Guerilla Webfare

In today's internet era, companies and their customers are now connected closer than ever. Websites such as Youtube and Twitter enable account holders to voice their opinions on new products or entire brands at their leisure. Some of these amateur reviews go viral, in which millions of people are exposed to a simple Youtube upload.

Viral video creator Fernando Motolese recently solicited food brand Dannon to pay him for every hit on a prospective video which depicted him showcasing one of Dannon's products. If Dannon rejected Motolese's offer, he assured the French company that he would release a negative video to Youtube which would damage Dannon's image. Dannon would go on to reject the offer entirely.

This exchange between Dannon and Motolese is a perfect example of the power anyone with a camera and Youtube account. Before sites like Youtube, brand image was only composed of television advertisements created by the company and first hand experience of a customer. Aside from commercials on television and actually becoming a customer, prospective customers were not exposed unfiltered claims regarding a big company. Today's generation is flooded with unlimited criticism and praise regarding anything from large corporations to small injustices halfway across the world. Companies are now facing new challenges in damage control. The article mentions an instance where a video of Domino's employees are depicted “tampering with food in disgusting ways”. The video ended up going viral within a day not only had millions of people viewed the video, but Domino's had a major public relations crisis on its hands. The video spread so quickly that the employees were fired at the beginning of the next day. Domino's today still airs television commercials that address quality control and the company's dedication to delivering a better pizza. The actions of two employees cost Domino's millions of dollars and marred the name of a 50 year old company. These kinds of super effective damaging videos are created everyday. Companies now not only have to prepare against competitor's ad campaigns, but the aggressive low budget films of their customers. Every video on Youtube has the potential to be watched by millions of people around the world within hours.

Motolese's psuedo-advertisement attempt could have cost Dannon millions of potential customers and its positive brand image. I believe that these situations are going to become more common, and more damaging to companies. No company is safe from this new threat because the public as a whole is a customer to every company. This new form of brand image damaging also opens up new doors in the ruthless corporate mudslinging realm. Companies could potentially hire directors and producers to create persuasive fake ads for competing companies in order to damage that company's image. An example would be Apple funding a team of moviemakers to launch an underground campaign that would depict competitor Microsoft supporting a taboo practice, or a distasteful movement, etc. More money is going to be spent in the future on securing a positive name for a company than perfecting its products. The future of advertising will include amateur moviemakers more than big budget commercial directors. Instead of paying millions to big time names, companies are going to hold contests in which anyone can upload a commercial for them on their own websites. The company will use the best commercial in their eyes, and it will cost them next to nothing.

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/26281/#afteradbody