Blog homeHoteles Saint Michel are better known for beach holidays in Majorca (Spain)….. but now it seems that they are looking to go that one step further and as part of their current refurbishing project at one of their hotels they are laying down some astroturf.
What is astroturf?
Astroturf is green grass…. fake green grass - often seen on all-weather sports pitches (and some golf courses). It is also a term used to indicate where a PR company is undertaking a fake grass roots campaign. (see wikipedia)
What has Hoteles Saint Michel done?
They have launched a competition, open to bloggers, to write a blog post describing what would be their ideal beach hotel. I just received an email asking me to take part.
To win a prize (5 different hotel stay prizes) you have to write positive references about the Hoteles Saint Michel chain (as well as describe your ideal beach hotel).
To be fair to the hotel company, this probably wasn’t their idea. The email came from Analitia who describe themselves as a consulting company for advanced eMarketing. Well astroturfing is certainly advanced….. so advanced that it has been banned by the Code of Ethics of the Public Relations Society of America. I am sure the same ethics apply in Spain.
- Lesson 1…. if you are going to ask bloggers to write something - often the result is quite unexpected
- Lesson 2…. you don’t need a PR agency if you have a remarkable product or service - so spend more time making your product remarkable….. then the chances are I will write about it (and so will others)
- Lesson 3…. entrants to this competition shouldn’t feel bad about entering…. AS LONG AS they fully disclose that they are writing a blog post because there is a chance they could win a hotel stay. If you want more back-history on the entire “disclosure” argument I suggest you Google “PayPerPost” and paid blogging.
Next…
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I work in Analitia and I just want to explain that this is a competition, where you are free to participate or not.
Our aim is clear: gather ideas for a hotel that is being refurbished and there are prizes to motivate people to participate.
I also want to make clear that to participate neither a link neither a reference to Saint Michel Hotels is asked.
I do not see where the problem is? Sorry Alex if it is not to your liking.
Hi Raquel,
Thank you for your comment.
You and I both know what you expect the outcome to be from this competition. Your goal is to put, on multiple travel themed websites / blogs, as many positive mentions of the Saint Michel Hotels brand as you can.
If you can associate that brand with positive descriptions of hotel rooms (which is what this competition generates) then this will assist with both brand building and also search engine optimisation.
That is a fine objective - and PR companies / online marketing companies, such as yourselves, are paid to do just that.
However, the problem is not at the concept stage but at how it has been executed.
What you are looking for is bloggers to write positive mentions (I quote your requirements “positive reference to the Hoteles Saint Michel chain”). Therefore to consumers (and search engines) this will look like, say, 50 influential travel bloggers who have all written nice things about the Hoteles Saint Michel chain.
If you really wanted the hotel design ideas (but not the mentions on lots of travel blogs) you would have asked for submission of the ideas by email to you….. bloggers could have promoted the competition on their blogs -but the entries would be offline.
However, as you have asked people to blog positively on their own blogs - the only conclusion that can be drawn from that is that this is because you you want to make it look like there are people interested in what you are doing.
The “problem” is that by using bloggers in this way is called “astroturfing” - or making it seem people naturally have decided to do this…. which is, as mentioned above, against the ethics of a PR society in the USA…. and I am sure would therefore be considered an unethical practice globally.
In order to remain “ethical” and still have people blogging positively on their blogs you could have asked everyone to mention in the blog post that they are posting in order to potentially win a hotel stay. That would have been the ethical way to operate this competition.
I am not trying to be critical of your company or the competition in general - but using it as a learning experience for other companies who may be considering a similar idea
Hi Raquel, Hi Alex,
Please allow me to post my opinion about this.
I can remember when Alex pointed that blogs are just HTML, ordered by chronological order, not expert pannels nor TV Shows. Just pieces of HTML. Some are successful, othe are not. But all blogs are managed by people and anyone can decide what to do and what to post, or not.
Literally speaking we can consider that the objective of the campaign is astroturfing, at this point I consider you are right Alex, which does not mean the campaign is violating any code of ethics.
However the communication to the bloggers might have offended. In my case it didn’t. It was a direct message, informing me about the campaign and inviting me either to post about it or participate.
Bloggers are just people, like blogs HTML, and as people we are all different, have different opinions, and different points of view. You Alex might have felt offended for receiving that email, and I did not. However you posted about it and I didn’t.
The fact that your post is not what the folks of Analitia expected is a risk they should have considered before launching the campaign.
HI Albert
Thanks for your comment. I wasn’t offended by the opportunity given to me by Analitia. I am happy to receive such offers.
I read this post the other day
http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2008/03/10-easy-ways-to.html - 10 ways to annoy a blogger. One of them is inviting bloggers to participate in something and not giving them a chance to talk about themselves.
It is easy (for me) to be critical of something - however I am trying to come up with “what would I have done” in the same situation. It is the same as when I work as a consultant in travel ecommerce - I never say something is a bad idea - unless I have an alternative that I can, with authority, say would be better.
Upon further reflection - I would have created a microsite - where Analitia could track (and link back to) any entries that have been received. This would create a community around the concept of coming up with an ideal design and let people become more involved in factors (for example, I may have a great idea for a fridge - but don’t want to submit an entire design)
Also, the action of “linking back” and listing bloggers who have created entries would enable bloggers build a bit more profile….. which is what bloggers (who are not blogging for a job) tend to blog for.
My real problem with this competition is not the ethical side of the discussion - but that it didn’t really show too much consideration as to what bloggers may want to get involved with - and how to incentivise them.
The answer is - incentivise with increasing their profile - rather than with “goods” such as free hotel stays.
You are right Alex, I would probably have suggested a digg clone, where users can post their content, and vote for others’ content as well. It would be a social campaign that would also be linked from blogs. I can feel we have similar points of view and I’m glad with it.
[…] Por otro lado el Concurso “Cuentanos como sería tu hotel ideal” lanzada para Hoteles Saint Michel de Mallorca, en también es tildado de realizar esta práctica. […]
@ Albert
I *would* have done it using a wordpress installation on a 50 euro a month web host…. with a top banner (design cost 300 Euro) I think we could have done something for less than 800 Euro total (excluding staff time)
Perhaps I should become a social media consultant. Seems a trendy thing to do!
A little bit off topic but I hate the ethics behind pay per post blogging (or prize per post!) but I can understand why some bloggers go down this route to earn an income. I’ve been asked by dozens of travel companies (BIG companies) to write a blog post about their new website, service or product, in return for payment and I flately refused.
I attended an interview for a travel company in early March, and was asked if I would blog about their company on travel rants and I said no, because I wished to remain independent. I didn’t get the job but that was probably more down to my lack of travel industry experience.
I’ve turned down over £2k in advertising for various reasons due to what I would see as unethical blogging.
Reputation is important to me, but had I been self employed without a fulltime job I might have found it more difficult to turn down, so in a way I am in a lucky position.