Update on Tele Atlas “Forum Marketing”

As I noted earlier in the week, there were some odd posts to a variety of fora by someone working with Tele Atlas, trying to create buzz around a new developer program.

I planned to leave it be until I received an e-mail from a free Yahoo account suggested information on the program would be valuable to my readers. I got on the phone to Tele Atlas and eventually learned that the company had engaged a “Web marketing” firm to try to drum up interest in the program in areas outside the geospatial realm. That was the source of the posts I read and of the e-mail I received. The formal announcement of the program will be on Monday.

It seems it’s very easy for Web marketing to backfire. Recall the mess Autodesk got into when a few select bloggers got permission to begin discussing the new AutoCAD before members of the media…

I do hope companies will take extra care when considering, implementing and evaluating Web marketing.