06/24/2009: Listening 2.0: How the Web is Changing the Way Companies Listen to Their Customers
Featured Speakers:
Mike Moran, Chief Strategist, Converseon
Mark Kovscek, SVP, VivaKi Nerve Center
Pauline Ores, Pricipal Analyst Social Engagement Strategy, IBM
The Internet has added new ways for companies to listen, augmenting surveys, focus groups, and other traditional market research. But the first generation of Web listening tools were heavy on automation and light on real insights and actionability. Learn how Web listening is changing, and how your company can take advantage of it now. You'll also get a sneak peek into what you should expect in the future, so that you're company is ready. Mike is the author of the acclaimed book on Internet marketing, Do It Wrong Quickly, on the heels of the best-selling Search Engine Marketing, Inc., which is now in its second edition.
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members). 
06/17/2009: Essential Technologies Every Word of Mouth Marketer Should Know About
Featured Speakers:
Clay McDaniel, Principal/Co-Founder, Spring Creek Group
Xavier Jimenez, Principal, Director of Analytics, Spring Creek Group
By now, every marketer knows about using Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media platforms to boost brand recognition, engage customers, and drive sales. But getting started can be daunting. Key questions today’s marketers face when jumping into the social media channel:
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- How can you find and tap into the word-of-mouth conversations happening about your brand or products?
- What are the best technology tools, applications, and web services available out there today for marketers looking to become more engaged, and more active, in the social media channel?
- What should you pay for, and what can you use that is free?
- How can you measure the success of you social campaigns. What data would you want to collect to do so?
- What are the right tools for my organization to use to learn, gain scale, & most importantly connect with – and learn from – our customers and potential customers out there?
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All of these questions are top of mind for marketers today as they attempt to navigate the new world of social media marketing.
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
05/27/2009: Marketing Smart in a Dumb Economy
Think cutting back on marketing is the smart way to survive the recession? Think again. In this presentation, Espresso explains why scaling back on marketing initiatives, even in today's economy, is counterproductive.
One study showed that businesses that maintained or increased advertising spend during a recession sold 256 percent more than those who decreased. Still thinking cutbacks?
Through the "glass half full" perspective, learn why pushing your brand in tough economic times can separate you from the competition.
Featured Speaker: Marta Kagan, U.S. Managing Director at Espresso | Brand Infiltration
A self-confessed startup junkie, Marta Kagan leads Espresso's growing Boston office. Before joining the Infiltrators, Marta brought her diverse talents, boundless enthusiasm, and always-evolving expertise in digital branding and social media to lead marketing efforts for early stage ventures and global consumer brands like Estee Lauder and AXA Financial. Excruciatingly humble, Marta rarely brags about winning her sixth grade spelling bee or the fact that she is an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru. (Unless you ask her, of course.) As the outspoken voice behind The Secret Diary of a Bonafide Marketing Genius, Marta writes and speaks frequently about branding and advertising in the digital channel. Her critically acclaimed viral hit “What the F*** is Social Media?” has been translated into seven languages. In her spare time Marta can be found blogging at bonafidemarketinggenius.com
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
05/20/2009: Best Practices on Facebook: How & Why All Companies, Brands and Non-Profits Should be Engaging with Customers & Fans Through Facebook
Facebook now tops 210 million users and is growing at the rate of about 1 million new users per day. Dave will discuss Facebook for brands, companies and non-profits and specific advantages to using Facebook Public Profiles to communicate with customers, fans, potential customers and potential fans. Dave will utilize several case studies from across different industries and talk about specific tactics and strategies companies and organizations can besutilize Facebook to create and sustain buzz by joining the conversation on the world’s most popular social site.
Featured Speaker: Dave Kerpen Chief Buzz Officer, theKbuzz
Dave Kerpen's history of buzz and word of mouth marketing began even before he graduated from Boston University in. As a stadium vendor in 1996, he raised sales of the stadium's lowest selling product Crunch n Munch by 400%, through the concept of thematic vending. When he graduated, he became the top seller at the Boston Radio Disney station, before leaving to form his own company, Dave Kerpen Strategic Consulting. He created the concept of "Grander Openings"- taking a Grand Opening event and making it even "grander". Whatever project Dave has worked on has attracted massive buzz- whether it's training thematic vendors for Guinness, planning a multicultural celebration outside his office in Queens, NY or simply getting married on a baseball field in front of thousands.
