Fortune

Want Truth in Advertising? Try a Blog
A legendary ad executive tells how he uses blogs and how companies can use them in their marketing—without being crushed.

By David Kirkpatrick

Published: Friday, January 14, 2005


The bloggers had a lot to say about the story by me and Dan Roth on blogs in FORTUNE’s last issue. But the single most popular, and remarked-upon, item in our story was a quote from legendary ad-man Steve Hayden, vice chairman of New York-based Ogilvy & Mather. Said Hayden: "If you fudge or lie on a blog, you are biting the karmic weenie. The negative reaction will be so great that, whatever your intention was, it will be overwhelmed and crushed like a bug."

For bloggers, Hayden’s quote touched upon an underlying and not well-understood beauty of blogs: That their communal nature pushes them toward total honesty. They can reveal different aspects of a news item (think of CBS’s "60 Minutes" report on Bush’s National Guard service) or discuss a product’s vulnerabilities (think of Kryptonite locks).

Hayden, the legendary advertising figure behind Apple’s famous "1984" ad, introducing the Macintosh, has a lot more to say on the subject of blogs and truth in advertising. For instance, a growing number of consumers, even Hayden himself, turn to blogs to get the unvarnished scoop on products. (In some cases, he finds that he still uses blogs' lower-tech precursor—the message board, but the dynamicss are much the same.) Marketers can use blogs to their advantage, Hayden says, but he stresses that they have to cautiously tread into this new medium.

Hayden, who oversees IBM’s ad account at Ogilvy & Mather, says that the tech giant monitors blogs to find out what open-source software programmers think about the Linux operating system, which IBM supports. Here are some of his insights into how blogs are changing the relationship between consumers, corporations and advertisers:

• Blogs can serve as a trusted source. "I'm a camera hobbyist. I read a number of camera equipment sites," says Hayden. "I post on photo and car blogs. There are all sorts of blogs by professional photographers. They get the equipment before anybody else and they post their opinions. I think blogs will pose a threat to traditional photography and car magazines, for example, that rely on advertisers. When those magazines review a product it’s generally a universally good review, because they don't want to lose the advertising revenues. So you go to the blog to get the real review.

"Right now the phenomenon is centered around considered purchases—things that cost a lot of money like cars, cammeras, stereo equipment, and music players. But you can see it happening even with skincare products and eventually toothpaste or corn flakes. We're doing interesting things with Dove personal care products. Mothers are going to be asking, 'OK, tell me which one is the best breakfast cereal for my children.' Or 'I'm worried about obesity, I want the best opinion.' I think it’s the way most products will be evaluated in the future."

• They can provide companies with reliable feedbacck. "Marketers can use blogs, but you have to [accept] the bad with the good, so that the opinions are then trusted. Some people are crazy, some are naturally negative, and some are brilliant and superb critics. If you're launching a new car, you might seek out the most respected car bloggers. There are bloggers with tremendous amounts of engineering knowledge. You might try to market directly to them, because they will influence others. You might invite them to a test drive or put them on a special mailing list. You might treat them the way the automotive press has been treated all these years, because they are becoming more important. But it’s playing with dynamite: If you try to bribe them, that will end up in their blogs. If your shilling is too obvious, it can set off a storm in itself.

"The advertiser has to accept that what’s on any blog won't all be positive. Negative things will be said. But consumers are sophisticated enough to filter out the good from the bad. If it’s 'all Hummer owners should be burned on the cross'—that’s just somebody ranting. But 'I hate the way the wheels look' doesn't necessarily put a consumer off the purchase. It tells them they're getting a valid opinion."

• They provide an outlet for happy and unhappy cusstomers. "I hate to admit I have a Porsche Cayenne. I live in New York City, so I figure I can have a gas guzzler, because I only drive something like 500 miles a year. I bought it on the basis of the brand thing—a midlife crisis: 'I want a Porsche.' I got into a Cayenne message board on a site called Roadfly, because, having spent my retirement savings on this car, my experience was you couldn't even drive across a Kmart parking lot with one inch of snow. On Roadfly, I learned that after the first snowstorm in New York last year many people with a Cayenne had the same experience. And, of course, there’s an online revolution over something like that.

"But the point is that even with all the ranting and raving over a number of problems with the Cayenne because it was a new model—it didn't interrupt sales. On the message boards and blogs the overall conclusion was it was still a great car. There was an acceptance of the problems." (By deadline the company hadn't returned my calls seeking comment.)

• They can serve as a reality check. "Nobody has 100% positive information about any program, product or service. It simply isn't possible. Blogs require the acknowledgement of this, and consumers appreciate it. People believe stuff that is flavored with the reality of bad news. Yet typically when you go to a marketing department or an ad agency, the first thing you hear is that everything we say about this product must be positive."

• They can help companies reach an influential auddience. "What the bloggers say is pretty significant to us as a research tool. Many manufacturers check the blogs every day. When IBM ran Linux commercials during the Super Bowl, the reason was not to sell Linux to people eating popcorn while watching football. It was to demonstrate to the open-source community that IBM supports Linux. Out of the millions watching there were a handful of bloggers who are listened to in the Linux community. IBM put the ad on its website, so people could easily share it, and bloggers targeted the commercial. There were 30,000 downloads of the spot. The blog commentary we got about the sincerity of IBM’s efforts just went on and on—it’s how we knew we were winning. It’s an example of mass advertising intended to reach a tiny but highly influential audience."

You can understand why I wanted you hear more from Hayden. And Microsoft, whose intelligence regarding blogs we wrote about extensively in our story, continues to break new ground. For instance, as of January 11, 1.5 million new bloggers had signed up on MSN Spaces, a self-publishing service launched in early December. And during the recent Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates gave his first interview ever to a blog—the Gizmodo site.

Has your company’s CEO blogged, or spoken to a blog, yet? Maybe it’s about time.