MediaPost: HP’s Bermel ‘Scared To Death’ Of User-Generated Content. User-generated content brings “huge additional pressure,” (Hewlett-Packard interactive director Mary) Bermel said. “We want our brand in the marketplace presented in a certain way. Our advertising teams are used to push marketing–now we’re asking them to create pull marketing, things that will attract people to our brand.”
Amazing.
The company that once believed in, and for the most part lived, the HP Way — in part, the notion that the community was part of the company and vice versa — would have instinctively adapted to the world where conversations are no longer in the control of the marketing team.
The newer HP is clueless, if this person’s comments are even a remote indication of corporate understanding of the phenomenon.
And can’t we find a better expression than “user-generated content” to describe what’s happening?
on Nov 2nd, 2006 at 4:48 am
Why not “participatory media”? It would seem to be an inclusive description of all user behaviours in the web 2.0 – and for that matter, all subsequent versions – environment. It doesn’t specify what the user is doing. It doesn’t insist that they must be producing content. It just says that users are participating in the media space, whatever that space might be.
on Nov 2nd, 2006 at 7:17 am
‘User-generated content.’ It is indeed a curious expression. It suggests they’re struggling with the problematic notion that those passive consumers are becoming ever more active participants and producers. The diners have broken into the kitchen and are talking to the chef! The schoolchildren are drafting a manifesto! The refugees are trading their food-handouts for mobile phone credits and blogging! Etc.
on Nov 2nd, 2006 at 8:49 am
I like the expression “unpaid freelancing”.
He said it, I didn’t:
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2006/10/31/ugc
“UGC
Stands for “user-generated content,” a new form of online scam in which you make all the content, and we keep all the money. “
on Nov 2nd, 2006 at 3:04 pm
Seth, you should beat this horse in relationship to other things. This is about companies worrying that unmediated conversations, where the traditional media funnel isn’t part of the process, can’t be controlled. It has zip to do with unpaid freelancing, as far as I can tell.
on Nov 2nd, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Dan, look at it from the perspective of what the HP marketer wants to achieve. That’s not a pleasant chat, but a *sale*.
I think the quote does work, my emphasis:
“[Unpaid freelancing] brings “huge additional pressure,” (Hewlett-Packard interactive director Mary) Bermel said. “We want our brand in the marketplace presented in a certain way. Our advertising teams are used to push marketing–now we’re asking them to create PULL MARKETING, things that will ATTRACT PEOPLE TO OUR BRAND.”
Isn’t that clearer? I’m not asking if it sounds pretty, I’m asking if it’s clearer.
That is, “pull marketing”, and “attract people to our brand” are certainly not “conversations”, except in the corrupted terminology of sales pitches. What she is focused on is not anything having to do with community (again, except in the twisted sense), but rather something akin to the difficulty of running a campaign via managing volunteers, which brings coordination problems. “Media” or “contact” only has value to her inasmuch as it serves her advertising interests – hence it’s unpaid freelancing.
Look at the other sentence quoted:
“She also decried that “We say the new metric is engagement, but when people ask what that is, we can’t really tell them.””
The problem with the idea of “unmediated conversations” is that it tends to lead to a bunch of self-congratulatory comments of they-hate-us-for-our-freedoms, aren’t-we-hip-and-cool, which I believe is immensely bad for the ability to think about the topic. Marketing is about manipulation of emotion, and all that’s being discussed here is technique.
So while I’ll grant that “unpaid freelancing” might not be a perfect fit, if one needs a catchphrase (which won’t fit perfectly for everything) I’ll also submit per above that it better captures the key aspect of what she was discussing.
By the way, I also suggest she understands certain issues just fine. Remember, she is accountable (in theory) for failure – if something goes wrong, she can’t easily get off the hook by proclaiming Doesn’t Get It or It’s About Conversation And Community or It’s A New Era Where The Old Ways Don’t Work.