Can Consumer Packaged Goods Survive On Social Media?
I am always happy when I see a large CPG brand launch in an unconventional manner. Furthermore, I will always root for a brand that goes out on a limb and dips it toes into social marketing. Still, just because your efforts are deemed social does not guarantee success.
Earlier this month (I am not sure exactly when, I found out about this story in Ad Age a few days ago) P&G’s Crest began marketing Crest Weekly Clean to bloggers and mom’s. With little support from traditional advertising, Crest is looking to garner buzz in the social media arena.
A did a number of searches for Crest Weekly Clean and so far have come up with with one blog (the post is great) and one twitter mention. I also saw the mention on a number of blogs that had more ads than content.
I am hoping (for Crest’s sake) that this is just the beggining. My concern is that if nothing is done to further market this product, it will be discontinued before it has the chance to gain traction.
Any further insight about this initiative would be appreciated!
Tags: cpg, crest, social marketing strategy, weekly clean
Aug 26, 2008
I googled crest weekly clean after reading this post and found nothing really interesting from bloggers. even the blog you mentioned talks more about the social media initiative rather than the toothpaste.
it makes me wonder if crest weekly clean is the right product to launch via social media alone. social media relies on conversation and conversation only happens if the product is worth talking about. Is this product really worth talking about? to borrow an idea from seth godin, i dont think people have “a just from the dentist clean” problem b/c toothpaste alone works just fine.
im sure crest weekly clean is a great product. i dont think, however, that its one that necessarily encourages conversation. Without conversation, it will have a hard time surviving on social media alone.
Aug 26, 2008
Great point Jeremy.
What needs to be done here is, value needs to be added. Toothpaste alone will never start conversation, but what if a dentist blogger were employed to talk about general tooth care?
Do you think that would be worthy of conversation?
That of course is a half baked idea but you can bet that if my team were on it we would bake that puppy to the point where the value glistened off the succulent skin of …where am I going with this metaphor?
Aug 26, 2008
[...] Can Consumer Packaged Goods Survive On Social Media? [...]
Aug 26, 2008
we are on the same page. the goal of any agency that recommends “social media” should be to make sure that there is a story worth talking about. if the story isn’t immediately obvious, create it.
Aug 26, 2008
You might want to remember that this is P&G we are talking about… they likely know what they are doing. Even if this is just a test for them, it is a well-calculated test. In any event, the original story indicated that P&G would use its vocalpoint network, which constitutes some 600,000 moms – most of whom likely received free samples. IF, as the company indicated, its intention is to slowly roll this new product out into the marketplace, sending out targeted samples and talking to bloggers seems like a perfectly reasonable and affordable approach. But I would guess (bet the farm Edna) that P&G will support the launch with additional marketing vehicles and dollars in the weeks ahead. Also, I would respectfully disagree that this is not a topic for “conversation” among readers – why do I need it, does it replace traditional daily brushing, does it make my teeth whiter or healthier or both? Have you traveled through the worldwide web lately? People have conversations about the amount of money Tom & Katie Cruise spend on their daughter’s clothes… they will talk about dental care products as well. And one last aside, conversation is not and never has been the exclusive domain of the Internet; people talk to each other all day long in person on phones by way of iChat and on and on. Conversely, there are plenty of people on the internet that never “conversate.” Social media marketing is just one more avenue for communication; don’t get too carried away with its relative importance.
Sep 03, 2008
I’m a beauty blogger who received this product last week and just did a post on it today – I love the product & hope it makes it to and stays in stores.
Sep 03, 2008
Mikaela
Thanks for the feedback!
It is really exciting to know that this is having some degree of influence. Cannot wait to read your post
Dec 06, 2008
This is web 2.0 marketing at it’s best. I’d add a few month’s of guerrilla marketing (internet style) to launch it…
I used it today, and my teeth feel smootherrrrrrr!