| By Erin Rosa - Dec 15, 2009 3:55:13 PM ET |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Updates |
Finding new ways to brand the minds of young people isn’t a cake walk during the recession, so advertisers are apparently creating a new tool for market research in the form of an Astroturf community blog.
Meet the “Next Great Generation Blog” a publication that wants “an opportunity for Millennial Generation writers to develop a voice and gather a following, along with a real chance for older generations to listen in,” according to an e-mail message sent from Generation blog editor Gillian Maffeo today and obtained by CampusProgress.
They fail to mention that the blog will also be a great opportunity for advertisers, too, as a little investigation shows the website is really a creation of the Boston-based Mullen public relations agency, and Maffeo is an account executive at the company.
Mullen (which for some reason insists on italicizing the L's in its name to appear edgy, or something) boasts work for clients like Krispy Kreme and, interestingly enough, the American Diabetes Association as well.
“We’re trying to share personal stories about everything from our passion for pizza to our struggles with eating disorders,” the e-mail reads. “Comments, dialog, challenges and criticism are as welcome as praise.”
Didn’t people used to get paid for market research?
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However, it doesn't take much investigation to realize that TNGG was started by a bunch of us at Mullen. It's spelled out pretty clearly in the about page and at the top of the blog. But we're not doing it for us. Well OK, a little bit we are. The purpose is three fold. Give young writers (some of whom work here) a chance to develop their personal voices as part of a community. Two, to be a service for brands, marketers, journalists, sociologists who all seem obsessed with Gen Y, and yes, finally, to practice what we preach: conversation, community, crowdsourcing, etc. You'll notice all kinds of objectivity. We have pieces that praise Ford, when GM is a Mullen client. Food week is also objective with articles about WholeFoods when we do work for Stop and Shop. The blog is in no way a voice for Mullen, its clients or its opinions. We're simply the underwriter. Sort of like we could have given money to NPR, but we put it here instead.
And, Astroturfing? (Ouch...)
We're new. We're a month old and we still haven't worked all the kinks out.
We've made an effort to be completely transparent in this effort and clearly spell out who we are and what we are trying to accomplish. If we didn't? I wouldn't be a part of this project.
The opinions and comments are unfiltered on TNGG. The posts DO go through a basic editing process to help the writers improve their articles. (Ask any writer though, we don't change content. We only fix misspellings and grammar.)
Does Mullen benefit directly from this? Heck yes. Do the students, writers and other people contributing benefit also? Damn straight.
Someone needs to pay to keep the lights on though...
Disclosure: I am a Strategist with Mullen. I also help edit The Next Great Generation.
We're not trying to hide any of it. If anything we want to be super open about the process.
If we weren't...would we even be here?
You bring up a lot of questions, which I think TNGG has addressed pretty well. Blogs are a great way to express yourself - as you can see from the blogosphere and various Gen Y initiatives.
I think it's hard in general for Gen Y to have a voice - whether its intimidation, not wanting to come off as entitled, whether it's just hard to put yourself out there.
As co-founder and moderator of the #u30pro community - an initiative for those under 30 to discuss issues, and for those over 30 to give advice - I hear all the time how difficult it is. Don't mean to pimp it out (because that isn't cool!), but we are pretty connected to the Gen Y folks.
Both Dave and I (other mod) have promoted TNGG in our e-newsletter because we believe that they provide a forum for those to blog, and talk about issues that matter to them the most as Gen Y professionals.
Are they open to suggestions on how to improve it? Absolutely. I've had conversations with the people who work hard on it, and they seem to always be open to new ideas.
Blogs are a great way to question what's going on, especially in the Gen Y world. I think the best blogs are always open to change, and are aware of what works/doesn't work. A community initiative is all about what you put in it - and I think that TNGG has provided a platform for those in our community, and the Gen Y friends I've made.
Personally, I don't think anything they're doing is immoral...at least from what I've seen. Maybe because it's always been very clear to me that the site is run by members of the Mullen team.
No question in my mind whether or not they're providing a valuable platform for young professionals. They're doing a great thing that I believe will truly help bridge the generational gap and shed some light on our generation.
Kudos for bring critical...but in the future, you may want to avoid criticizing things like the font in a logo. It only hurts the credibility of your argument.
David Spinks
Community Manager, Scribnia.com
Apparently, Stuart's argument on Twitter is that they didn't provide any web links from their youth blog to Mullen (which would actually reveal what the business does) because they "didn't want to take credit" for the work of the blog writers. That just doesn't make any sense. People provide links in blog posts all the time, it doesn't mean that said links show ownership over the content. Blogging Fail.
This sort of attitude smacks of exactly what you seem to prescribe upon TNGG: Blogging Fail.
(And in the spirit of full disclosure, I am a contributor for TNGG. However, I am not at all associated with them otherwise.)
You may be upset, but that's a fact.
It's not my job to help mop of Mullen's PR mess with this blogging fiasco.