Once Again, Men Are the the Doghouse. Courtesy of Facebook Connect
As only Alisa Leonard-Hansen can, Razorfish's Saatchi & Saatchi NY's (we are told Razorfish's role in this was small to non-existent) use of Facebook Connect for JC Penney's Beware of the Doghouse gets roundly trashed for what she dubs a really poor use of FBC. Of JC Penney's use of a stand alone microsite with Facebook Connect, Alisa writes, " Because that is super useful and makes much more sense than say, integrating FBC into the JC Penney online shopping experience and thereby including friend data (purchases, wishlists, etc) into the product merchandising model."
Couldn't have said "missed Opportunity" better ourselves. Though some points must be given for trying.
Comments
Wow, Steve. I normally agree with your blog postings, but this one couldn't be more wrong.
The Doghouse campaign used FBC in a very innovative way.
It is one thing to be cynical about advertising and it's another thing to be completely off...
I have to agree with I Know Ads. People seem to forget what it's like to actually create a campaign like this one, sell it to your client, execute it, etc.
JC Penney reaching out to consumers online and involving social media are all steps in the right direction for brands.
Aside from the Shawshank rip-off, from the 5 minute video to get the point across and the shoddy Flash work on the "Put Someone in the Doghouse" frame(at least within Firefox) campaigns like this take me back about four years ago when I was sitting with some folks from MMB discussing the Subway campaign. I said "I just don't get it. Subway is horrible and I have been there three times in my life. It will never win me over." to which they responded "Exactly and you're not the target which means that the campaign is working". It clicked that day for me that sometimes, even with my own clients, I will never be a customer, but there are many people who are or about to be and I think this campaign will probably resonate well with the JC Penney customer. I'm already taking bets on which friend or relative is going to send this to my wife.
@I Know Ads and @John,
Alisa here...take issue with my assessment, not Steve's. First, I stand by my assessment that this is a wasted FBC opportunity. For starters, its being used as part of a "campaign," and not part of a broader strategy. While it may work fine for JCP for the duration of said campaign, what frustrates me is that marketers not fully understanding the potential of data portability are prematurely co-opting FBC and not making full use of it. "Innovative" would have been a social graph-integrated merchandising model-- not creating yet another one-off microsite-driven campaign.
Agreed, Alisa. And, it's yet again an over-used idea of dude in the doghouse. Will we ever be portrayed any other way to sell schwagg to women? Or, will we forever be bumbling idiots, addicted to our video games and forgetting anniversaries? I'd go on, but I have some Rock Band to get to.
Just to clarify, although Razorfish executed the media buy for the project, the social media idea and creative execution did not come from us.
Its worth also noting that while FB Connect can and should be used in multiple ways it was released barely six months ago and I think it would be hard to expect major retailers to adopt it overnight.
Shiv Singh, Global Social Media Lead Razorfish
@Shiv, thanks for the clarification. And while you are correct that FBC was only announced back in May (indeed it doesn't really officially 'launch' until November 30th) and that it will take some time for adoption, I don't see how poor initial implementations can help it. From FB's perspective, FBC has the potential to be a core revenue model for them (I know this isn't speaking to marketers or this particular initiative)....but imagine if a major retailer could leverage social graph data within their merchandising model?
http://mashable.com/2008/11/19/facebook-marketing/#comments
Well Alisa maybe it is a poor implementation from your or Facebook's perspective but I think from a user's perspective its a perfectly good use for Facebook Connect. Here's a fun, whimsical campaign that requires you to do something with a friend or a partner and what better place to find them than from your Facebook social graph. This campaign isn't about Facebook or Facebook Connect, it is about JC Penny and engaging and entertaining with potential customers.
@Shiv, I can see how that would be the case. However, I would offer that "whimsy" and "entertaining" is fine for episodic engagement, but this again diminishes the potential of social engagements (FBC or not). My approach to consumer engagement tends to not be "campaign" based but rather program based. Consider the potential for JC Penney and JCP customers to maintain a long term, meaningful relationship (one based on value exchange) rather than a one-off campaign. Just something to think about.