General Mills Taps into Power of “Mommy” Blogs to Promote Products
General Mills, Inc. has reportedly enlisted hundreds of bloggers to receive and review products as part of its MyBlogSpark™ campaign, which sends free samples, coupons and other promotional materials to members in exchange for their feedback. The blog network has apparently registered approximately 900 writers–of whom more than 80 percent are mothers–to expand marketing distribution to an audience purportedly exceeding 8 million readers. One recent set of blog reviews garnered approximately 5 million “total impressions” and 8,000 comments, according to General Mills, which does not purchase ad space on the web pages.
The blogosphere’s growing influence, however, has prompted the Federal Trade Commission to propose regulations that would require bloggers to reveal any affiliations with the product under review. MyBlogSpark has thus encouraged participants to divulge their relationship to General Mills, but also asked bloggers to submit any negative reviews to the program before posting them on the Internet. “We want them to disclose they’re a member,” a General Mills spokesperson was quoted as saying. “We want them to be really upfront.” See AdWeek, April 29, 2009.
