This Is Not How Things Work
I know I said I’d keep it chilled today, but seeing as the new year, and all we have to look forward to, is the topic of conversation, I thought I’d get a little something out of the way, about how things work in the real world and how they most certainly will not be working in 2012. This spurs from a mail I received at the end of last year – an accidentally leaked campaign planing document in which ‘values’ were attached to the work a brand hoped a bunch of South African bloggers would do for them.
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Look, I completely understand that a lot of this industry runs on a barter system – I give you something in exchange for something else, money does not always change hands. Nor should it – not every campaign deserves payment. In fact, most of the non Bangers & Nash work I do is done in this fashion – but the people (bloggers) I work with all work off each other. One hand washes the other if you will. It’s a very tricky area. BUT, when you (as a brand we have never worked with) set out, from the start, with ideas of getting someone else (bloggers) to do your job, for free, you are moving in the wrong direction.
Combined in a campaign like this, whatever it may be (I have no idea if it’s a simple one post job or a campaign), the blogs mentioned above speak to an audience larger than any print publications in SA (fitting this demographic). Publications you would never expect free advertising from, and publications that would cost you an absolute fortune to advertise with. So why would you expect everything for free from bloggers?
When looking at the above blogs, with the exception of one that I’m not too familiar with, every single one is run like a business. Run by people and teams that, actually, do a hell of a lot more than sit behind a computer and ‘blog’. The above authors, editors and writers, run productions, head up online media devisions, are responsible for some of the most successful online ventures and campaigns in South Africa, produce actual printed publications, and one has even started an online radio station – you may have heard of it.
So, brand managers, interns, PR people, online marketers…know your audience, and know your bloggers, because not everyone of us does this on our lunch break while the boss is not looking. We won’t ask for money for every campaign, but it would be a mistake to think you can get every campaign for free. This is no longer a play-play platform. It’s very, very real, and has been for some time.
Now sort out your budgets and let’s have an epic 2012.
Nash…
Out.
ruark
BM#1: If we follow this we will have viral smash hit!
BM#2: Indeed, Im sure this will get us over 500k views in the 1st week.
BM#3: I love that we can work on cocaine O.O
Emma Jackson
I can’t help but laugh. That is so blind! But I’ll bet there are plenty more pages just like that in circulation.
nash
So many, I’m sure.
As I said on Twitter just now, everyone does stuff for free, and that’s awesome. But assuming that everyone will do everything for free all of the time…get’s very annoying.
Alex
Nice! Love that this is leaked. Shows how much respect brands give digital.
Tom [Dont Party]
Dan you legend! Couldn’t have said it any better! We’re faced with this sort of thing constantly although we’ve luckily been honored to work with many brands who recognize the value we all offer and hopefully the remaining few will soon have the same realization. Great work bringing this to light!
Ridwaan
The digital landscape is ripe for new innovation, not new platforms but new more exciting ways for current businesses to interact with existing media platforms and their potential market..
Maybe a revenue derivation model needs to be devised going forward, to ensure that bloggers get their just rewards? I could take a few stabs now at envisioning this model but it would be useless without valuable, current trend information.
The revolution is a foot, staring off into cyberspace is no longer a “waste of time” & the large time slice employees spend socialising electronically could at least bear fruit for employers. I could be way off but the gut she doesnt lie
Dave
Dan, you legend. Fucken well said, squire.
Thegiven
I deal with this all the time.
Offer me renumeration and I will probably do it for free, expect it for free and I will never do anything for you ever again.
Simon
Whats that sound playing in the backgroung..?
6000
Will blog for beer.
nash
Beer is money.
Johann [10and5]
Interesting point from a 10and5 perspective. As a “showcase” blog, if the work is good we are obliged to post it. That’s been our promise from day 1.
That being said though, running a blog of our size and with the amount of updates we have means we have hard costs to cover – salaries (for full time staffers, server costs etc). We’ll gladly feature your campaigns, but it would be nice if brands would consider us as part of their paid for media plan also. Without it the blog can’t be sustained and will eventually have to closed down and then everyone loses…
Having looked at the Prism award entries – some of the bigger PR agencies give a media value per post on the above mentioned blogs at between R10k-R15k. Of which the blogs get exactly R0…
Also, would have been nice if they at least got our name right.
nash
Thanks for the comment dude.