It was Dave’s sponsored wedding in 2006 that not only generated $100,000 in sponsorships and worldwide buzz, but with partner Carrie Kerpen birthed theKbuzz. At theKbuzz, Dave is responsible for the overall vision and strategy of the firm, Agency Partnerships, and new business development. The past year has been a busy one for Dave as theKbuzz has expanded, with new offices in Boston and Chicago, and new clients, including Heineken, Sony IMAX, Cumberland Farms, Babson College, Verizon, 1800Flowers.com, the Weizmann Institute, and Stride Rite. He is proud of theKbuzz’s 2008 WOMMIE Award from WOMMA for excellence in Word of Mouth Marketing, but prouder of his two little girls at home-- Charlotte and Kate.
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
04/09/2009: Measuring the Value of WOM, Come Rain or Come Shine
Whether the days are cloudy or sunny, or your brand is in or out of the money, measuring the value of word of mouth (WOM) has become a strategic imperative. This webinar will guide participants through five ways that consumer conversations impact a brand’s bottom line and offers specific tips and techniques to assess the value of WOM to your brand.
Featured Speaker: Dr. Walter Carl, Founder & Chief Research Officer at ChatThreads
Dr. Walter Carl is the founder and Chief Research Officer at ChatThreads, an independent word of mouth measurement and analytics company that helps brands quantify the ROI and bottom-line impact of consumer conversations. ChatThreads’ proprietary G2X methodology was developed by Dr. Carl while a faculty member at Northeastern University in Boston. Dr. Carl is chair of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s Measurement and Research Council where he led the groups editing Volumes 2-4 of Measuring Word of Mouth.
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
04/01/2009: How To Keep Members Coming Back To Your Online Community - When "Build It And They Will Come" Isn't Working
The DePaul Quad is an online community for parents of DePaul University students. Since its launch in August 2007, the DePaul Quad has grown to over 2,000 members and begun to change how the University approaches customer service from a one-way model to a model built on a multi-dimensional conversation.
This session will:
1. outline why we launched an online community
2. review the results we have seen
3. outline what it takes to keep members coming back
4. show how the conversations in the online community have started to change the overall way we do business.
Featured Speaker:
Dara Crowfoot, Director of Marketing Strategy at DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois.
Dara Crowfoot is a Director of Marketing Strategy at DePaul University, in Chicago, Illinois. In August 2007, Dara launched the DePaul Quad, an online community for parents and family members of DePaul students. The DePaul Quad quickly exceeded goals and was expanded to families of prospective students. In her six years at DePaul, Dara has also led the development of annual strategic enrollment plans for the colleges, identified consumer insights and marketing strategies to drive the university’s largest growth initiatives and led the role-out of new positioning for the university.
Dara came to DePaul with over seven years of experience in brand management and consumer marketing. Prior to joining the university, she worked at Kraft Foods and Verizon Communications.
Dara has a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
03/24/2009: It's Not that Hard to Make Money, Just Ask your Customers
Making money is easy. Your customers and clients are telling you every day how to do it, but too many companies are caught up in "doing business" to hear them. We hear things like "join the conversation" and "engage your customers", but it's easier said than done. With the creation of social tools like blogs, wikis, social networks, and twitter, how do you know where to engage? How do you know what to build yourself? In these troubling economic times, how are you going to make money... or more specifically, how are you going to listen to your customers to learn how to make money?
In this session, customer collaboration gurus Jake McKee and Sean O'Driscoll will help introduce you to the social tools and processes that will help you better engage with your customers. Jake's insights, techniques, and best practices will help you understand not only the tactics themselves, but the way they map against your business objectives.
You will learn:
* Basics of the social tools available, such as blogs, social networks, and micro-blogging
* The three stages of customer listening and engagement
* Business goal alignment
* Examples of companies using social tools and tactics effectively
* Next steps for developing your engagement strategy
Featured Speakers:
Jake McKee, Chief Strategy Officer & Ant Wrangler, Ant's Eye View
Sean O’Driscoll, Co-founder of Ant’s Eye View
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
03/19/2009: Proposed FTC Endorsements & Testimonials Compliance Briefing
In a media conference call on Thursday, March 19, at 11:00 a.m. CDT, WOMMA officials discussed their concerns about the FTC’s rule changes and make recommendations for modifications that will protect consumers but not inhibit bloggers from expressing their views freely.
During the briefing, WOMMA addressed these questions raised by the FTC’s action:
• Should social media, bloggers and consumer-generated platforms be subject to government regulation and enforcement?
