a member of the stain network
For some time, Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest advertiser, has been dipping its big toes into the vast pool of Facebook, now the world’s largest social network.
The “America’s Favorite Stains” campaign ... asks for members’ ideas. It recently displayed 18 submissions.
Independent experts on Web advertising have been watching, however, and what they see is a myriad of difficulties in making brand advertising work on social networking sites. Members of social networks want to spend time with friends, not brands.
posted at
- stronger takes (0)
Reached for comment, a Proctor & Gamble spokesperson admitted that the company received well over 18 submissions. “About 2,000 of them were what I can only describe as obscene and vaguely sex-related,” the spokesperson said. “It turned out to be a lot more like our recent MySpace Swiffer campaign than we had hoped.”
The company has been experimenting with Facebook’s numerous Web properties and communications channels. Users in selected test markets have reported friend requests from “Duracell Dave” and invitations to join groups such as “Life’s a Febreze”, which currently has 9 members. A “fan page” devoted to Tampax tampons has been received with similar disinterest.
A P&G “2.0” project team member revealed that the company recently concluded a test run on the now-defunct Pownce and will soon launch 5 product-specific Twitter accounts and a “Mr. Clean Lifestream” on blip.tv. Both initiatives are designed to “reach out to the consumer in ways they would never expect or want.”
