Monday, August 10, 2009

GoBid.com Is Blessed by the Gods of Publicity

Local ABC affiliate WPVI in Philadelphia ran a story about GoBid this past week and had nothing but good things to say. The story, which runs about two minutes, profiles what in my opinion is one of the lesser penny auction sites out there in the station's "Saving With 6" segment.

ABC describes GoBid as a site where users can get amazing deals, but where they might spend more than they realize. An ABC reporter talks with who I will assume is a GoBid executive, but I say "assume" because the guy's name and title are never mentioned. The report never even mentions whether or not he works for GoBid.com.

I thought it was interesting that ABC chose to profile GoBid without any mention of other penny auction sites. GoBid is one of dozens of small penny auction sites that cower in the shadow of Swoopo and Bidcactus. Ok, "cower" is a bit of an exaggeration, but they're certainly much smaller than Swoopo and Bidcactus from a traffic perspective.

So why did ABC choose to profile GoBid?

Is GoBid doing something unique that warrants media coverage?
No, they're just like 15-20 other penny auction sites.

Is GoBid from the Philadelphia area, and ABC wanted to focus on a regional business to better connect with their audience?
No, GoBid has offices in Miami and San Francisco.

In other breaking news, ABC WPVI sucks.

3 comments:

  1. lol - in other news ABC WPVI sucks

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  2. Harsh words for WPVI. True it was kind of a soft piece of reporting but the article below the video does list swoopo and bidcactus and could add legitimacy to the whole penny auction marketplace. That should benefit everyone.

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  3. You are correct, anonymous (#2), WPVI does list Swoopo and Bidcactus in the links, however, the station's main outlet is their TV station, not their website transcript. As someone with an interest in journalism, I found their piece laughable. However, I find most TV news laughable so I do admit my bias on the subject.

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