As many of you already know, “Who should manage the social media?” is an ongoing discussion among marketers, customer evangelists and public relations professionals. A recent AdWeek article describing how Vitaminwater will be “eavesdropping” on Facebook and Twitter to develop their next product is a classic example of why this is a spirited debate.

 The Vitaminwater Facebook app is a three-part game. My first question: Does the online community have the patience to engage in a three-part exercise to yield a valid data? There’s the opinion about what flavor of water will be most palatable … and then there’s the reality. Will it taste good and be marketable to the mainstream? I won’t even weigh in on how 50 Cent and Carrie Underwood, both seemingly nice celebrities, will make the final decision. I mean, it is “Vitamin” water. Shouldn’t they have at least tried to enlist the help of the Big Brother Doctor, Will Kirby?

 This campaign is getting some nice buzz on both Twitter and Facebook, but how will it ultimately fare? Will it be an interesting campaign like the Mountain Dew labs box this summer or will it be a runaway hit and yield record sales because it was “developed” by customers?

 I  know we have a lot of smart visitors to the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas blog so I want to know what you think. Would you classify Crowdsourcing primarily as research, marketing or public relations?

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 4:21 pm and is filed under Advertising/Marketing, Public Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.