April 06, 2010

Heidi Montag Ain't no Beyonce: Social Media Fail / Updated

Posted by Cat Labels: , , , , , , , ,
Launching a brand or product is never an easy task: you must carefully craft a strategy that will allow consumers to discover it, learn about it, engage with it, live it and (hopefully) spend money around it. It requires careful thought, analysis and investment.

Sometimes however, things don't just get off the ground the way you planned. That's when you adapt and enhance your plan.

So what happens when everyones "favorite" reality-star Heidi Montag launches an album that can barely break the 1000 copies sold mark?

Well, if all else (and plastic surgery) fails, why not drop the USER GENERATED CONTEST bomb?



In this case, a contest allows fans to create their own music video to one of the tracks on her album's songs.


Yes, you have read correctly. Heidi wants her "millions of fans" to spend time making a video to win. I'm guessing all of them were just waiting for the perfect occasion to embrace her talent by breaking out their own moves. To reward said fans, she's decided to award the winner with the mother of all prizes: an iPod shuffle. Yes you heard right - you can win a whole iPod shuffle!

Why didn't we think of this before: social media is the superhero we've all been waiting for. And now it's even better because it's a contest AND it's with video (insert loud crowd gasping in awe here).

Sorry Heidi, this just doesn't fly.

Users' content generation or more plainly put, participation is a social behaviour which cannot be created for them. Lady Gaga or Beyonce didn't ask anyone to film themselves dancing to their songs to win anything.
Fans did it for two reasons:
- to engage and live through the brands that they admired,
- to be funny.

Social media initiatives are effective when they are based on existing social interactions and behaviours. Not on poorly-executed ideas that will result in sad parodies of a talentless young woman. If you are attempting to effectively drive sales or even positive brand awareness, a bunch of parodies is not in my opinion what you are looking for.

If you're product sucks, social media is not going to fix it.
If you have no fans, it will work even less.

UPDATE:
The contest ended 2 days ago and here are the results:
10 videos submitted and 148 votes cast.
Heidi and Spencer are both now following me on Twitter.
I do not follow them.
The prize went from an iPod Shuffle to $50.

I must say I'm rather impressed that they broke the 100 vote mark.
(Although you would think that for someone with 1M+ twitter followers could generate a bit more attention to themselves. Again: bad products = bad social influence.)

Check out the winning video here


Oh and PS:

God help us all.

4 comments:

  1. WOW.
    Nice post Cat!
    And not just because yet another cast member of MTVs The Hills has made our blog...lol.

    You touched on a killer topic here - the topic of Memeing.

    I'm thinking along the lines of when you referenced the Beyonce video. For those of you living in the dark, or who haven't seen SNL - consumers actively copied the moves she did in her single ladies video.

    THAT, then turned into a HUGE meme in and of iteself, and then it hit social phenom status, and it just went crazy - to the point (atcually) where she showed boatloads of the youtube vid on her concert tour.

    My problem (and yours) with what Spidey is doing here (read: trying to save her reputation) is against the fundamentals of connection pannelists everywhere - don't force it. If it's good, it'll happen on its own...much like selling albums you can't "buy" fans, just like you can't buy a meme.
    ReplyDelete
  2. PS - see her deny the press releases and cover shoots for album sales here...http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9600569
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  3. I've never seen the Hills, but I was unlucky enough to be introduced to Heidi and her equally clueless life partner on Conan a while back. It was one of the most painful moments ever experienced while watching tv. Beyond cringe.

    I must say the ipod shuffle prize is hilarious, it's the equivalent of having Vanilla Ice give away a personally autographed poster in the 90's. Then again making the parody video is rewarding enough (for Heidi or V.Ice). Actually, maybe Heidi is on to something...

    In case you're wondering (I was), V.Ice is still touring, oh yes. His about us section is worth the read: http://www.vanillaice.com/main.htm. Note the desperation in communicating the alleged target market for his new sound, which he describes as "much harder and darker because of the issues I am writing about." [I need a life]
    ReplyDelete
  4. Cat,
    I love you and how you followed through and updated this post.
    You remind me all the time why you are my blog baby mama.
    Love, your blog baby daddy.
    P
    ReplyDelete

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