1Off is a new "guide" site offering both professional and user submitted reviews of the best of the nations urban districts. Want to know where to get the best kebab on a friday night (sw6, New Kings Road in case you were wandering), or who serves the finest Bloody Mary in Norwich (no, I don't know either).
All well and good, but it's also a site dedicated to the fineries of BMW's spanking new 1 Series, which brings me to my main point. I've sat in many a brainstorm where this very thing has been discussed as a means to bring about interaction with consumers outside of the usual banner - microsite - call to action. "We want something Web 2.0" is bandied about, and the natural assumption is to look for user generated content as a means to engagment. But does it work, and is it more effective than sponsorship / community advertising?
Landrover tried the same thing with their "Go Beyond" website, offering a platform for the adventurers amongst us to share our stories of derring do. The problem, however, is that it relies on people to be bothered to engage in these things in the first place, when they may already be talking about them elsewhere, either via their own blog, or on their numerous community pages (myspace / facebook / linked in).
Back to 1off, and it's not bad. These things always rely on critical mass, eg more real people contributing that paid for contributions, and there's certainly many more entries on the site than there was last week. Writers have the opportunity to become "ambassadors", which is a nice idea, but a horrible marketing term let loose in the consumer space. (If I hear one more reference to "brand ambassadors" I think I'll reach for my escape pod pronto).
I'll add to this post later, once I've done a bit more researching into how to successfully tackle integrating community sites into the marketing mix. In the meantime - discuss.
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