[Note: This post represents the early stages of looking at an online marketing issue. However, it looks like I'll be getting more official response early next week. That won't alter what I've written here because this also documents a changing thought process, something I consider of value even if not everyone else does. In any case, check back next week for more, including some pointers about how such situations can be avoided.]
Until I ran into this thread at hiphop-ads, the fact that the press release for BETUNCUT.NET* discussing the cancellation of BET's uncensored video show BET: Uncut wasn't promoting a BET property totally escaped me. Even though, as folks at hiphop-ads pointed out, there's no BET branding on the site and the idea of doing such a site goes against BET's reasons for cutting the show (not family friendly, etc.). Those big jiggly asses featured in the current home page video of a 50 Cent joint repelled me enough to move on without thinking too much about it since I wasn't planning on writing about it.
But the confusion engendered by the press release for betuncut.net is what threw me off. You'll see that it appears to be announcing the end of BET: Uncut in the headline with the subtitle "Company announces the launch of an online version (BETUNCUT.net)". What isn't told until partway through the release is that the company is V-News Group, which doesn't seem to have a website and, based on the registration info discussed in the above thread, isn't related to BET.
I considered pulling the release at this point but I'm going to leave it up at least temporarily for reference because I think some news sites have posted it as a BET story (some have already removed it, apparently SOHH had it up) and it may now take on a life of it's own.
Plus, I think BET will be ceasing and desisting this one quite soon though they may have some problems tracking these folks down.
I don't know how long the website has been up but currently it's got the top ranking on Google for bet uncut and someone's written it into the BET: Uncut Wikipedia entry which is currently listed as last modified today. [update: site dead, no longer the case]
Looks like someone's up on the future of Internet marketing.
[Apparently this line confused people so I've clarified below.]
Update:
I originally intended to write about this release as an example of what I think of as piggyback marketing (though that term is used widely for a different concept) in which companies use another companies news as a basis for a press release. So famous company cancels show and not so famous company releases a statement of support or whatever. I don't post those at Hip Hop Press unless they include new information about the company doing the press release.
I should also point out that the press release is misleading but not inaccurate as far as I can tell.
Apparently I need to explain myself more fully:
By "Looks like someone's up on the future of Internet marketing", I did not mean only misleading press releases though that is part of this particular package. I mean the whole combination of a misleading press release with limited contact information on a company with no identifiable public presence who has managed to get to the top of the Google rankings and has also gotten themselves in a Wikipedia post and that's without really looking very closely at the situation. I.e., they've got a whole package of shady sh*t going on from what I can tell.
I just didn't want to get that rude about it cause I'm trying to lighten up a bit plus I'm trying not to explain every little detail.
By the way, I've gotten one message back from the pr guy saying that the company has operations in the U.S. and Canada. I'm still trying to get their contact info but my belief is that I will receive an email address and that's it. Given that the domain is registered to entities in Seoul, I currently mistrust everyone involved in this operation. No, not because they may be Korean but because their story doesn't hold together very well if they're trying to appear legitimate.
Is that better?
Update: This may all be quite explainable and I'm hoping to share some more details from Demetrius Denham [see comments for more about who Mr. Denham is]. I got a more detailed followup that actually addresses a variety of concerns but I wanted to make sure he'd seen this post and could give me a more official statement for ProHipHop since we were corresponding via my Hip Hop Press email.
What's funny about all this is I can see it's leading up to a post on how websites are evaluated by information professionals and why it's a good idea to consider such issues when developing a business oriented website. I find that funny because I doubt anyone's expecting something straight out of library school.
[*dead link pulled]
Yup, I pointed out the same things on my blog when I first posted the press release. I think I’ll go ahead and delete the post. I don’t like the idea of fals advertising.
I know the company that put the site up. they are actually out of st.louis. They go by the name of Loosecannon and have a wesite called loosecannontv.com. If you pay atention to the ads on the site they are all for st.louis rappers or east st.louis rappers. it even has thier old site design all they did was slap bet on top.
Definitely piggy back marketing, and is it wrong to gain press this way?
They show up in the top search on BET Uncut because of Google’s key word approach. They only have a few videos up and their Alexa ranking is 1 million and some change. They currently have very little traffic.
Here’s the domain contact info for those who want to contact them:
Jhie Inc.
San 56-1, Sillim-dong
Seoul, 151-742,
SOUTH KOREA
+82 28805114
[email protected]
Chuck Woo
http://www.earwaxrecords.com
http://www.myspace.com/earwaxrecords
http://www.myspace.com/earwaxrecordsgospel
Chuck, you’re not involved with this site are you? I got confused by your info being listed right under the domain info in your post.
