People who want to buy a camera or decide on a book are increasingly looking to websites and blogs where users can express their opinions on products or write test reports to help them make their decision. Ratings such as "worth reading" or "top device, definitely buy" can tip the scales in the decision-making process. "Opinion forums already influence one in four online purchases today," says Christian Jarchow from the GfK consumer research company. As long as the rating is the opinion of a private user and is based on their experience, that's fine. After all, the decision as to whether someone else's opinion is decisive for a purchase is still made by each individual - in the knowledge that the positive opinion of a stranger does not guarantee that you will be satisfied with the purchase yourself.
But what if a company or marketing agency has placed the review? What if the positive review is not based on experience, but is an advertising ploy? In technical jargon, such self-made, unlabeled advertising, which is intended to spread by word of mouth, is called "no-badge marketing": agencies hire bloggers on behalf of companies who are told exactly which blog they should write about what and in what form. They receive a fee for this. Bloggers react very poisonously to marketing in the blogosphere. That's why the posts are written in such a way that nobody gets the idea that they are paid comments.
Blogging for a living"I would never blog for money," says Tina Roth Eisenberg, a Swiss woman who runs the blog "Swissmiss" in New York. "I write about what suits my taste." Honorable. But there are people who don't see the money thing quite so narrowly. Brit Ben Southall, for example. The tourism authority of Queensland, Australia, was looking for an employee for the "best job in the world". Of the 34,000 applications the authority received, it selected Ben Southall. The 34-year-old's "job": From July 2009 to January 2010, he lives in a villa on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. He "has" to snorkel, dive and laze around every day and report on his fantastic life on the island in a blog - as positively as possible, of course. In return, Southall receives the equivalent of around 18,000 francs a month. A well-paid advertising blog, which is already paying off because a number of media outlets are already reporting on it. Cleverly done. After all, the tourism authority cannot even be accused of foisting advertising on blog readers. Because it is clear that the entire blog is advertising. But over time, this aspect will probably be forgotten. By then at the latest, Southall's descriptions will come across as the experiences of an enthusiastic private individual - who is actually doing a job and earning 108,000 francs for his enthusiasm.
Injustice is a matter of opinionConsumers are exposed to messages from companies everywhere. But it is usually clear: it is advertising. In some countries, the law requires advertising to be clearly labeled; surreptitious advertising is prohibited. In Germany, for example, this is stipulated in the Unfair Competition Act (UWG) and the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty. Anyone who violates these laws must expect sanctions. This recently happened in the case of Ralf Klein-Bölting, General Representative for Marketing and Communication at Deutsche Bahn. Supported by the Berlin agency Allendorf Media, he is alleged to have placed advertising media reports, letters to the editor and editorial articles as well as surveys on internet forums and blogs in 2007 without giving the sender's name. Klein-Bölting's aim was to arouse sympathy for the company during the train drivers' strike and the controversial IPO of Deutsche Bahn. Deutsche Bahn paid 1.3 million euros for this surreptitious advertising - and now its top PR man has been derailed as a result. Deutsche Bahn CEO Rüdiger Grube had to admit: "Such activities are in no way compatible with the principle of transparent and honest dialog with the public."
In Switzerland, it is good form to label advertising with references such as "Publireportage" or "Anzeige" and to include your name and, if applicable, a reference to your company in blog posts. However, there is no state paragraph that prescribes this for blogs. Several sets of rules form a good basis for legal action against blogging advertisers, for example the Fairness Act, the principles of the Fairness Commission and the Journalists' Code. "On the basis of the Fair Trading Act, people could even be prosecuted with a fine or prison sentence," says lawyer and lecturer Ueli Grüter from the law firm Grüter Schneider & Partner. "But nobody sues. And where there's no plaintiff, there's no judge." This gives bloggers a free hand with unmarked advertising. According to Grüter, the greatest danger for companies that advertise covertly in blogs is the media uncovering such machinations.
The Foundation for Consumer Protection (SKS) is struggling with this situation. "We find surreptitious advertising in blogs very problematic, the uncertainty among consumers is great," says Sara Stalder, Director of the Foundation for Consumer Protection. "Consumers often don't know whether blog posts are a neutral report or advertising in disguise. And the legislator supports the economic interests behind this unfair competition: Consumers have no right of withdrawal, prices do not have to be clearly declared and companies do not have to identify themselves on the Internet." According to Stalder, anyone visiting the Credit Suisse blog knows where they are. For blogs such as that of the Queensland Tourism Authority, however, the URL is not sufficient as a sender declaration. Buttons or notes such as "Trip sponsored by ..." in the editorial section should draw attention to the sender. But these are pipe dreams. "The advertising methods in blogs will become even more perfidious," predicts Stalder himself.
Peter Hogenkamp, founder of the publishing house Blogwerk and operator of seven themed blogs, is less critical of the developments: "In Web 2.0, users don't care from which platform they get the information that is relevant to them. It's the quality that matters, not the source." This is why it will become even more important for companies to refer to themselves in an original way. Hogenkamp: "Advertising on the Internet will change fundamentally; at some point, it will be difficult to reach people with banner ads. We need cheekier advertising - whereby cheekier does not mean more lax in the separation of editorial and advertising. It is important to advertise for individuals, not for the mass market. The more advertising responds to the individual, the more successful it will be. If it is also funny, for example in the form of entertaining short videos, it also has the potential to spread virally."