• Should bloggers be held personally liable for failing to disclose material information?
• Should advertisers and sellers be held liable for the actions of bloggers?
Featured Speakers:
Paul Rand, WOMMA Vice President and chair of the organization’s Ethics Code Panel
Anthony DiResta, Reed Smith, LLP, a leading Washington attorney specializing in FTC issues
Listen to the audio recording of the call.
03/18/2009: Realizing the Social Media Dream: Achieving Marketing ROI by Harnessing the Power of Word of Mouth
Learn from a recent Aberdeen Group survey how companies can build market awareness, improve Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI), increase customer acquisition and benefit in multiple other ways by leveraging word of mouth. These strategies will be illustrated through specific examples of how Best-in-Class companies are launching successful viral campaigns, forming and participating in niche communities, and spurring customer advocacy – all while gleaning valuable customer insights from consumer-generated content to inform future marketing actions.
Featured Speakers:
Jeff Zabin, Aberdeen Group, Research Fellow, Customer Management Practice
Blake Cahill, Visible Technologies, SVP of Marketing
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
03/12/2009: Integrating Social Media into Your Existing Marketing Plan
Joel Warady discussed how to incorporate new digital marketing ideas into your existing plans. With the current financial landscape, companies not only have to reach their customers in a very targeted and efficient manner, they have to do so with a drastically reduced budget and it has to be executed immediately. The 2009 plans are being rewritten daily and it leads every marketer to ask the question: ...”Is your company engaging with your prospective or current customers before your competition does so?”
Today there are a variety of emerging digital marketing methods available to your company, allowing you to execute an effective customer relationship strategy. Joel has been an entrepreneur his entire 31 year career, and in addition he brings marketing knowledge gained through his extensive teaching, research and industry speaking. Joel is a marketing amalgamist and will share valuable information on social networking, search marketing, and other Web 2.0 trends that can be quickly implemented into your current plans.
Featured Speaker: Joel Warady, Principal of Joel Warady Group
Joel D. Warady is Principal of Joel Warady Group, a Marketing, Social Media, & Business Growth consulting firm based in Evanston IL, USA. Mr. Warady is a former owner of a US branded CPG company that at its peak had its products sold in over 17,000 retail locations throughout the US. Academically, Mr. Warady has served as a guest lecturer in the MBA program at Benedictine University, and has been an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has also taught in the International Business program sponsored by the State of Illinois and Bradley University.
Internationally, Mr. Warady is respected as a sales and marketing and social media expert, speaker, and advisor. In his various businesses, he has been responsible for negotiating business relationships with companies throughout South and Central America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East. He has spoken on the subject of digital marketing and marketing trends to individuals and groups from Singapore.
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
02/25/2009: Talk @ or Talk 2.0: Conversations That Matter
When it comes to Social Media, never have so many, talked so much, knowing so little. Web 2.0 is not an extension of traditional media, and there’s more to word of mouth than a viral video or a Facebook app. Brands are in danger of alienating the very consumers they want to engage with, by using social media to talk at them, rather than listening and collaborating with them in new ways. So what does an authentic, ethical, and effective brand conversation really mean?
Featured Speaker: Molly Flatt, 1000heads
Molly is WOM Evangelist for 1000heads, the leading global specialists in word of mouth marketing. Starting out as a linguist and strategist for the 1000heads creative team, Molly has worked at the coalface engaging, meeting and collaborating with social media voices across the world, and has overseen the creative direction of long-term campaigns for clients such as Nokia, Canon and STA travel. As WOM Evangelist, she ensures that 1000heads remains at the cutting edge of creative and strategic developments in the industry, and helps brands understand why word of mouth should be at the heart of every aspect of their advertising.
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
02/18/2009: Recession Marketing Series: Customer Loyalty and the Recession
In the current economic climate, it’s more important than ever for organizations to focus on their most valuable asset – their customers. Listen to Richard Owen, CEO of Satmetrix and co-author of Answering the Ultimate Question, as he discussed how organizations can improve the customer experience, foster positive WOM, increase loyalty and drive growth. Incorporating key customer insights from his new book, Owen offered an operational model for implementing a successful customer loyalty program.
