Blogs Still Mystify: Ten Companies That Missed Great Blog Opportunities

By B.L. Ochman

It doesn't matter whether companies are big, with benefit of PR agencies, or small - many are missing opportunities to integrate blogs into the marketing mix. The following are 10 examples of sites and campaigns that are crying out for blogs. If they had them, they could dialog with customers, sell product, and also have some fun.

Newman's Own Organic Dog Food
Difficult economy? What difficult economy? You'd never know it from what dogs and cats are eating. And now they'll have Newman's Own Organic Dog Food at $39.95 for a 25-pound bag, according to USA Today.

Oddly, there is no Newman's Own Dog Food Website, blog, or other online marketing effort. A missed opportunity! The topic of pet nutrition cries out for a blog where holistic vets could answer nutrition questions from customers.

Teva Makes Sandals For Sore-Footed Elephant
Teva, the company that produces sport sandals and footwear is designing a new line of shoes made especially for an elephant named Tina who lives at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

Tina, who is 9 foot tall and 9100 pounds, is a 34 year-old Asian elephant suffering from a debilitating foot disease. She's the only elephant at the sanctuary who was born in captivity.

The Teva design will protect the bottoms of Tina's feet so she can navigate throughout the habitat pain-free. When she gets her new shoes you'll be able to watch her on the sanctuary's way cool Elecam

Will this sell Teva shoes to humans? You bet! But Teva is missing a big opportunity by not integrating a photo blog, tracking the elephant's progress, into its http://www.teva.com Web site.

Starbucks Misses Perfect Opportunity for Moblog
Starbucks celebrated its 10th anniversary in New York City with a summer campaign surprising New Yorkers with random acts of kindness. For example, they gave a free tank of gas and a hot cup of coffee to customers at a Manhattan Mobil station, giving away 690 gallons of gas, 12 gallons of coffee and 2 gallons of Frappuccinos.

The company missed a perfect marketing opportunity by not having the events on a moblog. That's a mobile blog that people could post their photos and first-hand accounts to for the rest of the world to see. Right now, the promotion is invisible - not even mentioned on the company Website.

Rowenta Sponsors Extreme Ironing Sport and Website
German iron maker Rowenta has brought the sport of Extreme Ironing to the US -- the only global sport that combines a household chore with an extreme sport. Participants, according to the Rowenta press release like to mix the thrill of danger with the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt."

The US tour began in Boston and concluded on Memorial Day with a grand finale in Times Square. Meanwhile, extreme ironers are ironing while rock climbing, boating, parachute jumping, and scuba diving. (Since extreme ironers must wait for the invention of solar- and battery- charged irons, they heat their irons with portable gas burners, campfires and generators. I have no idea how they iron under water.)

The Extreme Ironing Website uses the tried and true PR gimmick, the information bureau in the form of the Extreme Ironing Bureau. It features a photo gallery to which ironers can upload photos and stories and videos and FAQs, news of events, competitions, and proof that it got into the 2004 Guinness Book of Records. But all of this would have been much better - and more inexpensively - done with a mobile photoblog which would automatically archive and categorize posts and images.

Pomegranate Juice Misses Blog Opportunity
An article in the Wall Street Journal http://tinyurl.com/2wyqn marvels that pomegranate cocktails "suddenly abound." Drink trends, the writer muses, "just seem to arise out of nowhere."

Ah, but those of us who have ever done PR for a beverage company know better, don't we. :>) The PR agency had street teams all over the place and they could have been blogging about the responses of consumers tasting the products, uploading recipes, photos and coupons.

DaimlerChrylser Xmas Stunt Makes the NY Times and Misses Multi-Media Opportunity
Dan Barry reports in the New York Times that DaimlerChrysler has created what it called the "first ever" living window display by challenging a family of three to live for five days in a 2004 Dodge Durango SUV that was parked in Times Square.

Just a silly PR stunt? Maybe, but it got a full column in About New York on the cover of the New York Times Metro section.

That's no small feat, but they've missed a great opportunity for multi-media promotion. A blog of the family's experience would have been great. Although streaming media from the site, or even a web cam would be perfect for this stunt, there was not a word about it on the Dodge Durango site or the Chrysler site.

WD40's Anniversary Site
Aunti Goodiebags is a member of the WD40 Fan Club Board of Directors . Members point out that WD40 has thousands of uses, from keeping pigeons off the terrace (they hate the smell) to keeping toilet bowls clean. You can suggest your favorite uses at the site.

Unfortunately the uses aren't searchable so you can't look up a WD40 cure when you're in need. This site would have been a perfect use for a business blog, making the Fan Club interactive and allowing for automatic searchable archiving of uses.

The site even has a downloadable WD40 Spray Game that you just have to try.

Ditties: Dumb Name, Smart Tampon Marketing That Needs a Blog
Long overdue, Dittie LLC of Orinda, CA, has launched a line of feminine hygiene products that don't treat menstruation like an ailment, or as something to hide.

Founded by Barbara Carey, President, Dittie's products are stylish and, well, feminine. The Dittie Website features the Dittie Pledge to always pass one on to any woman in need, funny stories about tampons, and goofy Tampon Bowling, with tampons for pins.

More than $1 million was spent on the launch, which included an extensive sampling program in schools, doctor's offices and boutiques, as well as ads in the girls' bathrooms, school newspapers and hallways. There is also a junior marketing program, in which girls can be part of street teams or buzz squads.

The site cries out for a blog and user forums, perhaps password protected to keep out mischief makers.

Trojan Condoms Boring Site, Missed Opportunity
Pretty boring home page, given the subject matter. The information center cries out for a blog. As Rick Bruner pointed out in Business Blog Consulting, "Imagine all the legitimate condom, STD and sex-related news they could report on, not to mention more interesting Fark-ish naughty, funny and incredible-but-true sex-related stuff."

Spiderman
Here's a mystery Spider-Man: The Peril of Doc Ock featuring animated LEGO toys, is a brilliant, action packed, 4-minute comical take on the Spider-Man movies commissioned from Spite Your Face Productions Ltd. by Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios.

Yet the movie is nowhere to be found on the sites of marketing titans Sony, Lego and Marvel. (Or it's quite hidden.) Surely it will spread virally, if only by six-year-olds sending it to their friends.

Where's the hype? Where's the blog? Why isn't anyone making noise about this film? It's clever, funky, funny, true to the movie. And it represents a most unusual collaboration between the three companies.

What opportunity to integrate blogs into the marketing process is your company missing?

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B.L. Ochman of whatstnextonline.com, is an Internet marketing strategist, journalist and speaker. She publishes What's Next Online marketing tactics newsletter, and What's Next Blog and is the author of Press Releases From Hell and How to Fix Them

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