“Hi, this is Patty PR Rep calling to follow up on that email I sent you last week about hosting a giveaway for us.”

(I didn’t reply to the email and have no idea how she got my cell number)

“What’s the product?” ”

(She describes a product new parents would buy for an infant, something I never used with any of my kids.)

“I’m not sure if you looked at my blog before you called me, but my youngest is 5, so I couldn’t accurately review a baby product. When I do a giveaway, I tell my readers why they should enter to win based on my review of the giveaway product.”

“Oh, we wouldn’t be sending you one to review, we only have enough product for the giveaways.”

“I consider the value of the review product to be my compensation for the hours of work I put into giveaways. If you really want to work with me and my blog, then I’ll require compensation for my time. What’s your budget for that?”

(after a pause) “We don’t compensate our bloggers that way. The product is worth $200 and many bloggers have jumped at the chance to give away such a high value item.” (I did a search for reviews of the product, and found absolutely nothing. Whomever these jumping bloggers are, I can’t find them.)

“Well, I’m sorry Patti, but I’m sure you understand that I don’t work for free. You can email me if you are able to compensate me for my time. I’ll do my best to describe your product in the giveaway post even though I won’t have seen it and have no idea if it works or is worth $200.”

“Um, I’ll ask if we can compensate you. Could you also do a giveaway for some other products? It’s for a very popular brand and I’m sure your readers will want the chance to enter to win them.”

Sigh.

I paraphrased this conversation heavily and changed the names and descriptions because I’m not looking to embarrass anyone specific. Something has GOT to change with the way product reviews work. I know that PR firms get paid by companies to create campaigns for them. Those PR firms contact bloggers, who are then expected to craft marketing campaigns designed to drive traffic, increase SEO, improve Social Media stats, whatever. FOR FREE. Those products that I get for review? The brands don’t really lose money by sending those out, they have a separate budget for editorial samples, from what I’ve been told.

I just thought of a situation where I WOULD work for free, though. There are PR reps that have been so good to me over the years that if they came to me and said “Company X wants to create awareness of their new product by doing a giveaway on your blog, but they don’t have any product to send you or a budget for payment”, and I was a fan of Company X’s products and felt reasonably certain that I could form an opinion about this new product based on my previous experiences, and I knew that the next time I heard from that PR firm, they would have something really great to send me, I would say yes. But I would also state clearly in the giveaway post that I hadn’t personally reviewed the product.

Why can’t I do that in this instance? Because I’ve never heard of the company that Patti PR Rep is representing, never heard of their product, and have never worked with Patti. I have nothing to base any kind of opinion on at all.  If Patti wants to pay me my standard rate for website reviews, I’d be happy to take the time to look at the company’s site, read what users of the product have said, see what pediatricians say about it, and then formulate an opinion. All of that takes my valuable time, time for which I expect to be compensated.

And another thing – I am not a marketing expert, I’m a Mom sitting on her couch. There is no set policy for giveaways. In fact, the PR people only rarely will request something like having the entrants visit the brand website as a requirement for entry. Most of the time, it’s “host the giveaway and we’ll ship the prizes”, and it’s entirely up to me how to proceed. Why is that? Why am I expected to be a marketing whiz? I mean, I kind of am one already or my blog wouldn’t be as popular as it is, but it’s that unspoken expectation. I’m not likely to hear back from a brand if I don’t do a good job.

Do magazines deal with this? Does Allure put out a yearly Best Of issue describing products they never had a chance to personally test? Of course not! Why should I be expected to generate enthusiasm for a product I’ve never touched?  Why do I get shocked silence when I state that I expect to be compensated for my time? Why should I be expected to work for free?

Related articles

• If You Enter My Giveaways, Please Read This Post (momreviews.net)
• Marketing Counterpoint: Why PR Does Help Sales (hubspot.com)
• Stop the PR Madness (marketinginteractions.typepad.com)