Flogging Sony and Zipatoni

Doesn't anybody pay attention anymore?  Sony has been outed for its flog All I Want for Christmas is a PSP, on which one fake dude launches a campaign to help another fake dude get a PSP.  The operative word here is "fake."  Get the details at AdFreak. 

One more time with feeling, everyone: social media is ALL about authenticity and transparency. 

Interestingly enough, the Sony agency responsible for the flog Zipatoni claims that they get this.  Here is some copy straight from their web site:

"At Zipatoni, buzz marketing means getting into consumers’ conversations.  We know we can’t control the dialogue.  But we tap into the right insight to deliver an idea that will get opinion leaders and even entire communities talking about it on their own.  Just like that, we’ve converted the consumer into a passionate and credible message-bearer."

Hmmm - really?

I'm literally packing up and shutting down to head to the airport, but I couldn't let this one pass me by.  On the plus side, this gives us something besides Walmart to chatter about.

Comments

[mattheath]

I wonder, if this fictitious Sony blogger would've cussed and actually talked the way their target audience does then they might have been more successful. Perhaps the public could smell how "safe" the whole thing was. Individuals often aren't safe at all, but brands too often are. There aren't any four letter words in any of the publicity I've seen from either Apple or Microsoft. Social media will never work if a brand is more concerned about its image than its relevance.

[Jonathan Trenn]

The guy in the videos looks like a Zipatoni employee. Check out under Navigation>Who We Are>Leadership.

[Michele Bouquet]

Great post Greg.
I wonder what it will take for brands to understand this is not a way to work. The author of the article in AdFreak uses the word pathetic to qualify the responses given by the so-called Charlie. What a missed opportunity to acknowledge this fake blog! Amazing really...

[Greg Verdino]

I am thinking that doing a bad thing so badly is actually better than doing that same thing well. If Zipitoni had actually done a better job of faking it (which is lame regardless) they wouldn't have been caught so quickly.

[tish grier]

Hi Greg...thanks for posting that little blurb from the Zipatoni website. As a social media maven (I've been at it for oh, about 9 years now--blogger for 2) I'm seeing so many ad/marketing firms that are now able to talk the talk of social media but not walk the walk. It's easy to imitate buzzwords and intellectually get concepts, but unless you spend "quality time" in social media space, you're not going to understand how this wide-ranging community works.

I'd be interested to know how Zipatoni convinced Sony of their blogging savvy. Maybe it was just that they had a great design guy who kinda blogged...sometime...on occasion...just enough...

[Greg Meyerkord]

http://www.meyerkord.com