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For many brands, bloggers are an important and highly influential means of reaching their target audience, but it’s important to recognise that they have to be treated appropriately since a ‘one size fits all’ approach just won’t work.  We recently undertook a hugely effective engagement programme with some important bloggers for a client, which is now being rolled out across other markets, such was its success.

If bloggers are to be included as part of a campaign, it can’t just be a bolt-on exercise.  While they can have as large a readership as a traditional media outlet, their views are often that much more immediate than those of a journalist, whose words are invariably filtered by subeditors and a formal editorial policy.  And, since they’re operating solely in the online space, the potential for their opinions to spread at speed through cyberspace is even greater. All the more reason to get it right!  

Ask yourself questions like: ‘Would this really appeal to them?’, ‘Are we giving them something exclusive or different from what every other blogger receives?’.  Just the same way we think when approaching journalists.

For one of our clients – vente-privee.com who are pioneers of the flash sale concept – we engaged bloggers in a way described by the bloggers themselves as ‘excellent’.  We invited five bloggers handpicked from fashion and lifestyle arena to take part in a top-secret mission by way of a specially-crafted, intriguing mission invitation inviting them to an undercover briefing.  The only information the bloggers knew was that they had to hold a valid passport and be available for one full weekday during the stated fortnight period.

The bloggers arrived on the top floor of London’s iconic landmark, the Gherkin, to be greeted by vente-privee.com’s answer to ‘M’ who presented each with a mission kit.

Designed to look like a spy’s briefing folder, the kit was filled with a variety of fun, creative clues about their bespoke mission and the whereabouts of vente-privee.com HQ.  Also inside was a model of an airplane or train (the mode of transport the blogger would be taking to complete their mission).

Prior to the mission briefing, we gathered as much intelligence as possible about each blogger, including their passions and what would give them a blog scoop.  Each blogger was assigned a VP Buddy with exclusive rights to the vente-privee.com department mirroring their passion.  vente-privee.com’s truly cutting-edge music, photography, motion design, web design and retail departments were all on offer.

Should they choose to accept it, their mission was to visit vente-privee.com’s Parisian headquarters for one day, expose what goes on behind the scenes of their assigned department and its role in producing flash sales of designer brands to a membership base of 13 million across five European countries.

The mission would only be complete when the bloggers posted a link to their live article, which had to be highly creative and visually appealing because they were all competing against each other!  The winning blog post would be awarded a £100 vente-privee.com voucher.

All five bloggers accepted the mission and posted a total of nine feature-length pieces between them.  Not only that, they ran a constant stream of tweets throughout too.  As a result, the activity had a reach of over 850,000 target consumers at a cost of less than £3,000 (disbursements).

The verdict?

“One of the most original events involving bloggers I’ve ever been part of…I loved the way it was delivered like a fun ‘spy’ mission, and how it showed respect to the subject of the individual bloggers.”-  Shini Park, Park & Cube

“I thought the blogger mission was a great idea and showed a good understanding of online content.  So often with blogger events there is a slight lack of comprehension towards blogging and you end up seeing exactly the same content across the blogosphere.  The great thing about the vente-privee trip was that each blogger gained unique coverage which made it more interesting, not to mention exclusive.” – Laura Street, Fab Sugar UK

“Bravo Focus PR.  The vente-privee.com blogger mission was a really great, creative concept that got everyone,  especially the bloggers,  excited.  It was executed seamlessly and worked even better than we’d hoped for.  In fact it’s worked so well, we’re now getting all our European markets to repeat the mission.”- Simona Sacca, PR manager, vente-privee.com

The project was also shortlisted in the Blogger Outreach category of the 2010/11 SABRE Awards.

Mission accomplished.