Comments on: Pat the Baker campaign on Bebo – An analysis

By: Best thing on sliced bread… at Nothing Ventured…Nothing Gained

Best thing on sliced bread… at Nothing Ventured…Nothing Gained — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:40:59 +0000

[...] 2.0 and there’s been lots of chat on the interweb about it (see Damien Mulley’s post here), but whether good or bad, worth it or not, one thing’s for sure – Web 2.0 was on my [...]

By: The Means are Not the Ends « Peter Tanham

The Means are Not the Ends « Peter Tanham — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:10:25 +0000

[...] behind this post have been inspired by reading the comments and reactions to Damien Mulley’s blog post about the Pat the Baker Bebo campaign. Most of the intial reaction to Damien’s post seems to [...]

By: A Month By Month Forecast Of What 2009 Holds In Store For Digital Media In Ireland - Krishna De: Branding, Personal Branding, Employer Branding, Social Media Marketing, Communications, PR, Online Identity

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:47:38 +0000

[...] Back Story: As amusing a flame war as the online debate surrounding the Pat the Baker Bebo campaign was, the key takeaway to the back and forth for me was [...]

By: Why social media is the oldest industy in the world

Why social media is the oldest industy in the world — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:52:12 +0000

[...] advised how to open a Facebook fan page (its here if you need to know) $10,000 a month to get your bread brand on Bebo and $5000 a month to run your twitter [...]

By: The blog is dead, long live the blog! | Backup Anytime

The blog is dead, long live the blog! | Backup Anytime — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:38:05 +0000

[...] however that this is incorrect. Brendan also discusses the “Pat the baker” example. Damien Mulleywrote a post specifically on Pat the Baker which at the time demonstrated the return on social media [...]

By: Markg

Markg — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:59:23 +0000

Hi all, to follow up on a point raised by Aedan, if Pat the Baker had spent €300,000 to €500,000 on:

* a TV campaign chasing 50 TVRs of the 15 – 24 year old market
* backed up with some strategically placed outdoors ads (b us shelters near universities and schools)
* and pushed with some radio ads

Would we be having this conversation? Probably not. Additionally, how would we know if the money spent was justified?

Without perspective on other media costs, €30,000 seems like a lot of money.

If we were, however, to take TV or press advertising into consideration and work out the cost of 15 – 24 year olds seeing the ad at least once, in either medium, €3.87 for actual interaction of any kind with the brand seems like excellent value versus the
cost of opportunity to see.

By: For Nintendo, Bebo’s metrics mean fuckall : Alexia Golez

For Nintendo, Bebo’s metrics mean fuckall : Alexia Golez — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:31:53 +0000

[...] on Nintendo’s monthly advertising spend too. After all, user comments are metrics or so say Bebo. And hey, if you don’t have that metric to set beside those ROI projection flavours then [...]

By: Eoin O'Mahony

Eoin O'Mahony — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:23:35 +0000

That’s a lot of dough alright.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:34:53 +0000

Two quick points:

@ Philip from bebo: While I can see where you’re coming from, and I do agree that Bebo has preformed exactly what was required of them, you seem to be defending against an argument that was never made. The crux of Damien’s argument seems to be that either this did not result in an increase in sales of bread by €30k-€50k, or that this money could have had a better return on investment if deployed elsewhere. The responses that suggest it was worthwhile because of the number of poems written, skins downloaded etc. is hollow if it’s not backed up by an increase in sales. You can’t put engagement as an item on your cash flow statement!

@ Damien: While I think the points you raise are very valid, and are questions that should always be asked, I wouldn’t be so quick to bash Pat the Baker for this effort. Realistically, €30k isn’t a huge amount of money for a company of that size to spend on a campaign. It also wouldn’t surprise me if (in revenue terms) the campaign broke even. But at least PTB were trying something new. It wasn’t very innovative, I agree, but at least it was something, which is a lot more than can be said for most other Irish firms of that size. It was a foray into a new medium aimed at a new target market, and ineffective as it may have been, I think the real value for the company is in the lessons learned. From reading the excerpt from their statement above, it seems like they used this to test the waters and to try new things, and if they can take the lessons they’ve learned (including your feedback) and use them to build stronger campaigns in future, then that at least should be commended.

By: Aedan

Aedan — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:20:52 +0000

I agree with Damien’s analysis that the cost of definite engagement (views, friends, etc.) for the campaign on Bebo does not seem to deliver good ROI.

But if the aim of the campaign is not just engagement but passive brand views that’s another story. As Philip states above “Bebo has 700k uniques per month each of whom will have seen the Pat The Baker logo on the Homepage”

It seems that this type of passive brand or logo view is also a justification for the cost of the campaign. This strikes me as using the new social media in an “old media” scatter-gun fashion similar to TV or Radio ad. There is no user click or engagement so I presume it can’t be measured in a scientific way.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I thought the whole idea of social networking was engagement ?