Relevance.

I am amazed at how some brands just aren't getting it.
I read a rather large amount of blogs these days and they run the gamut of subjects. Social media, architecture, fashion, home design, you name it and I read a blog on it. What I used to see was blogs with some google ads on the side. Google ads don't really bother me all that much. Yes, they are basically irrelevant and not terribly engaging but they don't drive me as crazy as what I'm seeing now.
Big brands are putting their totally irrelevant content on the blogs I read. It's the equivalent of walking into a party that is supposed to be really great and seeing your high school teachers there (no offense teachers). I show up expecting high end design and I see Friskies. This makes me mad because obviously, Friskies doesn't care why I'm reading this blog. They don't care why I show up at Refinery 29 every morning. They just want to put a giant cat food ad next to Oscar De La Renta and call it a day. I call this laziness on the part of the advertiser.
I work in social media so I notice these things and I don't know if other people are being driven insane by this as well but I would expect that a brand take at least 1 minute to look at the blogs they are advertising on.
Solution: If your brand wants to connect with a specialized group of people, take the time to enter the party correctly. When you're invited to an event in person you would consider where the party is being held, who will be there, what the dress code is, and what kinds of things you can say and what might not be a good topic to bring up.
It's the same in social media. Tailor your entrance to the people that are there. Friskies could have sponsored a showing of high design cat bowls. They could have paired designers with breeds of cats, anything but the garish ad they have up there now.
~ Caitlin McCabe~~