media agency] recruited five bloggers to travel to CES on Panasonic’s dime. Panasonic footed the bill for their travel and passes to the event while also loaning them digital video and still cameras. The bloggers, which include popular Internet figures Chris Brogan and Steve Garfield, will also meet with Panasonic executives and preview products.

It’s good to see the sort of work we’re doing getting mainstream coverage in Adweek and that savvy brands like Panasonic understand the competitive advantage campaigns like this can bring.

However, Brian is wrong to view these sort of campaigns as ‘advertorial’ (and in the same article bracket them with ‘pay per post’ type campaigns) – what Panasonic have done (and we do with our influencer campaigns and advocacy programmes) is generate genuine, emotive and far-reaching Word of Mouth, which is substantively different to crude advertorial (or even dispassionate editorial) copy.

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  • This was a great program. As one of the participants, I wanted it to be clear from the outset that there were no requirements as to what we wrote, podcast or blogged about.

    I'd like to share a little bit about the photo you see in this post. We had 30 minutes to meet with Panasonic NA Chairman Yoshi Yamada.

    I was able to influence how the meeting proceeded by suggesting that instead of having each of us ask a question, which would be just like a boring press conference, we should be able to engage Chairman Yamada and show him what we were doing. I showed him a video I shot of a cool Scuba mask/HD camera. That video had nothing to do with Panasonic, but was filmed with their HD camera.

    Video:
    http://offonatangent.blogspot.com/2009/01/hd-vi...

    That video became most populat on CNN iReport AND ended up on CNN.

    At the end of the video I have a credit that reads, "Camera by Panasonic."

    Ponzi Pirillo showed the Kodak Zi6 and Flip camera and compared them to the Panasonic eqivalent.

    We shot video of that encounter and will be posting it so you can see what happend. It was refreshing. I was an invited blogger to meet John Edwards when he was campaigning in NH. Bloggers were invited to ask questions. I didn't like it. It was nothing different. What happened here was. It was more of a conversation.

    I'll be writing more about my first experiences with the camera. Not because I have to, but becuase I want to share with my readers and viewers. My writing will be honest and authentic. Both good and bad.

    I've already wrtten some thoughts on my blog and commented on Chris Brogan's blog, where he pointed people to my blog where I posted my first thoughts. When I saw that I added my second thoughts in the comments.

    http://offonatangent.blogspot.com/2009/01/panas...

    It's going to be interesting to see how companies like Crayon and Panasonic track the conversation.

    --Steve
  • the term 'influencer' is so ugly, and about a year out of date for what people like us are doing with the social media i'd say. I do my best to not call social media participants influencers or people with 'influence,' anyway, like you said though, good to see stuff like this getting mainstream attention
  • I think there is a big difference between a social media participant and a social media 'influencer'. Yes to some extent everyone with a social media profile, blog etc has the power to influence, but not really to the extent that Chris Brogan and Steve Garfield can. Surely therefore there has to be some distinction? And if not 'influencer', what? 'Best of the best, carries more weight than the average blogger, social media participant'?

    I think it’s a real sign of the times that Panasonic have cleared a budget on an all expenses paid jolly to The States for 5 bloggers (popular or not). For me this works because Social Media Marketing is at the end of the day about engaging the 'influencers' by feeding them good, relevant, and unique content that they will want to share and distribute for us (not least because it raises their profile in the blogosphere).
  • "For me this works because Social Media Marketing is at the end of the day about engaging the 'influencers' by feeding them good, relevant, and unique content that they will want to share and distribute for us (not least because it raises their profile in the blogosphere)."

    Well said Lee - and that was a key piece of our approach. The other key piece - as outlined by Steve, one of our participants - is that we didn't stipulate the "what." We wanted Panasonic's guests to document and share their experiences and we wanted them to use the provided Panasonic gear to the extent feasible (to see CES through a Panasonic lens, so to speak) - but to be clear, we saw Panasonic as the enabler of the conversation rather than the topic of it.

    So to circle back to Robin's original point (that this isn't "advertorial"), it isnt... Not sure why Brian chose that word in particular but if you look at the content created, it becomes quite clear that the bloggers words are their own and, at times, not "on message" for Panasonic. Both Steve and Brogan published mixed (but fair) reviews of the gear. Steve's best content had NOTHING AT ALL to do with Panasonic - although he used their cameras to shoot it. You'd hardly call mixed reviews or videos about another company's scuba mask "advertorial," would you?

    But these things are exactly what we wanted. Good content, authentic experiences, documented in meaningful ways. More important than the content though is the fact that by providing our guests with a great time and great gear, we laid the ground work for what we hope will be long, fruitful relationships with some of the savviest people in the social mediasphere (whether you call them influencers or not...)
  • In my mind, this is really just the same as a company sending a sought after celebrity their new sneakers. Hey they don't have to wear them, but if they do, and are photographed or talk about them, big kudos for the brand.
  • Hmm, I didn't call it 'advertorial' really. I called it a 'new take' on advertorial. That means different. Here's what i actually wrote:

    "The Panasonic program is one of several undertaken by brands carving out a new take on the old notion of advertorial. Rather than relying on magazines, they are contracting with influential bloggers who bring with them their own powerful distribution networks. Rather than a long-form narrative, content is fit for the Web via blog posts, Twitter updates and YouTube videos. And the key differentiator: instead of dictating the content to lead to a sale, brands typically keep their distance to maintain credibility."

    Note the last sentence, please. I'm sure the marketing firms who come up with these things have a fancy term they put on it to sell through to clients. I'm not in marketing.

    And to be clear, again, this was one of several examples of brands connecting with Web hotshots for content and buzz. People can argue until the cows come home whether this is "authentic" or not. It seems like the participants are doing no harm with their readers. When they do cross the line, as in the Microsoft example with FM, readers will quickly let them know.

    The big question is what does Panasonic get out of this? Yeah, it's part of lots of stuff around CES and "Living in High Definition," but that can often just be an excuse not to prove any benefit for the brand. Will this become another flavor of the month?
  • Hi Brian – thanks for stopping by and responding.

    I really wasn’t trying to be disingenuous with my comment - I think the salient point is that ‘advertorial’ is commonly understood to imply both that some payment has been received for publishing whatever has been said (or created) and that some form of editorial control is exercised by the party commissioning it - this clearly wasn’t the case with the Panasonic campaign.

    I think this is the crucial difference in the way this sort of campaign works (and why I was surprised you’d grouped it with ‘pay per post’ activities) – people see straight through content ‘influencers’ (or anyone else for that matter) have been paid to create, and are cynical even of editorial copy. On the other hand, various studies show is that genuine Word of Mouth is very persuasive (and perhaps counterintuitively, especially if it isn’t 100% positive).

    My real concern with your use of ‘advertorial’ (and remember the title of your article is “Brands Tap Web Elite for Advertorial 2.0”) is not that you were implying that Panasonic had paid for this content or exercised control over it (you didn’t), but that it may have implied that these sort of campaigns are only as effective as conventional advertorials, where as we (and I’m guessing Greg and the rest of the team at Crayon too) think they’re much, much more than that.
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