Online Branded Communities

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Welcome back! For my blog assignment this week I was asked to explore an online branded community and evaluate its overall content. Since I’ve never seen or interacted in one before, I decided to research what an online branded community is. I soon found that it is a community formed on the basis of attachment to a product. Through the many entertaining and engaging aspects of the community, marketers stress the connection between their brand and an individual’s identity and culture. I figured, what better website to research than whitegoldiswhitegold.com, a website we discussed in class on Thursday.

At first glance of the website, the last thought to enter my mind was that it was actually an advertisement for milk. Yet after spending some time on the webpage, I found myself surprisingly entertained and wanting a glass of milk! Still a little cynical, I decided to do a little more research. I learned that there are many fun and amusing activities that are available for anyone to partake in. You can take a hot air balloon to outer space, rock an infinite guitar solo, and even snap pictures of White Gold and the Calcium Twins! I spent a while surfing the page, and realized how drawn in I was by it. I thought for a moment—was I actually spending a significant amount of time playing around on a website for milk? Its no wonder that online brand communities are becoming increasingly popular: they entertain their members and advertise products concurrently.

However, whitegoldiswhitegold is not the only online branded community out there. In fact, Burger King has an online branded community based around their chicken crisps. The Subservient Chicken website allows its users to command the chicken to do just about anything while connecting with consumers at the same time. Taking it even one step further, MTV broadcast a reality TV show based around the online branded community GameKillers, an advertisement for axe. It seems that these days, advertisers will stop at nothing to hold their potential consumer’s attention long enough to attempt to sell their product.

Ultimately, I discovered how engaging these online branded communities could be. I definitely spent far more time on this website than I would watching an ad on TV, and I was entertained the entire time. Today’s marketers have revolutionized ads through online branded communities, and provide their consumers with entertainment simultaneously. That’s all for now, see you soon!