I’ll admit that I am known in some circles as “Boston’s foremost expert in internet and word-of-mouth marketing.” I try to be modest, but my doting fans can make it very difficult. I think this little comic says it all 
This morning, I was at a BIMA roundtable event spearheaded by Dave Balter, founder of BzzAgent. It was titled, “Bringing Word of Mouth into your Marketing Mix.” Most of the content of Dave’s presentation and the succeeding discussion was a nice review for me, but it also sparked a few thoughts that dug a little deeper.
Finding a balance between traditional marketing and the new forms of “grassroots” marketing can be difficult. But, before that can be accomplished, I think the industry must first find a balance between the many segments of this new avenue of communication.
(Maybe, even before that, we should decide on an umbrella name for grassroots, word of mouth, collaborative marketing, viral marketing, etc. I like customer,constituent or audience engagement)
Dave summed up his presentation into 5 key points of word of mouth marketing:
Dave caught my attention right off the bat. He began by explaining that viral and word of mouth are not the same. He explained that viral marketing substitutes the brand for entertainment and, therefore, breaks the number one rule of word of mouth marketing.
He used the Paris Hilton commercial for Carl’s Jr. as an example:
It was extremely viral and it is easy to see why. I counted 333,702 views on YouTube from the first search page alone. I’m sure the clip was viewed just as many times on any number of websites, communities and blogs. But, as Dave pointed out, there was a problem: during the time this ad aired, sales dropped 3%. Why? The Carl’s Jr. Brand was compromised. They focused all of their energy on creating a viral campaign rather than a word of mouth campaign.
I’m not going to dispute Dave’s claim here. In fact, I’ll support him. The commercial, although eye catching, does not include any call to action. If their goal was increased brand exposure, they got it; but, this ad may be giving the brand a new identity. If they were aiming to build a stronger brand or increase sales, they failed.I have to ask, though: can’t word of mouth and viral marketing function successfully together? In fact, if executed successfully, wouldn’t they compliment each other? Wouldn’t one serve as an accelerator for the other, and visa versa? Shouldn’t the two be symbiotic?
If you compromise your brand in order to create a viral conversation, then chances are you won’t reach any goals tied to that brand. And, to many companies, the brand is everything. But, not all viral campaigns have to substitute brand for entertainment. A great viral campaign would find a way to make the brand entertaining in a way that the audience will be laughing with you… not at you. Once you’ve found a way to creatively develop the right balance between brand and entertainment, you will need word of mouth conversations before your campaign will ever go viral.
I’m not quite sure how to conclude this drivel. It reality, I may never reach a conclusion. I have a feeling that by the time we as an industry find the right balance, the medium du jour will have morphed into something even more exciting, confusing and frustrating.
I just saw this AdAge article about Mun2’s new identity ads; they’re a bit controversial, but really fun. And, as I’m not exactly part of the demographic, I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing this speaks well to their market:
“[The campaign] plays with the idea of ‘Check your balance’ for our second-generation, bilingual demo of young people who live within two cultures,” said Alex Pels, general manager of Mun2 (pronounced “Moon-dos”). “How can you assimilate into [American] culture and retain the identity from your Latin roots? These are all images that reflect part of a certain reality of Latin culture in this country.”
I hope Mun2 intends to expand on the campaign… they could do a lot to build a following from this attitude/idea. For starters, someone needs to get these up on youtube! For now, you can view the ads here. Enjoy!
Now I feel like an hombre again
Last Tuesday, my boss, Steve Curran, and I visited Professor Walter Carl’s word of mouth, buzz and viral marketing class at Northeastern University. You can read Walter’s run down of the day here.
First, I have to say the fact that Northeastern University even offers this class is very encouraging. I was always very discouraged at BU as they were not as open to studying new forms of communication. Not only am I really happy to see a well-respected academic community give deserved attention to this area of communication, but I was so happy to find that the students in the class took the subject very seriously. They were all engaged in the conversation and asked some well-thought, in-depth and critical questions. Both Steve and I were impressed with the quality of students in the class and would be happy to consider any of them for an internship position at Pod Design. (send me your resumes!)
I was equally impressed with Dr. Carl. I had been following his blogs for about 6 months, but had never had the honor of meeting him in person. We were able to grab lunch after class and discuss everything from research to metrics to business models. Very educational. I find that some days it is far too easy to slip into a mirrored box at work, hanging out with great academics always helps to keep perspective. They remind me to think outside of my current spot and start asking some critical questions.
Preparing for this visit was also very healthy for me from a work perspective; It forced me to boil down what I do into a quick, 10 minute, synopsis. I was able to outline my priorities, justify my work and develop insight in the areas that are very important to my work but can often feel tedious or dull from day-to-day. It was also a great reminder of why I was motivated to take this job in the first place.
So, thank you to Dr. Carl and his class for a great experience!
