Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York

Last year we really began to see big name brands participate with creditable, professional blogs. These blogs generate valuable supportive word of mouth advertising for brands. Still in its infancy, many did it wrong, such as the Wal-Mart and Sony PS3 flogs. While many did it right through advertising their products on blogs and social networks through BlogAds and Text Link Ads, as well as, viral marketing with You Tube and Revver and speaking directly to blog owners to review their products.

Moving forward and seeing the success that dual exposure in print publications as well as digital media can bring, Ogilvy & Mather has forged a partnership with Technorati to aggregate blog content relevant to Ogilvy clients, then will work with Ogilvy's senior creative directors to integrate existing word-of-mouth into campaigns, according to MediaPost. I have to agree with this statement in their article: “The benefit of social media is that it allows brands to build a more authentic, participatory relationship with its audience than was possible in the mass media era," said Peter Hirshberg, chairman and chief marketing officer at Technorati. Where print media can still be successful, I think the future success of brands lies within the relationship it can form with its consumers through online media such as blogs and social networks. It is, after all, the connection your consumer feels with your brand, that gives you brand loyalty, continued referrals and strong sales.

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