24 Sep The “Blog Cabin” – TV meets Social Media
This weekend I was watching some home improvement television. It was one of those ironic Saturdays, spent watching how hard other people are working on their homes while sitting on the couch and gasping at how much money they spent on upgrading appliances. 8,000 for a refrigerator. I’m still too cheap.
Anyway as I was watching, I saw a commercial for “Blog Cabin” from the Do it Yourself Network. From the quick commercial I heard that it was a log cabin that was designed with the blog input from the shows viewers, to actually be built on the network, and to be given away in a sweepstakes. So I decided to check it out today.
Upon review, it’s an interesting connect between traditional media and social media, and it has potential to be a new source for advertisers to really connect to their audience. Below are a few thoughts I had on why I think it works:
1. It consistently fuels conversations. Blog posts are written to get feedback from the audience on the design of the cabin. So far, it seems to have worked by gaining over 4 million votes on the design a number of comments ranging for some posts over 100. By asking the audience for specific feedback on the design of the cabin, Blog Cabin’s viewers are obviously more engaged than me – a viewer who only sits on the couch and absorbs.
2. It reaches an advertiser’s niche audience. This show reaches a niche audience of viewers – the blog is an extra resource and platform for sidebar discussions and recommendations. By placing a “resources” page on the blog, the niche audience looking to build a log cabin can be connected to “Log Homes of The Smokies”
3. It makes me want to go to the Smoky Mountains. I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but the blog posts naturally talk about the beautiful surroundings of the Smoky Mountains that the cabin is built in, and promote the city of Kinzel Springs, TN. Comments by viewers supplement this by talking about their positive experiences visiting the Smokies. Conversations and tie-in’s like this have enormous potential in tourism advertising.
According to the site, this year’s cabin is finished and the sweepstakes are wrapping up. It looks like a 2008 Blog Cabin is in the works, so perhaps the network is also viewing it as a success.