B&N (and I’m sure all the others) works in much the same way – I could never expect to put a value on every single post, nothing works like that, but to you’re point, it’s impossible to sustain forever, for free.
As to your ‘value per post’ point – having worked on both sides of this, it seems like agencies use that as an argument for more budget from client, which they then end up keeping.
BlindCripple
It’s the same for photographers these days. Many of the smaller guys, (myself included), do a lot of free work for various reasons, but exploiting these reasons and freebies is just killing it.
mspr1nt
There was an interesting post about bloggers and doing work for free a while ago – it was related to footie bloggers, but still relevant to you and others.
The gist of it was that, as soon as people start doing shit for free, they start creating the ‘market price’ for the value of bloggers. Yes, it’s all good and well to be asked by an online publication to write for them (for free) with the lure of exposure, etc, but it sets a negative precedent in market and it makes it extremely difficult for bloggers to get the reward they deserve.
Will see if I can find it for you. Will tie in nicely with this.
Claire
I’m a PR consultant and while I do understand your point – know your audience and the media you are intending to contact – there is one vital difference (at the very least) between PR and Marketing/Advertising. A Press Release shouldn’t be aimed at purely selling a product or service at all actually, and I’d certainly never try to get the, say, Sunday Times, to print a half page ad for free I may certainly submit a well-drafted press release on an industry trend, showcasing a client as an leader with the expectation it would be printed for free if deemed suitably newsworthy. A fundamental difference between marketing and PR. The problem is bad PR people giving the rest of us a bad name!
Andy [Mahala]
Name and shame Dan
Johann [10and5]
+1
Andre Pentz
Well said!
I’m actually shocked that there are still agencies out there thinking like that in this day and age.
Grow up people and start engaging with respect and understanding of the mediums you are using for a campaign.
A
Stacky
You right there is a problem and they all nausing me! That said, there is a BIGGER problem… Where the hell is MCBN on that list! HAHAHAHA!
I have started saying no alot more and beginning to say, ‘does my mate Rupert do it for free’ No he doesnt, and if he did, would he have a $100million yacht!
Anyway… Nice post bro, see you soon for some more free shit! HAHAHAHA!
Claire
Really the bottem line is what exactly you were being asked to do. Media attracts their readers/listeners/viewers by their editorial content. And they make their money through the advertising – which is sold based on the readership/listeners/viewers. So…it’s a catch 22. Editorial content for any media is generally not paid for. Advertising is.
Simon (2OV)
“will want money”
I love beginning the new year with a wry smile.
Ant, your comment above re: “creating the market price for bloggers” is the same of all freelance professions, which is why semi-unionised lobby groups like SAFREA have sprung up. As a freelance writer dependent on (timely) payment for your work, don’t let douchebags in your field of expertise get away with undermining the value of what you do. And believe me, just like internship, unpaid “exposure” only has real value for a limited time. If you really can’t reason with people who demand work for free, or willingly give work away for free consistently, your strongest resort is to always produce better writing/photography/bead ornaments than they do.
Again, I’m commenting with specific reference to mspr1nt’s comment.
Shot, Dan.
SS
Giuseppe one small seed
Would love to know who that was, cause nobody gets anything for free from our side. At least not till I am still breathing
Anyway, nice piece DAN.!!
Broke Billionaire
I’m not surprised as I often get approached by these type of marketers/PR people who want you to blog for free.
Most of the time I’m willing to do it for free but I wouldn’t mind getting paid every now and then.
Great post Nash
Bloggers are people too.
Sarah Claire
Well said Mr Dan Nash. Product doesn’t digest well.
Brendan
Many agencies don’t have extra budget after spending three million rand on a TV advert no one remembers because they PVRed past it.
Cut them some slack – they just don’t have the money, man.
Kreg
Well then they should relook their budgets mate and possibly look at moving some of their TV budgets to online spend? Would make more sense!!
