CNN Guerrillas in the Midst: A Viral Marketing Campaign Exposed

Update: Response to the UK Inquirer

This is CNN: the only major news network using your blog for an experimental guerrilla marketing campaign. [updated 4/28]

Last week, CNN appeared to be attempting an unusual marketing campaign in the blogosphere. The two day campaign combined blackhat search engine optimization techniques, viral marketing tactics, and guerrilla comment spam. Unlike the majority of comment spam, this spam only targeted mid-level blogs that discussed CNN. So far, 14 separate instances of the spam have been found. Most alarmingly, the spammers may have also left malicious keywords in 4 out of 14 of the targeted posts; its suspected the intent was to use google's keyword stuffing detectors to censor them. CNN's Christa Robinson denied their involvement, "CNN is not responsible for this or any other guerrilla spam campaign. This is simply untrue."

However, these findings are part of a much larger and more important story: CNN is gambling that they can use the blogosphere to gain a competitive advantage over their seemingly invincible arch rival Fox News[5]. Regarless of whether this was CNN or a smear artist, allowing these guerrilla marketing campaigns to continue could result in our blogs -- leftwing and rightwing alike -- to become the battlefield in ratings war between two of the largest media giants.

Some people feel that the comment spams were mere PR, and nothing to worry about. Others, like myself, believe that we must do our best to avoid a world where we constantly have to second guess whether or not we are talking to PR spam, or a human being. In the end it’s up to each of us to decide how far we're willing to go to defend the blogosphere from marketing imposters.

The Evidence

This investigation started four days ago when I received notification that someone had commented on a two-week old post I had written titled “CNN: Televisions Great Orifice. Now, I've always had this nasty habit called "reading critically". As a result, I always read a comment with the question, "why, exactly, are they telling me this?" Because I ask myself those sort of questions, its no suprise that the comment immediately struck me as odd. The commenter appeared to agree with my opinion, “Their new format is shameful..." But then surprised me by asking, “Have any of you seen Headline News Prime Time or Showbiz Tonight?" I thought to myself, “did you not just read me compare watching CNN to giving myself a chemical burn on the back of my thigh?”

They went on to explain, “Basically, rather than having real news, during the nights and I think even sometimes during the day, they have this format that focuses on entertainment news and gossip. It is awful...worse than FoxNews...Actually it is more like The Enquirer meets Fox News." It was then that I got really suspicious. This rant happened to be describing something very marketable.

Then, they concluded with a dare: “Please, if you have not yet seen prime time tonight...check it out tonight. It is usually on later in the evening. After you have seen this garbage, try telling me that I am wrong."

Conviently, they left me article (I call it a press release [See Spam 1]) about CNN primetime live. The press release was kind enough to contain the dates, times, and anchors for all of their shows. Now, had the guerrilla left it at that, I probably wouldn’t be exposing this story right now.

However, unfortunately for them, under the article they left a block of repeated keywords, “CNN”, “Blogs”, “Headline News”[see note #3]. Having literally grown up on the Internet, I knew immediately what I was looking at: it was an old search engine optimization tactic called “keyword stuffing”. . At one time (late 1990’s) people figured out that they could stuff a page with keywords, and the search engines would rank their pages as more relevant. However, all search engines now have filters to detect this strategy. When search engines detect keyword stuffing, they respond by punishing the page. Usually, the punishment comes in the form of a heavy penalty on the pagerank, or – in some cases – removing the page entirely from their index.[2] In effect, whoever left the spam clearly wanted the title of my page, “CNN: Televisions Great Orifice” off of the first hundred results for the google search “CNN Blogs”[7]. I immediately deleted the comment, and decided that this deserved a thorough investigation.

