While reading the news recently I stumbled upon a business which attributes blogging as a critical contributor to the phenomenal growth of their brand. Admittedly I had never heard of the brand before reading the article and like many I assumed Deckers Corporation’s UGG Australia to be the only offering in the industry. Over the past 5 years Deckers have become one of the world’s most recognised brands largely through celebrity endorsement and advertising in traditional mediums like magazines. Historically speaking establishing market share when one brand is so overpowering is virtually impossible. Customers don’t know to seek you out and the cost of mass media is not within reach of start-ups. It is for this reason the blogosphere and now social media platforms offer the budding entrepreneur something quite unique. The ability to communicate a message to millions for the cost of creativity or a moderate marketing budget provides the leverage new ideas and businesses need to compete with the multi-million dollar budgets of major brands.
Whooga the sheepskin footwear start-up like many recognised this opportunity and contacted influential fashion bloggers with readers numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The campaign began simply as an effort to educate bloggers that an alternative brand of ugg boots existed. It seems this was done in a sequence which caused enough ‘viral buzz’ among the network. Bloggers now began spreading their message and while it is difficult to ascertain just how broad a reach they achieved it is clear it has worked. Comparatively speaking Whooga could continue to double in popularity and still not touch the worldwide reach of UGG Australia but the brand has had an opportunity to launch which may not have been possible via traditional mediums without a large amount of financial risk.
Can blogging compare to mainstream media publications? A large fashion blog may have 100,000 readers per day. Assuming a post lasts for a week a single advertisement might receive close to 1 million views which is certainly comparative to regional TV advertising. Beyond the obvious cost advantages advertisers also have the luxury of knowing that the 1 million visitors are likely fashion minded or at least moderately interested in the theme of the blog. Blogs often allow feedback and a click through tracking which provides businesses with a means of measuring the effectiveness of their advertisements.
Whooga the sheepskin footwear start-up like many recognised this opportunity and contacted influential fashion bloggers with readers numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The campaign began simply as an effort to educate bloggers that an alternative brand of ugg boots existed. It seems this was done in a sequence which caused enough ‘viral buzz’ among the network. Bloggers now began spreading their message and while it is difficult to ascertain just how broad a reach they achieved it is clear it has worked. Comparatively speaking Whooga could continue to double in popularity and still not touch the worldwide reach of UGG Australia but the brand has had an opportunity to launch which may not have been possible via traditional mediums without a large amount of financial risk.
Can blogging compare to mainstream media publications? A large fashion blog may have 100,000 readers per day. Assuming a post lasts for a week a single advertisement might receive close to 1 million views which is certainly comparative to regional TV advertising. Beyond the obvious cost advantages advertisers also have the luxury of knowing that the 1 million visitors are likely fashion minded or at least moderately interested in the theme of the blog. Blogs often allow feedback and a click through tracking which provides businesses with a means of measuring the effectiveness of their advertisements.