If any of you Bostonites listen to WBCN, you probably know who Adolfo is. If not, please let me introduce you:
Now, Adolfo is quite a funny guy. A real piece of work! He is a regular on the Toucher and Rich show and the star of a new game from Pod Design! I’m not ready to show the game just yet, but here’s a preview to whet your appetite:
I’ve run across several articles on this over the past view weeks, so I thought I would post some thoughts:
flogs
You Tube can be very attractive to any marketer. I can’t blame them for wanting to jump on the band wagon. I probably get an average of 30 emails and IMs a week containing links to the newest and coolest you tube clip, many of them branded for one product or another. But, nothing is hated more than a fake video that is meant to look “grassroots” or “user-generated.” I recently had to tackle this topic with a client; the conversation alone was painful. Their intent was fine, but their execution was all wrong. Eventually, they won; but I’m pretty sure there shaking in their boots after the sony debacle.
seeding
In a pretty generic Adotas article about WOM marketing, Brent Hill writes, “WOM marketers usually begin by identifying the people that are most likely to talk about a product or service - the influencers - and making them aware of new features, benefits, or selling points. If successful, this “seeding” effort initiates a viral marketing phase, in which the influencers share their opinions and experiences with others.”
That’s my job in a nutshell… my job description doesn’t get any more basic. But there is more to it. When seeding, we also have to remember that most of the influencers know they are influencers; they expect some respect, and rightfully so. As pointed out at DHADM in this sobering open letter to viral marketers, bloggers and site editors don’t enjoy being told how or what to post. They’re also smart enough to easily spot fakes, so don’t insult their intelligence: “We’re not autistics that someone planted in front of a computer to post stuff. We’re obviously interested and engaged in the online world, so treating us like rubes won’t do you any favors. Unless negative mentions are what you’re looking for, that is.”
And you really don’t want to piss these guys off. According to this article in PROMO, a recent study released by the Keller Fay Group claims there are 4.5 billion brand mentions a day. “In fact, a mere 15% of the population makes 1.5 billion brand mentions to friends each day…” Intuitively, these are the same people you are seeding, and not all of those brand mentions are positive.
The lesson here, as I see it, is to remember that your audience is more than pageviews and pass-alongs. They’re smart and they’ll see right through any attempt marketers make to pull the wool over their eyes. If your influencers aren’t happy, you’ll never reach your full target market.
My blog posts have been lagging lately and I have many topics I want to catch up on, but, alas, work calls….work,work,work. The joys of being at the bottom of the pecking order
However, I must take a quick minute to recount my most frustrating and typical whippersnaPR moment of the year. Last night, Josh convinced me to join him at a “celebration for political bloggers” hosted by the Harvard Berkman Center. Initially, I had some reservations about going; I don’t tend to blog about politics. But, I figured, hell, I have a degree in political science and I can find an excuse to “celebrate” almost anything! So, I went. I had no idea I would run into such big names! (here’s more on the attendees from Josh)
The first, and more positive whippersnaPR moment of the evening, was getting to chat with Steve Garfield. I happened to casually mention that I’m noticing a trend in companies wanting to build the next MySpace or YouTube and I sparked his interest! Hurray for the whippersnaPR! We had a great conversation about how “citizen journalism” can really effect viral marketing and I hope we get to continue that conversation in the future.
I’m still kicking myself over the second moment of the evening. This is a perfect example of the downside to being a complete whippersnaPR. Last night, I met David Weinberger. I was a little late to jump on the band wagon, but most of the people who’ve ever had to work with me know I’m a huge fan of the Cluetrain Manifesto. My thesis advisors can definitely attest to that; they were constantly yelling at me that I was quoting too heavily from the manifesto. Despite this pathetic, whippersnapr-ish fandom of Cluetrain, I failed to recognize who David Weinberger is! aurgh!!!
All night, I kept saying, “who is that guy? I know I should know him. I know I’m a fan, but I can’t remember why.” Luckily, I got the chance to chat with him at all… but I never got the opportunity to say something profound and entertaining and completely whippersnapr-ish. At least I didn’t make a fool of myself fawning over him all night!
Anyway…today, I’m having a typical, “I’m such an idiot,” Napoleon Dynamite moment…
Foldger’s is trying to reach out to the 20-something consumer. They’ve got me; my parents were strict foldger’s drinkers and I’ve been drinking it since I was about 10. But, to get the rest of this target market, they’ve launched a new micro-site to help us night-owls “tolerate mornings.”
The trick to success, however, is sell-through: Will the space move people to buy Folgers, a 150-year-old brand that generates more than $1 billion annually?
Procter won’t begin to measure that for a few months, Bello said. But even if the site does not sell Folgers, the effort — which cost a fraction of a traditional TV spot — should energize others at Procter to compete more creatively online. That alone would make the effort worth it, said Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer at the Cincinnati office of Nielsen BuzzMetrics.
“Procter needs to do a lot more experimentation,” he said. “They need to re-energize their Web marketing, and this appears to be a promising step.”
They’re definitely on the right track, but I’m not about to evangelize their brand just yet.
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