I went through the logs for the page, and made a few important discoveries:

• The commenter had found my page through a google search for “CNN Blogs” (my page was ranked at 131).
• They spent approximently 1 minute at my page.
• They had never visited my blog before, and have not returned since

Unfortunately, the commenter’s IP address could not be connected to CNN, so I had basically nothing. Not surprisingly, CNN appeared to have hired a contractor whose IP address couldn’t be traced back to them. At the time, I hadn’t found any other posts with the spam, so I decided to set a trap. My guess was that if CNN was smart enough to use guerrilla & viral marketing tactics, they’d also be search savy enough to use technorati to monitor it (just in case someone unmasked their campaign). I posted a blog post with the words “CNN” and “Spam” in the title, and sure enough the next morning I got 13 hits from a technorati search for “CNN” and “Spam”. The IP address, which traces back to Astoria, New York (Basically New York City) has repeatedly returned since Monday morning, and usually through any posts that decided to pick up my initial investigation. This provided me with enough confidence that I decided to move the investigation to the next level.

Using Pluck, I setup four perches to watch for any changes in the results returned for the following searches: “CNN Blogs”, “Blogs Nancy grace”, “CNN headline news blogs”, and “CNN primetime blogs”. At first, I found nothing. It wasn’t until 8PM on Monday that I found my first additional case of the suspected spam. It was found at Stupid, Evil, Bastard’s blog [12]. It contained the malicious search terms. Within an hour, two additional cases of the spam popped up. However, the spam I found here was the last case that I’ve found that contained the malicious search terms. I suspect any of the pages that I hadn’t found in time have been knocked off of google’s index.

Since my initial finds, I have found 14 examples and multiple variations of this spam. So far I have not verified any spam that has been left since april 19th at 7:00PM. This may be evidence of CNN halting as a result of their cover being blown. Below, I have listed every address that I’ve found that contains the spam. Note that some of the sites deleted the spam after receiving trafiic from my previous investigation.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• 11
• 12
• 13

The Background

I got an opprotunity to speak with a few former CNN employees about this story. Many of them were very skeptical of that CNN even cares about blogs, or is creative and technically savvy enough to carry something like this out. While I respect their experience, their skepticism is not based in fact.

Does CNN has the ability to carry out targeted spamming campaigns? Yes. In fact, they already have carried out similar campaigns, and my source is no less than “the paper of record”[3].

Why would CNN care about blogs? Well, first of all I cite that prior to Jordan’s ousting, Jon Stewart’s appearence on Crossfire. Indeed few events could have made a clearer argument to CNN that they are at the mercy of the blogs. Consider this: according to the ratings, the now famous episode of Crossfire only reached about 400,000 viewers via cable. However, the online video of Stuart’s reached an estimated 5 million people [4] – and there was nothing CNN could do to stop it. Re-read that statistic and ask yourself, “Is it likely that CNN understands the power of weblogs?”

Many people have asked me "Why would CNN try to use keyword stuffing to censor posts that are critical? Who cares what the blogosphere is saying?" Well, as David Dunne, the director of world's largest independent PR firm explained, "Search is inextricably tied to your reputation," Dunne reminds, "Your audiences seek answers in search engines, where your messages are competing with those of NGOs, class action firms, and special interest groups." Dunne went on to emphasize that good web PR must be unified, and managing your companies reputation on Google is among the most important strategies. Dunne recommends, "You need to listen, identify trends, and watch communications around a brand to gain insight and the opportunity to respond on multiple levels."[7]

CNN is in the process of a major transformation that began when Eason Jordan resigned. And for the record, I thought those who attacked Jordan behaved like a lynch mob; and I consider his ousting to not be a success for the blogosphere, but rather a mark of shame. That said, CNN’s new management is a bit more open to accepting that blogs are powerful, and here to stay. Indeed, their new CEO, I think, is taking that realization one step further. I cannot emphasize how impressed I am, as much as I despise their tactics. This guerrilla marketing campaign is evidence that not only is CNN serious about using blogs to their advantage, but that they are thinking about the nature of the blogosphere on a very sophisticated level. Their competitors have not tried any strategy that comes close to topping this one.

