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Chevy Green Web: What Kind of Conversational Marketing?

Posted by: Stephen Baker on May 27

Who Am I Talking With Anyway? (This is another post from Heather)

Federated Media launched a site recently for Chevy that has had me thinking. It’s called Green Web and it pulls together posts from around the Web covering green issues. John Battelle describes it as a part of ” an ongoing trend I’m seeing where marketers are providing a service to their potential customers in the form of supporting authentic media, as opposed to creating their own content and hoping it takes off.”

Here’s the thing. Chevy telling me about the news in green issues feels like a little bit of deflecting. Chevy says on the site that it wants to start a conversation. But if that’s the case, I would expect the site to be all about the technologies that will make cars more fuel efficient and less damaging in terms of resources used and carbon dioxide emitted. And I would expect Chevy’s folks to be contributing their own news about what they’re doing.

That’s not what Green Web is about. Sure, there’s a channel about auto news, but it’s that’s not the focus.

I am not knocking Chevy so much, or FM. I just am not crazy about this kind of marketing that tries to generate a good, cool vibe that doesn’t give me any insight or access into the expertise or knowledge of the people behind that brand. If the idea of conversational marketing is to engage the brand, then how can you do that if they’re not talking about what they sell and make? This isn’t the kind of thing that convinces me that conversational marketing is authentic.

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Reader Comments

Chas Edwards

May 27, 2008 07:37 PM

Stephen--

I'm the publisher at FM. Thanks for covering Chevy's Best of the Green Web. I agree with your critique of conversational marketing where marketing brands don't have a voice in the discussion. In the case of Chevy's sponsorship of the Best of the Green Web site, however, they do have a voice.

Chevy is providing its own news and updates on its fuel-solutions technologies -- see the left column, just below the Recent Comments. The idea is to take consumer feedback, and to addressed it issue by issue. Even tough questions like "Aren't you the guys who killed the electric car?"

Creating authentic media -- whether it's editorial media or media connected to a marketing project -- is hard work, and success is defined by each reader or viewer. Based on traffic and repeat traffic to this site, and engagement with the content provided by Chevy, this experience is working for a fair number of green-minded consumers. At the very least, it's a move by Chevy in the right direction, a move towards a more fluid two-way dialog with customers.

J A Ginsburg

May 28, 2008 07:31 AM

There are some very interesting posts on the site, but I am still not going to buy a Chevy. It's not about the green-ness of company's heart (or marketing department), but the quality of the product. Years ago I owned a Chevy (okay, a used one from my older brother when I was just out of college). I see no reason to repeat the experience. There are many better options.

But this response is typical of any sponsored media. I like a lot of BWs content, but don't necessarily all the products and services offered by its advertisers.

However, knowing that Chevy has a closer relationship to Green Web's newsroom and, potentially, a say in content undermines credibility. It is -- authentically -- disturbing.

Beyond my own personal curmudgeonous take, how do you measure success? What is a "fair number of green-minded consumers"? 100? 1,000? 100,000? I will very likely revisit the site. There are some interesting stories, though mostly aggregated from other sites. I won't, however, be buying a Chevy....

As for two-way dialog -- what percentage of readers respond? 99% of the time I read and move on on the web, so this isn't a question only for Green Web but in general. I know there is a lot of interest in voting on stories and such, but what percentage of readers bother?

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In Blogspotting Senior Writer Stephen Baker and Associate Editor Heather Green take a look at how cutting-edge technologies are changing business and society. Whether its blogs or wikis, data crunching or data targeting, technology’s advances are reshaping the world that we live in.

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