Still the “Word of Mouse”...

Image not recoveredWoM Interestingly, after posting the previous post, they sent me a link to a Karlus Blog post which has everything to do with "Word of Mouse", but... misapplied.

Without much effort, Karlus, who, although I do not know, consider an intelligent type, in a post about Optimus’ new image “strangered” some comments too “obvious”; too “promotional”.

It was enough to see in the blog logs the origin of the posts, arriving (almost) immediately to Media Planning, a company belonging to Havas, owner of Euro RSCG, company responsible for the new image of Optimus …

This is a good example of how Buzz generated by the “Word of Mouse”, if mismanaged, can turn against Marketeer or Publicitarian.

In 2005, Vichy created in France a character (Claire) on a Blog about anti-aging, managed by a Marketing team. It took only an hour for bloggers to discover and start accusing the brand of presenting a fake character.

The blog was closed immediately and relaunched later in a different format, using only real users discussing real issues. Vichy made an apology to the Blogger community but despite being difficult to measure, the damage was done.

In case of Euro RSCG...not only are these actions no longer new, but one cannot understand how an experienced and competent team commits these gaffes...