The Strategy

The people who are behind this guerrilla marketing scheme made a number of good assumptions. Number one, they assumed that most bloggers would absolutely hate Nancy Grace, and CNN Prime Time. Indeed, CNN Prime Time is intended to steal loyal Fox viewers, and after watching it, I must say that they’ve outfoxed the Fox in terms of stupidity and lack of respect to their responsibility to the public discourse. In their defense, however, I also acknowledge that bloggers represent a very sophisticated, well educated, and -- above all – small demography; one which isn’t worth targeting in the cut throat world of cable news. So this is how I imagine the conversation going at the CNN meeting that devised this strategy:

Marketer one: We know that cannot remain competitive in the cable news market if we create content that fits expectations of the blogger demography [8]. Yet the blogosphere is full of influentials, and we know that once they a hold of something controversial, they are capable of creating a giant buzz… Now, how can we use the blogosphere to create a buzz that will give us a distinct competitive advantage over our competitors?

Marketer two: I have an idea! Okay, bloggers like talking about the news… especially when there is something to criticize… and we know they’ll absolutely hate CNN Prime Time, are you following me?

Marketer one: Well, you’ve restated the obvious…

Marketer two: So, instead of trying to reach the small number of bloggers who will be motivated to say good things about us, why not – like water – take the easiest path, and encourage them to criticize CNN Prime Time, and in the process help us create a buzz about CNN prime time?

Marketer one: And how exactly do you plan to do that?

Marketer two: Well, we only have one way to communicate with bloggers, and that’s there comment section. Obviously, we can’t just drop a comment that talks about CNN anywhere… that would make them suspect something. We’ll have to purposefully seek out posts that talk about CNN, so our comment blends in and appears on topic. So, once we find a post (preferably, a post that is critical of CNN), we leave a little message that, first of all, butters them up by agreeing with them… and lets be real, we do agree with them. But more importantly, our message should tell them about CNN primetime, how awful it is, and drops some names and times of shows that we know they’ll really hate. They won’t suspect us because unlike the spam they are used to, our spam will be on subject. Not to mention, its counter-intuitive to think that CNN marketers would talk shit about CNN.

So, we’ll be giving the bloggers something they want: a new CNN show to criticize, and to condemn, and we’ll be creating a buzz that – if we’re successful – will catch the attention of the fox audience that -- although they’d like to think differently -- wants gossip and trash. I doubt the bloggers would ever realize that they are advertising for us by telling the truth about our shows: lowbrow, trashy, gossipy, and utterly tasteless… most of them probably haven’t done the research to know that those shows get the highest ratings!

(laughter)

Marketer one: I like the way your thinking. You’ve taken a catch 22 and found a creative, cost-effective solution that none of our competitors will ever catch… just one thing….

Marketer two: What’s that?

Marketer one: You know how we’ve been doing all of that blackhat search engine optimization to improve our google rankings? Why don’t you go ahead and knock off a few of the blog posts that say the worst things about us. You know, its one thing to not like our shows, but when the opinion is “Don’t even watch CNN; it isn’t even worth flipping on the tube for”… what you say we try to make those posts “disappear”. Our research shows that google is now a very powerful influence on customer impressions[7].

Marketer two: no problem, let’s start this campaign with mid level bloggers that are probably read by the a-listers. If we can get the mid-level bloggers talking, we can expect the a-listers to catch on and start talking about it too…

Marketer one: Do you think we’ll get caught?

Marketer two: Not in less our blogger friends are aware of guerrilla marketing tactics… Plus, I doubt any of them could actually uncover our campaign. They’d have to have the same understanding of how to maintain total information awareness on the Internet. We’ve hired a team of professionals to do that, I doubt a little blogger could do that kind of work. Let’s give it a shot and see what happens.

***

Notes and References

I can be contacted through e-mail: netpolitik(at-the)hotmail[dot it]com or AIM screen name: NickLewisATX

1. Blogpulse Buzz Index for major new networks

Note that the viral marketing campaign appears to have begun on April 17th and apparently ended the evening of April the 19th.