Listen to the audio recording to learn:
* The key things companies can do to have the greatest impact on customer experience and loyalty over the next six months
* The six key elements of the Net Promoter Operating Model
* Best practice case studies from organizations that have implemented Net Promoter programs
Featured Speaker:
Richard Owen, CEO of Satmetrix, Co-author of “Answering the Ultimate Question”
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
01/14/2009: How Online Influencers Deliver Marketing ROI
12/03/2008: Finding Passion Points/Creating a Sustainable Social Interaction Model
On Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008, Chase and John discussed how advertising agencies and brand marketers are benefiting by developing a detailed social graph of a brand's targeted audience in preparation for a social media marketing campaign. These social graphs provide key demographic information, as well as an in-depth understanding of common interests and affinities. In addition, they identify those people that are most socially-connected to the target community and have potential influence on their purchasing decisions. Also discussed were the latest technologies developed to create these detailed social graphs and the importance of widgets (or "WidgADs"), contests, consumer-generated content, and other social media best practices in getting influencer's engaged to ignite a campaign and make it go viral. Real world scenarios and case studies of successful affinity- and influencer-based viral marketing campaigns were presented and discussed.
Featured Speakers:
Chase McMichael, Founder & Chairman, UNBOUND Technologies
John De Marchi, Director, Saavn Interactive Media
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
10/22/2008: Orbius: Local Chambers of Commerce Get Involved in Social Media
On October 22, 2008 Orbius spoke about how there are plenty high visibility word of mouth success stories from some of the best known brands. For many marketers though, while these stories are interesting and educational, they far exceed their realistic execution budget reach. Alternative "free solutions" just don't support the security and governance needs of marketers, and most of the high-end social media solutions are too expensive and, thus, are too risky to experiment. If you have a limited marketing budget, but want to get started in word of mouth and social media, this is the WOM Wednesday Teleconference for you. Listen in and learn how Members Online and Orbius is helping local Chambers of Commerce participate in word of mouth marketing.
Learn:
• How to get started without a large investment with the online community
• How to tackle word of mouth on a budget
• How social media can be implemented at the local level
• Real world word of mouth marketing solutions that don't break the bank
Featured Speakers:
Kevin McCann, President, Members Online
Scott Deutsch, VP Sales & Marketing, Orbius
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
10/01/2008: Offline Versus Online Word of Mouth
On Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008, speaker Ed Keller of the Keller Fay Group helped listeners gain some important insights into the differences between offline and online word of mouth marketing -- from a consumer perspective.
Online social media and online networking might gain the lion's share of attention from the buzzword generators, but past research into offline word of mouth has indicated that it's more credible and more impactful than its online counterpart. In this teleconference presentation, Brad will share research findings from a recent research study conducted by Keller Fay Group and OMD that tackled the subject of offline vs. online word of mouth and turned up tons of interested, WOM-worthy results.
Dial in and get answers to the following questions:
• How much online word of mouth takes place compared to offline?
• How do offline and online WOM compare in terms of creditability and impact on consumer behavior?
• What are the key demographic differences between online and offline WOM participants?
Featured Speakers:
Brad Fay, Chief Operating Officer, The Keller Fay Group
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
09/17/2008: How HP Energized Influencers to Share
On Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008, HP and Buzz Corps spoke about how they gave out a fully-loaded HDX "Dragon" system to 31 selected bloggers to review and give away over 31 days. The bloggers could come up with any way they wanted to give away their Dragons, and were randomly assigned a day on which to hand it off -- ensuring 31 days of excitement as bloggers ran various contests to promote their giveaways and linked to one another's giveaways. In all, the effort garnered more than 380,000 Google links and a collective reach in excess of 50 million, according to Alexa data.
Dial into the call and and learn:
• How HP tapped the blogosphere to create enough pre-launch momentum to generate an 84% increase in sales
• How to use the power of bloggers and influencers in a way that will be embraced
• How to create a buzz lifecycle that can continue to live beyond the parameters of your WOM campaign
Featured Speakers:
Chris Aarons, Partner, Buzz Corps
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
07/16/2008: Word of Mouth the Easy Way: How to Get Started
On Wednesday, July 16, 2008, speaker Andy Sernovitz led a call of more than 75 word of mouth marketers eager to find out how they could generate more word of mouth -- starting "tomorrow morning." According to Andy, word of mouth marketing doesn't have to be a complicated, expensive campaign. There are dozens of easy, inexpensive ways to get people talking, and Andy paraded several of them out for teleconference attendees, and covered the 5Ts Framework for creating WOM.
Featured Speaker:
Andy Sernovitz, is Author of "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking," and was the Founding CEO of WOMMA. His is now CEO of GasPedal and blogs at http://www.damniwish.com.
