WOMMA/Summit - Day 2: Wommie Awards
This year's Wommie Awards go to the following project:
* Affinitive - "American Skiing Company: MyA41.com Passholder Community"
* Converseon - "Second Chance Tree Project Takes Reforestation from Virtual World to Physical World"
* Fanscape - "Clear Channel NEW! Populating Site with Musicians Campaign"
* Quicken Loans -- "How Quicken Loans Became a Yahoo! Answers Knowledge Partner"
All four of these projects were presented at a high level and were very impressive. One in particular really stood out to me, based on the high level thinking (moreso than the project itself). The gentleman from Converseon talked about the "Rise of new tribalism" in relation to this WOM/social/community thing. He suggests we take an anthropological approach to the work we're doing.
He pointed to the adventures showcased in the Discovery Channel show, "Living with the Kombai Tribe", where two men try to become "adopted" by the tribe. Learning the language wasn't enough, they had to learn the culture too. Sure they could show up and pass out iPods, but that's a short-term connection. They take a different tact, learning the value of a pig to a village elder, for instance.
Oh, and by the way, his program won a WOM award, a PR award, and an advertising award. Clearly this new "social" thing is cutting across internal functions. Who owns WOM? All of us.
