Marketing Roadmaps

Personas and fictional blogs

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Earlier today in an e-mail exchange with a fellow marketing blogger, we agreed that much of the sturm and drang around fictional blogs (see yesterday’s post for my definition thereof) reminded us both very much of the brouhaha that occured when the World Wide Web went "commercial" in the 90s. Purists were aghast at the pristine Internet being used for commercial purposes. Well, we know what happened with that 🙂

One of the main beefs that purists have about fictional blogs is that the author of the blog is not a real person, which they argue perverts the authenticity of the blog experience. I don’t agree. As I commented on Paul Chaney’s blog yesterday and he blogged today: what matters is the intended audience. As long as they know they are reading a fiction and interacting with a character, if the blog is well done, creative, entertaining, and the intended audience enjoys it, who are we to criticize. If you aren’t the audience, it just doesn’t matter what you think about it.

So I started thinking about other fictional personas that I have interacted with in my 20-odd years in the business (word choice intentional). And I came up with a fairly well known tech persona that is a fictional character with whom people have interacted with in the pages of PC Week (now e-Week) for many many years: rumour columnist Spencer F. Katt

Spencer has his own e-mail address, and a fairly rich back story that has been created over a number of years. Everybody knows that the column is written by someone or someones at the magazine, but that hasn’t prevented people from engaging with the character.

So I ask the question: if the folks at e-Week decided to change the delivery format of Spencer’s column to a blog, would that be any different than any of the current examples of fictional characters with blogs that are being pilloried: the Moose, T. Alexander and Captain Morgan.

Nope.

And in my book, it would be just fine as long as the intended audience enjoys it, and the company is honest about the fictional nature of the blog.

UPDATE: Tris Hussey dug a bit deeper and discovered that Spencer is indeed blogging (and flogging his column in every post I might add). So, given that we haven’t had any backlash against the Katt, whose blog appears to have started in March, either the people reading it don’t realize he isn’t really a 20+ year old cat or it’s okay for a blog to be written by a fictional character as long as you like him.

Since I think most people realize Spencer is fictional, I’ll go with option 2. Which proves the point. If the intended audience enjoys it, a blog by a fictional character is just fine. If the audience hates it, it will die the death it deserves. Therefore, incumbent on marketers to create good, fun enjoyable blogs, whether written by real or fictional folk. 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Susan, in my opinion you have hit a home run on this again. So much so, yours ought to be the default answer on the matter.

    The only ones we are having to convince on this issue are bloggers, and they don’t really factor so far as I’m concerned. Where marketing blogs are concerned, it’s the consumer we need to be concerned about.

    I’m not advocating the use of deceptive practices, fakery, or cons. The one caveat that sets blogging apart from other forms of advertising/marketing is that it does represent genuineness and authenticity. However, those philosophical cornerstones do not have to be circumvented just because the blogger is a character rather than a “real” person.

    Jolly good show, Susan. Jolly good!

  4. Spencer F. Katt is bloggging…why isn't anyone yelling?

    Susan Getgood posted  more on the whole character blog issue--Marketing Roadmaps- Personas and fictional blogs--and mentioned Spencer F. Katt and what if he were blogging.  Spencer is clearly a character, a pe…

  7. Great insight for sure and I agree all the ways. I’d like to think those of us at P&G got it right with the new “blog” at https://www.sparklebodyspray.com. The site is meant to be a fun promotional site for teens that just so happens to be structured in a blog format. You can easily tell that this isn’t a real blog and instead something meant to be fun.

  8. Thanks for your comment. Your audience (teen girls) will let you know whether you got it right — if they like the blog and get into it, you’ve got a winner. And if they don’t, kill the blog, and figure out some other way to reach them.

    It won’t make a bit of difference to your success whether a bunch of bloggers like it or not. The control, as always, is in the hands of the consumer 🙂

    Susan

  9. I love this idea: bloggers are elitists; consumers are real.

    Bloggers: they’re into this “real conversation” stuff. “Consumers” (let’s keep using that term as much as we can; focus on consumption, after all) won’t care about this nonsense at all, all they want is to be entertained, after all.

    This is just great:

    The one caveat that sets blogging apart from other forms of advertising/marketing is that it does represent genuineness and authenticity. However, those philosophical cornerstones do not have to be circumvented just because the blogger is a character rather than a “real” person.

    Let’s set up more fake genuine sites that represent authenticity!

    Keep up the good work. Jolly good!!

  10. Tom: Thanks for stopping by. I think though that you are missing my main point, which is that we should just let the intended audience decide. If something is crap, if the blog by the fictional character doesn’t engender interaction and fun for the visitors, both with the character *and* with each other, then the blog (or blog-like marketing site if you prefer) will die the death it deserves.

    There is never a single right answer to any conundrum.

    Best regards
    Susan

  12. I understand what you’re saying, Susan. I’m probably making too much of this, but I think there’s a difference between a blog and “blog-like marketing site” that’s important.

    As you say, if the fictitious character site is entertaining and draws readers, it’s serving its purpose. It’s when we start looking at the “genuineness and authenticity” that are cited as key differentiators between blogs and ads, that I get puzzled. Don’t get me wrong: we know that there are all kinds of ads that work. And I think blogs can work as ads, too. My point was that, in my mind, blogs-as-ads are different kinds of blogs, with the genuineness and authenticity differentiating them.

    Of course the reader always decides. I’ll be very interested in seeing the long-term results for character blogs. I could be wrong, (for the first time this year!), and they could be very successful. I’m skeptical, but, hey, I don’t get people watching Regis, either.

  13. Thanks for the follow on comment. I don’t get Regis either.

    And I have absolutely no clue if character blogs will succeed; as I said in my follow on post, I don’t want to do one myself. I too prefer live and “in person.” But I think we need to let it play out and not dismiss it *just* because it is fictional. Dismiss something because it doesn’t work, dismiss something because the audience doesn’t embrace it, dismiss it because the marketing results aren’t there. But not for the form of the thing before we even give it a chance.

    There is room for many different approaches, so let’s just see what happens.

    Regards,
    Susan

  16. Excellent.

    I often read but rarely comment, but the subject of fictional blogs intrigues me…

    A point I would like to make to any naysayers out there:
    The world wide web became a great success NOT because of the great business opportunities out there, or all the research potential.
    Teh Internet is a success because it entertains.
    If you plan on doing business on the net, never, EVER forget that the biggest draw on the net is the entertainment value. If you are not entertained by a given type of website, ad or technique there may still be an appreciable market that is….
    Ignore them at your peril. 😉

  17. As far as Spencer Katt’s personna is concerned, perhaps the reason my cartoons, columns and blogs work is because they are genuinely handled by me … and a 45 year old Katt survives on Schlitz, Pabst and the occasional Merlot … one must keep the arteries flushed … Bruce Wayne & Clark Kent have nothing on me 😉 Swing by and join the party, today I came up with the Top 10 Rejected Star Wars Names …

    blog.ziffdavis.com/katt