Seth
Nice one Dan – give it to them! Popping this on the morning spice
Adam Lifshitz (NoBucks)
It’s about time someone spoke up, and this was a perfect trigger to do so. Well done Dan
I think that a major contributing factor to this ‘free’ treatment lies in how blogs are perceived by some brands and readers alike.
Many only merely experience the forefront of our operations yet rarely take the time to consider the amount of effort, time and dedication that goes into running these blogs. What to them may seem as a hobby or a thing on the side is considered to be far more than just that on ours.
I’m not naive though, for I have learnt of this ‘blogsphere’ and joined it knowingly that it is difficult to produce financial fruits and I have accepted such, for it still remains a successful platform to reach out with.
Yet it is the assumptions that kill me ; that people assume that these services come freely, with almost absolute certainty, in essence undermining the value of our skills and talents.
Just my 2 cents.
Henno Kruger
Awesome post Nash
Uno [10and5]
I think this once again highlights the need for some sort of publisher representative group that works in favour of micro-publishers.
We can all attest to the fact that we are pretty damn serious about our “blogging”. I actually get a little bit offended when we are lumped into the blogging category – we see ourselves (and all the other sites on that list) to be micro-publishers. We have editorial staff, a content schedule, a rate card and a whole host of other things that clearly differentiate ourselves from what is traditionally understood as blogging. Do you see News24 as a blog? What differentiates them?
You guys all know about the efforts that we’ve tried amongst ourselves to form some sort of representative body and I think it might just be time to get that off the ground properly.
I don’t believe the DMMA will ever be that for us (Andy – you can write us a piece on the structural hegemony and inequality inherent in the online publishing landscape), we need to do that ourselves.
oh yeah – if you misspelt our name in every possible way, you aren’t going to get far!
Kreg
Well said bro!
griffin
You should know when to tell agencies to fuck off or just ignore them. I hate it when stuff arrives by post or courier and I’m being asked to post something about it afterwards.
Luckily guilt trips don’t work on me. Money talks. Most of them are waking up, though.
wotalotigot
@uno Agreed, you guys are publishers just like news24 or the Sunday Times. It doesn’t matter whether it’s print, online or broadcast you only need to print what you consider to be valuable/right for your readers.
I also agree with @Claire, if someone sends you a great story, and a brand happens to be attached to it – it’s your prerogative to publish it or not – if it’s super relevant to your audience, chances are you will publish it without expecting remuneration. The problem is most PRs in SA don’t understand this and will expect editorial coverage for a blatant product release with no editorial value whatsoever.
Marky Mark
Well said Dawg… I schmaak
gareth
Hi
If there are sa bloggers out there who have an asian audience drop me a line as we are not looking to do any trade exchanges but the age old concept of “paying for a service” let me know
Captain Kai
It’s amazing how backward and antiquated our corporate market is. Even most of the top agencies still don’t realize the power and value of blogging. For that matter the web as a whole. Viral video still goes over most of their heads. Great point Nash! Lets hope the money bags were listening.
(I have this horrible intuition I know who sent that message.)
cathy
Great post. I look forward to more in 2012!
Seagram Pearce
Man, this is the photography market every single day. Because we work in a digital world, the perceived value of the end product has taken a major nose dive. As you say, yes there are times that one might do work for free, most of the time it needs to be a mutual respect that everyone here is needing to make their living. You can’t pay rent with eternal promises of “exposure” and “you can use it for your portfolio” crap.
I’ve been trying to convince more full time freelance photographers like myself to start taking a stand and just saying no to being exploited. I certainly hope people in every sector of freelance/operation applies the same rule. Only then will digital media be taken seriously.
amymaybe
sigh. that’s embarrassing. what used to really grate me in my old job is when directors/line managers made poor pr execs like myself ‘follow up’ with media and bloggers. In some cases, and always with bloggers, I just wouldn’t do it. PR’s should know when they are crossing the line. Common sense people. its about building relationships, and with an attitude like that, there will be no relationship at all. respect and good content goes a long way.
Randy
Is that not Poppa Trunks’ colours on the slide?
nash
The colours have been changed from the original.