As reported in the Times Online, a Harvard law student is not only suing Google for breaching email privacy with its social network, Buzz, but is effectively damaging the online giant’s reputation in the process. Uh-oh Google!

Annoyed users of the email service have been posting (and ranting) on Google’s forum, so much so that Google employees are having to intervene, one of which stated ‘we welcome your feedback, but the tone of this thread has gotten completely out of line’ with angry threads popping up frequently, such as ‘Breach of trust and privacy. Get rid of it Google’.

I can imagine it’s been a tough call for Google on how to react to this – on one hand they can’t really boot people off for being annoyed about this issue when it was their fault in the first place. Looks like a bit of a catch 22 for them on how to respond and social media bloggers around the world (including me!) are keen to see how Google will bounce back from this.

However, it does seem that Google have moved quickly to rectify the problem with an apologetic blog post appearing by the product manager, Todd Jackson, for Gmail and Google Buzz, along with a promise to change one of the social network’s features. He said “We’re very sorry for the concern we’ve caused and have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback.” Good approach in my opinion. But, is this enough to restore our faith in Google once more? Time will tell.

Posted by Charlotte Brophy

Just read a really interesting post on the Swamp blog about the recent BMW augmented reality
campaign for the new Z4.   Apart from being a really clever way to get people to interact with the car I was really impressed with BMW for pushing the boundaries yet again.

Obviously technology and design will appeal to BMWs target market and by using an emerging technology like AR, it has helped to extend the buzz beyond the motor press and into the technology, design and creative clusters.  The web is buzzing about the campaign, across everything from news to blogs and video.  This campaign is a classic example that demonstrates how the means of communication can say as much about a brand or product as what you’re saying.

By creating an impressive application of AR they’ve position the brand and the car as innovative, technologically advanced, stylish, aspirational and fun as well as given people plenty to talk about.  BMW is particularly good at innovating in its marketing, one of my favourite campaigns was the short film series it did, especially this from 2002 - ‘Beat the Devil’…Brilliant!

Posted by Deborah Copeland

If a few people discuss your brand’s latest campaign around the office watercooler, perhaps someone two desks down might overhear the conversation.

But the same number of people posting their views on the net (via blogs, forums and uploads) can in theory be ‘overheard’ by everyone with web access worldwide. Not only that, but their views will remain visible online indefinitely.  

Even if your brand’s marketing activity takes place entirely offline, it’s still likely that it will be discussed online.  And the online environment is about as easy to control as a swarm of bees.

Which means that any marketing activity, however routed in traditional media channels it may be, needs to keep a watchful eye on how it is being received by the online community.  Because not all online buzz is positive.

posted by GemmaT