O no. A big miss on the new GM podcast. Representative excerpt:
“For the dreamer in all of us…(dramatic pause)…this is the 2006 Buick Lucerne.” (cue cheesy music, which sounds a little bit like Apocalyptica)
Ungood. Five minutes of corporate dronology. I much prefer Lutz’s blogging, which sounds human.
UPDATE:
Michael Wiley (GM Communications, Director, New Media) responds:
“Sorry you and Shel did not like the GM podcast. We understand that a press conference is not the ideal format for a podcast but we do have enthusiasts that want to hear these sorts of things. That is why we webcast them as well.
Also, since we’re in new territory, I don’t think there is a template of what is right or wrong, everything is niche oriented and this niche obviously wasn’t for you.
But, we are asking readers of FastLane what it is they would like to hear more of, and through constructive feedback we will hopefully produce something that appeals to you guys. We’re by no means limiting ourselves to press conferences.”
Conversation continues in the comments.
First corporate podcast a bust
It was inevitable that business would figure out the value in podcasting. The ability to deliver audio that would never make it to the radio airwaves, but that consumers can still listen to intheir cars, was bound to be irresistable to business. It …
Sorry you and Shel did not like the GM podcast. We understand that a press conference is not the ideal format for a podcast but we do have enthusiasts that want to hear these sorts of things. That is why we webcast them as well.
Also, since we’re in new territory, I don’t think there is a template of what is right or wrong, everything is niche oriented and this niche obviously wasn’t for you.
But, we are asking readers of FastLane what it is they would like to hear more of, and through constructive feedback we will hopefully produce something that appeals to you guys. We’re by no means limiting ourselves to press conferences.
Michael – Thanks for the thoughtful comment. Some thoughts from one guy’s point-of-view:
1) Expectations kill. And I think that’s what threw me for a loop with the GM podcast. The blogging on Fastlane has been *spot on* so far…real, informative, conversational…all of those things that are helping GM connect at a non-synthetic level with the community. In its nascent form, much of the podcasting that has been done to date embodies those same traits. I had an expectation that the GM podcast was going to have the same feel. I wasn’t expecting a scripted spiel. When what was coming out of the speakers was so antithetical to what I was reading on the screen, those expectations were not met. Hence the disappointment. As much an issue on this side as on GM’s…my expectations had been so elevated by the past commentary on Fastlane, that when those expectations weren’t met, it felt like a step backwards.
2) The fact that you guys are embracing and experimenting in this medium is phenomenal. Keep it up.
3) Perhaps a brief marker accompanying the podcasts would be beneficial (“auto show speech,” “Lutz on the road,” “the sound of the new GTO,” etc.) and would help to set those expectations. The current problem with podcasts is their opacity. The more people know about what they’re getting into before they hit “play,” the better.
4) A technical note…having the link to just the podcast feed in the post probably limited its exposure to only the folks who are currently knee-deep in podcasting and have aggregators set up. Putting a link to the MP3 file itself would give much broader coverage (but keeping the link to the feed in the sidebar is spot on).
5) Most importantly — thanks for joining the conversation!
You know, I say big kudos to GM. They’re willing to engage and learn – your point 5 Chris is bang on: they’re in the conversation. Good stuff.
GM in podcasting –or, any large corporation in podcasting for that matter…
Hmmn…. Kinda looks like the time when ol’ Dad put on the gangsta wear and hoodie, and tried to bust a rhyme… ;¬) You had to give him points for trying, but no matter how hard he tried to be hip, it just wasn’t going to fly… What he just didn’t get was that you’ve got to ‘live’ the culture to pull that one off!
I don’t know, but isn’t the primary appeal of podcasting based on the idea that this technology provides an ALTERNATIVE to the over-saturation of our media channels by mega-players? While I applaud the courage and forward vision of the people at GM for giving this a shot, I think we should recognize what is going on here: Evidently, podcasting has popped up on the corporate promoters’ radar screens. This is unfortunate. It means that the “peer-to-peer” potential of podcasting may be hijacked by the corporate agenda before it even gets off the ground. And that can only mean more ultra-slick, corporate/mass-media/big-player control over the information flow, and one less means for us “little guys” to engage in meaningful and truly genuine human communication. :¬(
These are truly interesting times…
— D.
GM Breaks Ground with Podcast…Marketing World Yawns
Hey I like the fact that GM is using the internet frontier of blogging and podcasting. Why shouldn’t a company begin using these new media channels to “talk” to us about what they are doing. I don’t have a GM product, but I thought it was a nice way to tell us about a new product vs. the dry ole corporate press releases we have always seen from companies.
I built one of the internets first radio stations while at Motorola in 1998 when audio on the net was pretty new with the old audionet.com guys. We got a bunch of listeners all over the world.
I do agree the music needs a little work. Course we are a digital entertainment company so we are pretty picky.
MLS