Sometimes I find that many of us in social media are unnecessarily harsh on ourselves and overly critical of each other too. I felt this recently while discussing a JC Penny campaign with a few others in the blogosphere. The digital campaign called "Beware the Doghouse" allows women to put their husbands or boyfriends in the doghouse for misbehaving or being just plain stupid. The husbands can get themselves out of the doghouse by buying the partners diamonds!
Now its meant to be light, whimsical and fun. And the campaign (especially the introductory video clips) are just that. The campaign uses Facebook Connect to help you choose someone to put into the doghouse. Basically you are able to choose someone from your friends list in Facebook to add to the doghouse. In my opinion a straightforward and perfectly appropriate use of Facebook Connect. However, a couple of fellow bloggers felt that using Facebook Connect in the a digital marketing campaign is a "poor implementation" of it. And I couldn't disagree more.
Firstly Facebook Connect is new and there are a lot of potentially different uses for it. Just because Facebook Connect isn't being used on JCPenny.com for the retail experience but in a campaign doesn't make it a bad implementation. Furthermore, to use Facebook Connect to find friends (known peers) is exactly what's needed to make this campaign a success. It is a fun way to use a person's social graph. Why then is it a poor implementation?
Many of us in the social media space are techno-centric in our outlook and we're obviously bullish on social media. But we're definitely doing the cause a disservice by trying to judge what is and what isn't a good use of a social media technology. Let the users decide that. After all, social media is about democratization too. For more on interesting implementations of Facebook Connect read this post.
Disclaimer - Razorfish bought the media to support the campaign but was not responsible for the creative idea or the execution.
Follow me on Twitter (@shivsingh) for more insights on digital strategy and social media.
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Hey Shiv, yes I basically agree. It's pretty obvious that in times like these (where everything seems to invent itself anew from scratch) people tend to be more offensive and are not so much into compromises. Your example shows it. It's perfectly alright to integrate social features into a classic (1.0) campaign. But as long as people tend to underline the good, "classic" way to social media, there is not too much space for experiments.
To sum it up. I'm getting sick of Social Evangelists. This is a world which has a lot to offer. And not everything is wrong because you cannot share it via delicious. Classic branding will stay important, nevertheless social features will have to be added. This campaign shows it, how it can work.
Shiv I couldn't agree more. There is so much negativity in the social space, particularly when it is focused on corporations. Companies that try to integrate, but perhaps commit a small gaff, or are slightly off the mark are quickly charged with violations against Social. I can just hear the synchronous voice of the digital socialites screaming FAIL in unison!
On a different tack, I think that this specific use of Facebook Connect is also a good one. If for no other reason, it could be a great primer for the general public on what Facebook Connect can do... elucidating the concept of SSID through FBC for those who aren't in the know.
Thanks for the thoughts. That's true the implementation serves as a great primer for Facebook Connect. Interestingly, Ad Age was very positive on the campaign. It shows there's always a range of opinions out there. http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=133176