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Written by DeWayne Hamby
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Friday, 12 June 2009 04:01 PM EDT |
- “Lies,” “deception”.....strong words for a marketing campaign, especially one from the world's largest Christian publisher, Thomas Nelson. Warranted or not, the accusations are flying on company CEO Michael Hyatt's blog over a viral marketing campaign where readers can generate a fake news page to present themselves as co-authors of best-selling author Donald Miller's new book, A Million Miles In a Thousand Years, releasing in September.
- Some of the comments:
- “Personally I don't think it's creative or ingenious, I think it's deceptive.”
- “What a neat and creative way to drive an audience to the book via social media. Genius!!”
- “Interesting, unique, and mildly funny, but I believe deliberately posting lies on the Internet is not an idea of merit, especially for Thomas Nelson.”
- “I just did it and the huge congratulations are flooding in. Hopefully I'm not ruining my credibility as an unknown! “
- The campaign is similar to a viral video “prank” circulated before the election where users could submit their own names as presidential candidates, complete with a news report. Hyatt, who called the promotion “brilliant,” said it's just “one of the way’s that we are aggressively experimenting with social media marketing here at Thomas Nelson.”
- So what do you think? Is there any cause for alarm? Actually, the harsh allegations surprise me a bit but perhaps it's because I frequently appreciate the brand of humor the campaign is using. I suspect they wouldn't try this with your grandfather's favorite author.
- DeWayne Hamby,
- co-author of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
- (this page says so!)
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