Mombloggers Evolve Again

 We have always done a lot of work with mom bloggers. Four years ago we tried to drag a major consumer brand into this space with a huge mom blogging initiative and learned a humbling experience about how different companies need to gradually get into the social media space (our approach was tantamount to jumping into the unkown depths of the rock quarry pool vs. just sticking a toe in). We got smarter fast and partnered with BlogHer and many other orgs and individuals since them.  

It's all to engage these new influencers in a way that they authentically 'care to share.' That means always figuting out what the Engagement Value is (see excerpt from the New Strategic Brief).

 

Now, I realize that everyone is saying that they work with moms who blog on behalf of brands. And so do mom bloggers. Many, like Wal-Mart's 11 Moms, are aligning themselves with brands serving as a type of 'kitchen cabinet' of new-influencers-with-a-platform. In that role they provide useful intelligence inbound to the brand and serve as a core group for outbound word of mouth (WOM). Brands empower them to give away product, prizes and coupons (I am going to stick by my assertion that we at Ogilvy's 360 Digital Influence team, pioneered this type of engagement via our "microcontest" model which empowers bloggers to reward readers and commenters with product and prizes, I will acknowledge that many are now following suit). We are evolving from a model of campaign-based blogger outreach to blogger alignment. This is the social media approach to sponsored spokesperson but with a couple of big differences.

Mom bloggers own their voice. They must retain credibility with their highly personal audiences and never shill. The level of disclosure and transparency must remain super-high. I love that the 11Moms for example only mention Wal-Mart in approximately 6% of their posts over the last 30 days and frequently mention other retailers. That's their call. With the aggregate reach they have accumulated, that 6% of brand mentions, the badges on their blogs, and the aggregate content on walmart.com - it all adds up as a great value.

And mom bloggers are ready to embrace a brand experience with the expectation that they will talk about it and engage their readers in some way. They retain the right to share honestly, so, beware the poor product experience - they will talk about that too. CityMama has a great post offering her advice to other bloggers about successfully aligning their desire to blog with what marketers want. I love her last point:

"And lastly, on a personal note: to thine own self be true. If any of the above doesn't feel right, don't do it. If you have hesitations about accepting or reviewing a product because it either doesn't fit your lifestyle or your values or you don't think your readers would trust your glowingly positive review of it, decline it. If you are a slow food blogger who suddenly starts extolling the virtues of fast food and high-fructose corn syrup, your readers are going to know something is up and you'll feel like an asshole. For every product you decline to review, no matter how tempting it is, something better will come along, I promise. Something that makes sense, something you can feel good about, and something that that marketer will feel good about sending to you because they know you've worked hard to build that trusted following."

Momblogging 2.0

Lindsay Ferrier of Suburban Turmoil wrote a great post about the new evolving role. (Note: I know this because of a terrific resource - WOMMA's Word of Mouth Blog that pumps out the "Daily 5" great links on social media and WOM).

Mom bloggers (and I would argue Fashion, Food, and Lifestyle bloggers) understand the value they provide and the willingness for brands to offer them product experiences from cars to coupons. They are now marketing themselves as valuable outlets.

"One woman was in talks with a car manufacturer to get a free car for one year. Several of the moms there had been flown to Blissdom by a corporate sponsor who was sending them to every major blog conference in the country. And don’t think these opportunities were just handed to them.

“My husband puts my business cards on random shelves at the grocery,” one mom confided.

“I put my business cards in magazines at the doctor’s office and the bookstore,” another mom said."

The Next Evolution

Many consumer brands who want to sell to moms will evolve to establishing long term relationships with a brand ambassador core. Mom bloggers will self-identify as a Kraft, J&J, Quaker, Ford, Unilever mom blogger. The quality of the interaction they have with the brand will be a big factor as to how positive this relationship will be. If brands really listen to them as much as they try to activate their "WOM", so-to-speak, it will be more successful to all. We will move beyond simple "product review" sites (many bloggers maintain secondary review sites as a way to protect their main editorial).

The next evolution will be about scale. Once you have established and are maintaining meaningful relationships with 20 or 30 mombloggers, how do you expand the reach of that effort without diminishing those relationships. We have an answer in our concentric ring model and I expect others are working on their own solutions. Strange, but as this evolves it starts to look an awful lot like what we proposed 4 years ago. But that happens sometimes.

Comments

[Jennifer James]

Interesting post. There is certainly an evolution/ shift going on in the mom blogging space. Having been a part of it for five years I have noticed that creative ideas are now surfacing quickly, especially as companies figure out the best way to engage us and not get lost in the noise of products and giveaways.

You're right. I also believe a loyal core of 20-30 brand ambassadors is more potent in this space than 150 mom bloggers touting the virtues of xyz product. Wal-Mart has done a phenomenal job. Very, very few mom bloggers haven't heard of the 11 moms. It's getting the rest of the community involved past the core group that becomes more tricky. It will be interesting to see what Ogilvy comes up with especially as mom bloggers become more competitive and the community isn't as nicey-nice as it once was.

[Jennifer Jamieson]

John,
Have you seen Target's Momversation, this is another interesting approach to marketing with Mommy Bloggers; features videos with an assortment of Mommy Blog superstars (Dooce, Mighty Girl, Finslippy)discussing a variety of parenting topics. The bloggers embed the videos on their popular websites and the only "selling" is in the form of an intro commercial for Target.

Jennifer

PS Funny, Jennifer Jamieson following Jennifer James in the comments. :)

[Christy]

I'm late to the game on this one, but enjoyed the post. I agree that it's better to have a few core bloggers touting a product rather than have the product suddenly show up on 100 blogs. I found it interesting that you mentioned the Walmart 11 moms and how many of them mentioned other companies in their posts. This is because there is a relatively small number of mom bloggers taking part in the lion's share of highly publicized corporate relationships.

As a pioneer in the WOM field, I'm interested to know your thoughts on this. As a consumer, I find it confusing when one blogger speaks as a brand ambassador (over and above a review) for a cartload of products. I have also found that some bloggers lose their voice... they are so busy with their "jobs" of speaking out on behalf of products that they no longer share their normal thoughts and experiences (I am now beginning to think of this as the Jon & Kate effect, but that's another story). How do bloggers find balance? And how do companies move beyond some of the more obvious choices to seek out those bloggers who are truly ambassadors for their products? How do we keep the strength that WOM marketing has always held as we battle skepticism from those who believe that any product mention is a paid advertisement in disguise?