Did Sweeney Todd use PayPerPost for blogger buzz?
Marshall Kirkpatrick mentioned on Twitter the other day that someone who seemed to be part of the Sweeney Todd marketing campaign had contracted with PayPerPost - now operating as Izea - to buy blog mentions for the movie.
As a refresher for those who may not be familiar with PayPerPost, here’s how it works: Bloggers sign up for the service. Advertisers are then able to sign up for the service and pay bloggers through PPP for every mention they put up.
It’s among the more shady practices that have emerged online and has raised the ire of anyone and everyone who’s trying to establish online word-of-mouth best practices. At one point I actually threatened to fire anyone on AdJab who wrote about the service as it was launching.
So anyway, here’s the email as it was forwarded to me by Marshall:
We have an Opportunity in the IZEA Marketplace which needs Postie
Love! This is a great chance to write about someone we all know and
love. It’s fun, it pays twelve bucks. What more do you need?Ever heard of Johnny Depp? You have an Opportunity to write about him. What’s your favorite Depp moment? Edward Scissorhands? Pirates? Letthe world know! Write about your favorite scenes and lines. He hascranked out so many great movies, how do you choose?
Sweeney Todd debuts tomorrow, December 21st. He’s dangerous, he has a cool haircut. What more do you want?
Visit your Dashboard and have a look. Available Posts are limited.
Don’t wait…Johnny’s watching.The IZEA Team
Now as he said to me, there may be some other, completely reasonable explanation for this. If someone’s engaging in this sort of thing without the blessing of Dreamworks/Paramount that’s a huge problem for the studio. If this is an officially sanctioned practice that also is a huge problem for the studio. They need to get out of business with PayPerPost immediately and renounce any past dealings publicly.
I’m willing to give the studio the benefit of the doubt here, but they should address this issue one way or the other soon and definitively. Anyone from Paramount or Dreamworks should feel free to drop me a line and I’d be more than willing to hear what they have to say about this.
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