Pepsi and ScienceBlogs – When a corporate sponsorship backfires

A bit of a blowup occurred this week over on ScienceBlogs.com, a generally very high quality collection of blogs on a range of scientific topics. The blowup was a major brand – PepsiCo – attempting to inject itself into the ScienceBlogs community via a sponsored blog.

The problem was one of trust and integrity. The trust the loyal community of readers and independent bloggers had in the overall integrity of the ScienceBlogs community, and how that appeared to be seriously violated by Pepsi and the community’s leadership. Food Frontiers, the offending corporate blog, purported to be on healthy eating topics but created and run by a soft drinks company, was given a home within the ScienceBlogs community.

A revolt among the site’s usual bloggers ensued:

The offending blog, which has already been operating for some time on the PepsiCo website, greatly diminishes the credibility of ScienceBlogs by providing a corporation with a platform to advertise to readers without actually calling it advertising. A newspaper or magazine would not allow PepsiCo to write articles about global health or nutrition – there is a very clear conflict of interest there – so I am absolutely dumbfounded as to why the SEED management team thought it acceptable to give the corporation space here. If PepsiCo wants to have their R&D scientists blog on their own site, that’s fine, but in moving Food Frontiers to ScienceBlogs, the company is trying to trade in on the reputation I and other Sb bloggers have built while simultaneously tarnishing that reputation...

For more on this controversy, see these posts from PalMD, Abel, Isis, Janet, Zuska, Blake, Christie, Sharon, Jason, Greg, Orac, PZ, Mark, and GrrlScientist, as well as the notes from James H., Alex Wild, Scicurious.

So what went wrong for Pepsi? As the ScienceBlog leadership notes in their “apology” post linked above, “Although we (and many of you) believe strongly in the need to engage industry in pursuit of science-driven social change, this was clearly not the right way.”

Pepsi, and even the ScienceBlog community leadership, didn’t seem to have a firm grasp of the nature of the community on their own site, and completely misjudged how receptive they would be to a corporate sponsorship of this particular nature. A community is not like any old content site, it’s not just a collection of blogs and forums pushing content out to passive readers. Very often a strong community is full of advocates who will passionately defend the nature and integrity of the community, and anyone seen as attempting to mess with it, or shove themselves in uninvited, will be received less than warmly.

The lessons to be drawn form this for Pepsi and others?

Do your homework, and get to know the community

The #1 lesson for any company attempting to ingratiate themselves with or even sponsor a strong, thriving, and clearly passionate and opinionated community. You simply have to do your homework, spend some time reading, talk to some of the community members and generally get a solid understanding for the tone of the community and how it reacts to outsiders, corporations, and so on. Perhaps Pepsi did this, or more likely they relied on the opinion of the ScienceBlog leadership (which as noted apparently didn’t have a solid grasp of their own community’s likely reaction).

Engage the community, become part of it, don’t just buy your way in

A community of serious science enthusiasts likely would have been at least moderately receptive to a company attempting to engage in open, honest, rigorous and humble conversation within the existing structure of the site. A well versed brand, even with a touchy reputation, engaging like this, might have been able to develop real trust or at least a touch of respect for a willingness to be part of the community. Buying your way in, and in a manner viewed as attempting to hijack the integrity of the community to legitimize your own brand…not quite the right tactic.

Basically, approach established online communities like you would any large, thriving, well-connected group of friends or colleagues you might be introduced to offline. Don’t just barge your way in, or start bragging to the world you’re a part of the group without bothering to actually *become* a part of it in the first place. It’s a sure fire recipe for backlash.

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