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
06/11/2008: Net Promoter Economics: Exploring the Economic Impact of WOM
On Wednesday, Jun. 11, 2008, Dr. Vince Nowinski, Principal Methodologist at Satmetric spoke about the economic impact of word of mouth marketing.
Everyone knows word of mouth (WOM) is important and impactful, but what is the real economic impact of word of mouth on your company? Until now, it's a question that organizations have struggled to answer. Now, Satmetrix has come up with a viable, numbers-based with the new independent research using Net Promoter to establish a metric for measuring positive and negative word of mouth and the economic impact of WOM on corporate growth.
Join WOMMA and Dr. Vince Nowinski, Principal Methodologist at Satmetrix, as he discusses:
* The link between customer loyalty and customer behaviors that contribute to financial success for companies in the computer hardware industry
* The methodology behind this study, which claims to have found the financial impact for negative and positive word of mouth
* The monetary value of a Promoter
* How loyal customers are able to impact your organization's bottom line
* How to find customer value using both buyer and referral economics
* And more!
Featured Speakers:
Dr. Vince Nowinski, Principal Methodologist, Satmetrix
Download the accompanying presentation here.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
04/30/2008: 7 Radical Rules to Leverage Online Sports Fan Buzz
Over the course of the teleconference, Kathleen and Dexter also outlined their 7 Radical Rules to Leverage Online Sports Fan Buzz:
* Fans and consumers are not the same thing
How fans behave as "fans" isn't necessarily the same as how they act as "consumers." The consumer side of a person might balk at rising ticket prices, while the fan continues to pay the price and show up to the games. With that, fans talk about different things online depending on whether they're communicating as fans or consumers, and change hats based on what venue they're in. To analyze the WOM, you need to understand which hat the person speaking is wearing.
* Sports fans are always right -- and sometimes that's a good thing
When you're dealing with a sports fan, their opinions are already set -- you're not going to change their minds. To prove their point, Dexter and Kathleen presented a case study from NASCAR and Nationwide. With the visibility that an average fan can achieve, they're defining the conversation, and these conversations can lead to solutions to problems you haven’t even identified yet
* Even the smallest fan voice can have huge influence
This rule included a case study for Penn State and a controversial video posted to YouTube that showed an Ohio State fan being pummeled by beer cans. It didn't get many views originally, but was picked up by a smaller fan blog and then was picked up by a large sports blog. The school -- and blogger fans -- chimed in that the behavior wasn't typical, and it was bloggers who were able to put out the fire.
* Look for ways to influence -- not just influencers
Sports is very personality-driven, so vocal influencers aren't difficult to find. Ways to influence, however, are another story. Speakers presented a case study for Southern Methodist University and how the University addressed fan-response to a hike in ticket prices -- specifically blogging about it, explaining why the decision to do so was made, and creating a dialog with fans.
* Sports fans come for the highlights, but they stay for the game
This radical rule was demonstrated by the TMobile "Fave Five" campaign, which was rolled into the NBA All-Star weekend. According to the presenters, fans can spot link bait from a million miles away -- and it's content that counts.
* Creative authenticity is better than just one or the other
Chris Bosh (Raptors player) was trying to gain more fan exposure in order to get voted into the All-Star game, so he and a friend created a low quality video and put it on YouTube. The low-production effect, which may have garnered negative attention from the YouTube commenters, was surprisingly endearing to basketball fans. It wasn't the quality of the video that garnered fan attention, but the authenticity of the message.
* Sports fans like to keep score for you
They learn to read the stats sheets, and they like having tons of information. So give it to them.
Featured Speakers:
Kathleen Hessert, President, Sports Media Challenge *
Dexter Bustarde, Director, New Media and Fan Engagement, Sports Media Challenge
Listen to the audio recording of the call Part 1(for WOMMA members).
Listen to the audio recording of the call Part 2(for WOMMA members).
04/02/2008: The Law, the FTC, and Word of Mouth Marketing
On Wednesday, Apr. 2, 2008, Tony DiResta, Partner, Reed Smith, former Director of the FTC's Southeast Regional Office, and legal council for WOMMA discussed the laws that affect all word of mouth marketers and brought our dial-in listeners up to date with recent rumblings regarding WOM and the FTC.
On this call, DiResta covered:
* The paradigm shift that's occurring in the understanding of what marketing really is -- both in philosophy and in practice. Formerly, marketing consisted of data and messages passed from marketers to consumers. Consumers were recipients of the message, as opposed to being active participants. In the new paradigm, the consumer is in control -- creating and spreading messages.
