Forrester Research report on Sponsored Conversations
March 3rd, 2009 | Published in online marketing
On Monday, technology and market research company Forrester Research published an 8 pages report titled ‘Add Sponsored Conversations to Your Toolbox‘. The report basically advises corporations to engage bloggers in “sponsored conversations,” or the exchange of goods or credit in exchange for blog coverage.
The report focuses on a number of high profile examples like the case of KMart. For those of you who don’t know the case: Kmart gave some bloggers a free shopping spree in exchange for a blog post about the experience. The results of this sponsored blogging campaign were quite impressive. More info on the IZEA case study page.
The topic of paid blogging is highly controversial. Paying bloggers to write about a specific product yields many opportunities but at the same time also some risks. If you want arguments against paid blogging, read Marshall Kirkpatricks article on ReadWriteWeb.
The requirements to make sponsored conversation work are often stated as sponsorship transparency and blogger authenticity. When these requirements are met, I am convinced that this new form of advertising holds many possibilities. After all, in this digital age, corporations can’t neglect the potential benefits of engaging the consumer with their brand by participating in active communication.
Jeremiah Owyang has written a good article on how to make sponsored conversations work. Check it out on his blog!
Since the report is only available for a whopping $795, I did not yet get the chance to read it. Maybe an extra link to Forrester Research can entice them? Wishful thinking, I presume…