Dialogue as a goalEspecially in England, but also in America and Germany, the sowing of advertising with guerrilla methods is widespread. "Unlabeled marketing has been practiced since blogs have been around for about five to six years," says consumer advocate Sara Stalder. "It's difficult to measure the extent of this because the advertising is not recognizable as such." Compared to other countries, Switzerland is still largely untainted by advertising in blogs, not because it is the land of innocence, but because it is still in the embryonic stage when it comes to online advertising. "We decidedly do not scatter any unlabeled advertising in blogs," emphasizes Markus Gabriel, CEO of the Zurich agency Angelink, which has also been designing and building blogs for five years. "We condemn such behavior. But it's also rare for companies to ask us about it." Hogenkamp says: "No-badge marketing always backfires." So the agency, bloggers and consumer protection agree on this.
However, advertising in blogs does not only mean scattering nasty because unrecognizable advertising messages. Above all, marketing in blogs offers new opportunities for advertising. In addition to traditional banners, professionally substantiated blog posts by company representatives and company blogs that are identified by name and company are in demand. So far, very few Swiss companies have become aware of these advertising channels. "Swiss companies and most Swiss agencies have not yet realized that you can achieve a lot with marketing in blogs," says Markus Gabriel. "If you're clever, you can set up a corporate blog and use it as a new advertising channel." Jeremy Wright, blogger and author of the book "Blog Marketing", is also convinced of the effectiveness of corporate blogs. He sees corporate blogs as a new marketing tool. Well done and well maintained, they create a cost-effective and authentic communication platform between companies and customers that generates precisely the kind of dialog that customer magazines, for example, usually fail to generate. In a blog, a company can respond immediately to customer concerns, questions and criticism. Consumers feel that they are taken seriously, perceive the company as transparent and see themselves as part of the company. There is hardly a better way to retain customers.
Authenticity with rulesCorporate blogs are suitable for companies in all sectors. Because there are people interested in every form of knowledge on the Internet, even ant blogs. Hogenkamp runs a blog for Ebookers in German and French, which is structured like a travel magazine. Ebookers is clearly identified as the sender of the information and of course it is about travel destinations that Ebookers has in its program. But that's all that smells of advertising. "The blogs give Ebookers a reputation, retain customers, provide journalists with information, do a bit of PR and ensure that Ebookers is ranked higher on Google," says Hogenkamp. "Google has an overwhelmingly high market share in Switzerland and social media marketing is always also search engine marketing." The effort for the two Ebooker blogs is kept within reasonable limits: The online magazines are managed by two editors and six freelancers per language, who are paid a flat rate.
Markus Gabriel has set up corporate blogs for Swisscom, Credit Suisse and the beer brewer Wartmann, writes as a blog author and tweets. "It's ideal for a company if several people blog who are all employed by the company," says the experienced advertiser. "Then authenticity is guaranteed. Of course, you also have to lay down a few rules, for example that company secrets are taboo and that there is no ranting against competitors. The company should also check posts for spelling and punctuation before they are published."
Sharing is hisCompanies can start a corporate blog at any time. Even those who want to apologize for a negative event have a good hook for entering the blogosphere. The British department store Marcs and Spencer recently used posters to apologize to its customers for having to pay a surcharge for oversized bras. The company would probably have achieved more with an apology blog than with the one-off campaign. Peter Hogenkamp believes that even unpopular companies such as Billag or Cablecom have a chance of improving their image with a blog. However, this requires uncompromising honesty and authenticity.
Companies that don't want to set up their own blog can still use the blogosphere for their own purposes, legally and free of charge. The German online marketing agency Bloofusion, for example, posted its guide to search engine optimization for online stores on its website. Nothing happened. Until a blogger stumbled across the guide and drew the attention of other bloggers to it. The guide circulated through several blogs, spread virally and eventually made it into the media. In total, it was downloaded 5,000 times from the website. Why not send exciting information to blog operators? "If you provide bloggers with company or product information that is relevant to them, you can expect it to spread by itself," says Markus Gabriel. "Bloggers should be treated like journalists. You can send them press releases with embargo periods, inform them exclusively about a product, provide them with background information or ask for their opinion." The operators of the online portal Karriere.ch, for example, had their free application document check evaluated by selected bloggers in order to sound out its optimization potential. In collaboration with the Basel agency Trigami, they invited bloggers to put the tool through its paces. 6 percent of those invited tested the tool, 33 percent wrote a blog post and Karriere.ch claims to have gained dozens of qualified visits from the blogs. The campaign cost around 1,500 francs.
"You are what you share", Markus Gabriel quotes a blog post. This sums up the spirit of blogging: sharing and communicating enriches - and can also increase sales if done well.
Anne-Friederike Wilhelm
In brief: Marketing in blogs
Blog marketing has many facets. It ranges from classic banner advertising in blogs to corporate blogs of companies and clearly declared discussion contributions by company representatives in themed blogs to the placement of editorial advertising texts or reports that are not labeled as marketing messages. The distribution of test products or vouchers to bloggers, who then report on their experiences, is also a blog marketing measure. It is particularly suitable for introducing new products to the market.
Fully networked: The computer-generated map visualizes the countless connections between weblogs. The blogs are shown as white dots.