2. "Search engines rank pages by varying formulas that are supposed to figure out which pages are the most relevant for the search at hand. Most of today's engines have what we in the SEO world call "filters." Use any particular keyword or phrase too many times or in too many places, and you'll very likely trip one of the filters designed to catch this." [source: http://www.searchengineguide.com/whalen/2005/0222_jw1.html]

3. (see note 7 as well) The Toxic Keywords found here: http://www.thesakeofargument.com/archives/001084.html | http://stupidevilbastard.com/index/seb/comments/5143/#c30100 |

4. "CNN's public information division sent an unsolicited e-mail message to many of those who were writing about the controversy. Someone at CNN apparently posted the same statement on several blogs. The message, which was unsigned, read: "Many blogs have taken Mr. Jordan's remarks out of context. Eason Jordan does not believe the U.S. military is trying to kill journalists. Mr. Jordan simply pointed out the facts: While the majority of journalists killed in Iraq have been slain at the hands of insurgents, the Pentagon has also noted that the U.S. military on occasion has killed people who turned out to be journalists. The Pentagon has apologized for those actions. Christa Robinson, senior vice president for public relations for CNN, said that CNN sent the statement to those who sent e-mail messages to CNN or had written about Mr. Jordan online. Asked if the network was consciously seeking to head off the protracted criticism that devoured Mr. Rather last fall, Ms. Robinson said that the network was acknowledging the speed with which news now travels." -[Source NYTIMES]

5. “That episode got, what, 400,000 viewers maybe on big old powerful CNN?” says Jeff Jarvis, president of Advance.net, the online arm of Advance Publications, and author of the media blog BuzzMachine.com. “Well that same segment was copied onto the Internet, where it got at least 5 million views. So what’s more powerful, the network CNN owns or the network no one owns? So now suddenly the distribution is exploded. Now on the Internet we can all swim in the same pool as content created by, you know, Universal or Disney. The tools are cheap and easy.” [Source:Jeff Jarvis]

6. "What it comes down to is that CNN is trying something -- anything -- to help it create a buzz. The Time Warner (TWX: news, chart, profile) unit, in its never-ending quest to establish an identity that will enable the network to topple arch-rival Fox News (FOX: news, chart, profile) , is betting that enough people will gravitate to the new show. Make that enough young people... CNN recognizes the growing power of the blogs in helping to shape the news and influence public opinion. "We know we have to be really careful," Bohrman says. "If you don't treat the blogs with respect and take them seriously, the big potential is that we could be devastated by the blogs. The bloggers are out there to comment and criticize everything." - [Source: Jon Friedman: MarketWatch]

7. ""Search is inextricably tied to your reputation," said David Dunne, general manager and director of worldwide operations for interactive at Edelman, the largest independent public relations firm. "Your audiences seek answers in search engines, where your messages are competing with those of NGOs, class action firms, and special interest groups." Dunne said that an entire Web-presence strategy is key, not tactics in isolation. "You need to listen, identify trends, and watch communications around a brand to gain insight and the opportunity to respond on multiple levels." "- [Source: Search Insider]

8. "We estimate that Online Political Citizens comprise about 7% of the population. Normally, 10% of Americans qualify as Influentials. Our study found that 69% of Online Political Citizens are Influentials. Online Political Citizens are twice as likely as members of the general public to have a college degree; they have higher incomes, are slightly younger, and are more likely to be white, single and male." [ Source: Political Influentials Online in the 2004 Presidential Campaign | GWUniversity ]

Note: According to the report, an Online Political Citizen can be defined as anyone who has (1) visited or posted comments on a political Web log, and (2) visited a news Web site for news about politics and campaigns.

9. See Also: Full Notes from Investigation.

10. If this was CNN, they can go to hell.

11. The CNN Link Farm

12. After becoming aware of the spam, Stupid Evil Bastard Deleted it. However, a converstion still exists that verifies the existence of the spam.

