Hasta La Creative!

I freely admit I’m obsessed with HoneyShed. The Publicis-backed Internet shopping channel from Droga5 and Smuggler is such a different idea, often bizarre and always interesting, and one I’ve tried to put in perspective recently. One part of the site’s relaunch last week I didn’t get to cover in detail: its embrace of social media. HoneyShed started following me on Twitter, after already adding me as a friend on Facebook. For me, HoneyShed’s success or failure is pretty straightforward: It has to build a sizable audience before advertisers will buy into the concept. The company says it will get to 550,000 users in month’s time. Early signs are it has a tough row to hoe. Quantcast still can’t find signs of an audience, HoneyShed has a pedestrian 122 followers on Twitter, and the HoneyShed blogs have tumbleweeds blowing by them, drawing few comments to posts. What’s more, the only blogs that are talking up HoneyShed are those devoted to marketing and advertising. Is this a bad sign, or is it simply too soon to tell?

—Posted by Brian Morrissey