I don’t think you are though and I’ll proceed on that basis.
My understanding is that in the marketing industry piggyback marketing is more of a partnership deal. Here’s one discussion that’s nice:
http://www.businessleader.com/bl/jul02/piggybackmarketing.html
What we’re thinking of as piggyback marketing here (it’s the perfect commonsense word for it and maybe it’s used this way as well) is often proposed by marketers as a way for little guys to leverage larger events. I personally don’t like it because of how poorly I’ve seen it implemented in most instances but for many people it’s a legitimate approach.
Considering that even some smart people got taken in and thought it was official BET, it makes me feel like there are some ethical issues with such an approach.
I wrote about it here because the overall picture I’ve gotten from contacting their pr guy (at least, the guy who put this out) just seemed off and as I looked at the situation more, additional questions came up.
Unfortunately I can’t dig any deeper but I’d probably look at the Google thing a bit more closely and try to find out when they actually became BETUNCUT because suddenly being top ranked for terms that show up in a major tv show that’s discussed on well established sites, makes me suspect that they’re doing something shady to achieve that ranking.
But that’s conjecture and simply where I’d go next.
I was checking out the site and just noticed that the discussion board:
http://ddenham.proboards67.com/index.cgi
Is moderated by DDenham:
http://ddenham.proboards67.com/index.cgi?action=viewprofile&user=admin
Interestingly enough, the pr guy I briefly communicated with is named Demetrius Denham who signs his mail D.Denham and has what I assume is a mailbox in California.
Denham wrote me back and said:
“V-News Group is a company that operates online brands in the US and Canada.”
So, the site is registered in Korea, V-News Group exists where?, operates online in the US and Canada, pr guy who seems to be more involved than he’ll admit has his contact address in California and Big Jak is claiming a St. Louis connection.
I wrote Mr. Denham and asked him some more questions about these various aspects but that’s all I can really get into at this point.
Earwax Records has No relation to the Seoul Korea company who owns/registered the domain/operating BETUNCUT, Mr Denham or BET at all.
I learned about BET “piggy back marketing” joint venture mindset when we approached them about doing the 1st Annual Hip Hop Music Awards show in the late 80′s and they told us that they didn’t see a market for it and didn’t want to be affiliated. Our first hosts ironically were going to be Sinbad and Queen Latif. I should add that Inner City Broadcasting who owned the Apollo at that time, didn’t see the concept along with several others who could have helped pull it off. (sorry I digressed.)
I visited the link you suggested and understand what you meant, however like everything, there’s right, wrong and desperate piggy back marketing. What I meant about piggy back marketing, was more about picking up on Internet trends, key word trends, search trends, forecasts and filling a online void/niche with that information. Finding a niche that the big marketing websites are missing and piggy back marketing off of that. Smart marketers have picked up domain names very close to popular domains because they know many people will misspell the domain and they harness that extra traffic. Shame on BET for not thinking far enough to capture domain names of their popular shows that they have on the Network. GoDaddy has domain registration for $8.95.
I don’t know enough about the inner workings and the truth/origination of the Press release and all of the twisting relationships to really say much more about the BET situation. I am saying that you have to be creative to gain consistent traffic on line. Let’s face it, you can have the best website in the world and if you have no traffic, it’s just that . . . a great website. This was all that I was saying and referring to on Piggy Back Marketing.
Because of the Press Release, does that mean that the domain owner has to take the video site down? Does that mean if they take it down that they can’t point the domain elsewhere and redirect the traffic to harness all of the search engine requests?
If Jhie Inc out of Korea is reading this, I am interested in buying the BETUNCUT domain from you for the $8.95. LOL. Earwax has a video network that we can point it to and do some more Hoodrich piggy back marketing.
Thanks.
Clyde, keep up the good work. I love this site! Your Alexa ranking is up on reach and rank which means you are gaining consistent traffic and reach. It’s a battle but you are getting there. Today you are reaching 20 people out of every million persons on line! Few sites can say that. Keep bangin that keyboard Bruh! It will pay off in the end. Earwax Records is watchin U!
Chuck Woo
http://www.earwaxrecords.com
http://www.myspace.com/earwaxrecords
http://www.myspace.com/earwaxrecordsgospel
Chuck, thanks so much for sharing some of your background and digging into the topic.
This point alone is very strong:
“Shame on BET for not thinking far enough to capture domain names of their popular shows that they have on the Network.”
I’m going to do some kind of follow-up on this topic and I’ll be quoting from your comments.
And thanks for the kind words.