Stratology

Bruce Nussbaum of BusinessWeek had an interesting conversation on his trip back from the Davos World Economic Forum. An exec from an Ad Agency/PR Firm told him that polluting Google searches, sites and blogs with planted information designed to make a company or its products look good is common. But to me this whisper tip sounds like one of those “sophisticated” airplane sales pitches. And to whose benefit would this be if it were true? PR firms? Ad agencies? hmmm. And the source of this tip? hmmm. Can these agencies or their clients measure the benefits from this strategy? I wonder how long the per click and per view metrics can go up while the revenue and perhaps the stock or IPO price go down? hmmm.

This strategy might work for a while for a small or unknown company with slideware or few products. Perhaps it might work for a new product in a new category, like the iPhone. But then what would we call it? Viral Marketing, right? How many bloggers working full time and credible looking sites and forums would it take to, for example, change the perception of the Motorola handset line-up? And how about the reviews at sites like Newegg or Amazon? Can those be hacked? Ultimately, this strategy hinges on the benefits of an open source world vs. centrally controlled proprietary systems: there is safety in numbers and there are significant costs and challenges to influencing a large, open system like Wikipedia or a popular forum. One of the challenges is that the value and visibility of these sites and posts is usually highly correlated with how helpful they are in modifying or understanding the technology behind a product. Costs and challenges, I believe, beyond the patience and budget of most Chief Marketing Officers. But I remain open-minded. If anyone can point to a real instance of this happening over time, please contact me and let me know