Advertorials are accepted? Weblogs are paid items in order? Due to recent events (Süddeutsche & Trigami) I would again take up the topic of advertising and specifically paid blog posts again.

After also upload magazine had reported that the Sueddeutsche Zeitung your iPhone app via Trigami *, so has paid blog posts advertised, must insert the Sueddeutsche Zeitung fierce criticism. The reason for the outrage is that the paid product recommendations had to be consistently positive, and were.

However, after the marketing manager Peter Bilz Wohlgemuth (in SZ is responsible for the campaign) put in a position to comment , and Remo Uherek (Managing Director at Trigami) in Trigami blog has taken a public position , it is clear that there is a faux pas on the part Trigami was. The customer had text-reviews posted, but advertorials get. Quote from the opinion:

"Mr. Bilz Wohlgemuth has confirmed to me by phone explicitly that the goal of the campaign was never to require bloggers what they had to say. It was only expressed the desire that outcome of the campaign as many positive reports and comments (even the Apple Store) would be (who would not want that.) ... "

That is to say in German: The Süddeutsche wanted bloggers to report on the SZ-iPhone-App where every blogger would call his own opinion to the product. Participating bloggers but had now received from the advertorial Trigami offer to publish so a 100-percent positive product description / recommendation for payment. Trigami apologized for the incident, they've gone the wrong campaign type, and included this in the wrong with Blogger Briefing. Yesterday at 18.01. The campaign was corrected by Advertorialsin was a text-review campaign and stopped the campaign. By evening, the campaign was then stopped completely technical. However, existing products would not be deleted by agreement with the SZ.

Blog attempts by the SZ in the blogosphere always happy and taken up under the microscope . It rises in a high feel that this incident with Trigami now only too happy to be denounced. The allegations against the SZ should actually be after the clarification of both parties from the table. In the comments under Mr. Uherek opinion, there are both negative and positive statements. One finds statements like "Since today is the image of the South German heavy scratched" but also "I tip my hat to your openness."

Why is it that paid items are considered by many to be negative?

One study (of MediaAnalyzer, 2009) shows 86 percent of respondents have an information display (ie advertorial) have ever considered editorial content and only noticed when reading, that there had been an advertisement ( via ).

Sure, and especially to weblogs expected an honest opinion of the author. Nunmal blogs have a personal character. And these are not commercially. Articles in which bloggers write about products and services are considered as a recommendation. And a recommendation (see my article on just as long as a recommendation in the true sense, as long as they are honest place credibility on private blogs advertising ). On the other hand, all paid Trigami blog articles be marked as such at the beginning of the article, which shows the blogger openly that it does not necessarily have to have their own opinion (in the case of an advertorial).

Some bloggers are amazed wanted the marketing people of the Süddeutsche the potential recommendation of its own products and not enough trust the word of mouth rather artificially to jump start. Other bloggers are upset that you paid to blog articles still frowned upon, but where in other media such as print is completely normal.

I need to connect me. In all other media, no cock crows for more advertising-free content! Commercials and spots on TV are "normal" (and now even comes to product placement). Advertising in radio is "normal." Each show is sponsored topics. In print I remember at the moment no one single magazine or newspaper articles and advertisements which do not thematically fitting placed side by side. In magazines, there are plenty of paid items, which are then marked with the words "display", which makes them comparable with advertorial articles.

What would promote the acceptance of paid product?

In the comments of Alpers Trigami article about the faux pas is a legitimate objection by Roland V-cooling. Puttkamer to read, which shows that the labeling is still scalable: Receives one article on a feed reader which displays only the title, as one learns only after the click that this is a paid post. A flag in the title would help.

To have this type of advertising is accepted by the readers, the bloggers are even asked. This should inform your readers, why and to what extent they are writing articles for payment, especially if these articles will meet their own opinion or not. Especially blogs that are frequented, whose readers are communicative and happy commenting, you can quickly determine (eg by voting or by a simple question), how paid items will be accepted. If the tendency to reject clearly, one should choose to trade only for product recommendations, which admit one's own opinion - or miss out on items completely paid.

Conclusion.

Returning once more to the response of southern Germany. I find it unfortunate that Mr. Bilz Wohlgemuth now to advertise this kind of turns. That the marketing man of the SZ has said openly that he would like to see positive reviews on iTunes, is comprehensible way, and was also a target of the campaign. One reads again and again comments that the SZ iPhone app is so good that the campaign - they would have been implemented as a text review - would have been overwhelmingly positive for the product. Too bad.

On the other hand, this was an impetus for us bloggers as well as for brand owners to consider this form of advertising again. I hope that intermediaries like Trigami learn from it. And I also hope that most bloggers thoughts on paid posts still have the benefits and value of information for their readers in mind.

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How do you think? I, I see this issue also with one eye from the perspective of a marketing man. SZ is the campaign to understand itself? What makes it acceptable Paid Posts?