Variations of CNN Guerrila spam

Number 1

I used to be the biggest fan of CNN Headline News. It WAS great. I used to tune in a couple of times a day…at least before they butchered the show. Their new format is shameful. Have any of you seen Headline News Prime Time or Showbiz Tonight? No these are not new CNN channels, they have turned CNN Headline News into a gossip news station at night…it is just awful.

Basically, rather than having real news, during the nights and I think even sometimes during the day, they have this format that focuses on entertainment news and gossip. It is awful...worse than FoxNews...Actually it is more like The Enquirer meets Fox News

I refuse to watch this garbage. They even constantly have on NANCY GRACE (talk about trashy, she is the queen of trash) on to chit-chat about all of the Hollywood trials and everything else that you would read in a Hollywood Gossip column.

This is the opposite of real news. Remember the economy, politics, international affairs? Didn’t Headline News used to focus 95% on real news on only about 95% on fluff. How could they think that now people will tune in CNN to see only 5% real news and the rest gossip.

Please, if you have not yet seen prime time tonight...check it out tonight. It is usually on later in the evening. After you have seen this garbage, try telling me that I am wrong.

============================================================

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Headline News gets a new look

By David Bauder / Associated Press

For a network that has built its reputation on predictability, CNN Headline News underwent some dramatic changes on Monday.

The network debuted a new prime-time lineup that dispenses with its usual continuous "wheel" of news. Like all-news radio stations, Headline News has run half-hour newscasts throughout the day and evening for its entire 23-year history.

The new lineup includes an hour-long entertainment program, a legal talk show with Nancy Grace as host and an hour-long newscast at 9 p.m.

Translation: Headline News' ratings sag during the evening. But the network is pleased with daytime ratings, and that format is remaining the same.

Grace's show, at 8 p.m., is the highest-profile launch. The former prosecutor is a frequent substitute for Larry King on CNN, and the new schedule allows her to continue this and not compete with King.

Karyn Bryant and A.J. Hammer are the hosts of "Showbiz Tonight" at 7 p.m., the hour many of the syndicated entertainment programs air. Following Grace is a traditional newscast, with Mike Galanos and Erica Hill. The timing is designed to not compete with newscasts on CNN.

CNN Headline News also revamped its onscreen look, making pictures the dominant element on the screen.

[this part of the comment omitted to avoid punishment by google]

Number 2

CNN Headline News Ruins its own Brand Image - NANCY GRACE...Are you kidding me?

I used to be the biggest fan of CNN Headline News. It WAS great. I used to tune in a couple of times a night…at least before they butchered the show.

Their new format is shameful. Have any of you seen Headline News Prime Time or Showbiz Tonight?

No these are not new CNN channels, instead they have turned a once respectable CNN Headline News into a pretty much gossip news station at night…it is just awful.

Basically, rather than having real news, they have this night-time format that focuses on entertainment news and gossip. It is awful...worse than FoxNews...Actually it is more like The Enquirer meets FoxNews.

I refuse to watch this garbage. They have even given NANCY GRACE (talk about trashy, she is the queen of trash) a legal show to ramble on about Hollywood trials and everything else that you would read in a Hollywood Gossip column. She is about as news worthy as page 6 in the New York Post.

This is the opposite of real news. Remember when CNN Headline News focused on the economy, politics and international affairs? This was when they used to focus 95% on real news on only about 5% on fluff. How can they think that people will now tune in to CNN to see only 5% real news and the rest gossip about entertainment or celebrity trials.

And what in the World were they thinking of giving Nancy Grace her own hour long show. There are so many great anchors at CNN and they give Nancy Grace a show straight out of Court TV or the Enquirer or the Gossip Channel or wherever she crawled out of.

CNN Headline News used to be a channel that I could see being left on in the press room of the White House, but you think they would leave it on this channel now...hell no people would think they were watching Entertainment Tonight.

Please, if you have not yet seen prime time tonight...check it out tonight. It is usually on later in the evening. After you have seen this garbage, try telling me that I am wrong.

The fact that Larry King has Nancy Grace on his show and that CNN Headline News gave her an hour-lonng show has really tarnished the CNN brand image for me.