I wrote last month that brands deploying user-generated content need to learn to let go. McDonald's would probably claim to have done so with its 'mclovers' fan site in the US. This initiative involves asking you to visit McDonald's, take some pictures and upload them, together with an account of your in-store experience.
Two immediate questions arise: why would I do this? And, if my experience is bad, are you really going to publish it?
McDonald's site (www.creamaid.com/mclovers.html) wastes no time in giving the answers. 'Earn $10 by blogging about your McDonald's experience,' reads the headline copy, before explaining 'We just want your snapshots you took at McDonald's and a post about it. We don't want you to write nice words about McDonald's.'
So let's get this straight: McDonald's is paying everyone who contributes to the site $10? And they'll still cough up if that contribution isn't 'nice'?
Hmm. There were 70 posts when I visited in early January and I couldn't find a single one containing a hint of criticism. Maybe I missed one, but I was hard pushed to find anything that didn't contain outright praise. Titles like 'An awesome trip to McDonald's' abound. Well, you might argue that it's a fan site after all. If people want to post about the lovely time they had eating tasty McDonald's food, surely that's no bad thing for the brand?
Maybe. But, it's no good thing either. By paying people - and even the site seems to acknowledge that payment is the sole reason for contributing - McDonald's is inviting trouble. It means that none of these posts are real. They are all, in effect, competition entries or, to be really unkind, begging letters. They would not have been written for any other reason or in any other context.
As I wrote last month, the value of user-generated content lies not in the number of contributors, but in the number of people who find their contributions to be engaging. The McDonald's content simply fails on this count. Whatever its intentions, it is an exercise in getting McDonald's advocates (or hard-up bloggers prepared to masquerade as McDonald's advocates) to say nice things about McDonald's for money.
But, if no-one else is listening, what's the point?
- John Owen is partner at digital agency Dare and former chairman of the IPA Digital Marketing Group. John.owen@haynet.com.