The Abba Effect

At the SXSW How to Build your Brand with Blogs panel, I asked Jim Coudal about the Abba Effect. A few weeks earlier, Jim’s site posted 238 Miles, A long day’s journey out of Iowa and it was blogged everywhere. The resulting crush of visitors, nearly crushed their servers and panicked Jim, but also drove traffic and sales. Just like the Subservient Chicken or I Love Bees, memes can refresh a brand, drive traffic and sales, or be widely criticized like the French Fry blog. While I agree that blogs can communicate brand to niche markets, that’s what our panel was about, McDonalds’ Brand Journalism can’t change the fact that they’re McDonalds. Bloggers promptly pronounced the Fry blog as a a fake blog, instead of “loving it” like they did with the Abba video.