* The FTC and WOM: The FTC is most concerned with protecting consumers and makes laws that govern the interaction between marketers and consumers. Recently the FTC has become interested in "unmeasured media," specifically as it related to legislation that was passed in regard to the fast food industry and their perceived targeting of children.
* According to DiResta, the FTC is defining "marketing" very, very broadly and has come out claiming that all forms of marketing (measurable and unmeasurable alike) are within the purview of the FTC. This led DiResta to two conclusions that all WOM marketers need to take heed of:
* All WOM marketers must comply with the FTC, and nothing we do as an industry can be seen as deceptive or unfair. (This is a case where one bad apple can ruin the whole pie.)
* According to the FTC, WOM marketers are responsible for their agents' claims
* DiResta also suggested that hosting a conference specifically around WOMM and the law would be a great educational benefit to all word of mouth marketers.
Featured Speaker:
* Tony DiResta, Partner, Reed Smith
Anthony (Tony) E. DiResta's practice at Reed Smith focuses on complex commercial litigation (trial and appellate), governmental investigations and enforcement, white collar defense, and business counseling. While he has a breadth of experience in many substantive legal areas and in a wide range of industries, he specializes in trade and consumer regulation, antitrust and unfair competition, business torts, and contractual disputes.
Several years ago, Tony was appointed the Director of the Federal Trade Commission's Southeast Regional Office, where he supervised many of the enforcement, investigative, litigation, and outreach activities of the Competition and Consumer Protection Bureaus of the agency in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. Under his leadership, the Office received the John Marshall Award from the Attorney General of the United States for its enforcement achievements.
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
03/12/2008: How NBC Generated Major Excitement for the 'Bionic Woman'
Dial in and find out how NBC was able to use WOM techniques to generate significant word of mouth excitement for the series premiere of Bionic Woman, specifically amongst T.V. viewers aged 18-49. Join Terry Dry and Melissa Taylor of Fanscape to learn some of the specific WOM marketing techniques they used to get people talking about "Bionic Woman," including:
* Creating the "Bionic Assessment Test" viral game as an online hook, which then functioned as the centerpiece of Fanscape's marketing campaign (www.bat-test.com). A combined game score of over 75% unlocked featured content from the yet-to-be-aired pilot of the show. An embeddable badge boasting the user's Bionic percentage enabled further spread of the game through social networks.
* A combination of targeted grassroots and WOM placements on blogs, social networks, online communities, and more.
* Partnering with well-trafficked entertainment, gaming, and lifestyle sites to promote the launch of the T.V. show and viral game.
Using word of mouth marketing to drive viewership, the premiere episode was able to lead the highly coveted 18-49 demographic for the evening and was the highest rated premiere across all networks for Fall 2007. The online portion of the campaign garnered over 700,000 direct tool interactions and 200,000 completed plays of the viral game. Overall, editorial and messages about the viral game was viewed by 5.5 million unique web users.
Find out how you can apply some of these same techniques to your next WOM-worthy project!
Featured Speakers:
Terry Dry, President/Co-Owner, Fanscape
Melissa Taylor, Senior Director of Marketing, Fanscape
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
03/05/2008: WOMM Lessons from a Hyper-Competitive Category: Energy Drinks
On Wednesday, Mar. 5, 2008, WOMMA hosted a WOM Wednesday teleconference featuring Join Erik Rothchild, CEO of WheyUP, and Ted Wright, Managing Partner of Fizz. Erik and Ted discussed WheyUP's unique story and how that story gives the product a leg up in a very crowded category.
The WheyUP story is this: Erik, an avid athlete, was inspired to start mixing up protein-rich concoctions in his own kitchen because he couldn't find anything on the market that combined the immediate pick-me-up of an energy drink with the protein content that his sports magazines kept telling him he needed. Talking with other athletes and fitness buffs about some of the stuff he was cooking up, Erik discovered that there was genuinely a demand in the fitness/energy drink category for the stuff he was concocting, and WheyUP was born.
To get the word out about WheyUP, Erik started putting it in the hands of the people who would use it -- and who would tell other people about it. This meant sampling and demoing in health and fitness stores, as well as putting WheyUP in the hands of avid athletes and professional players
This teleconference also covers:
* Challenges unique to a dense product category
* What it takes to get people talking when their mouths are already full
* Specific WOM tactics used by WheyUP
* What worked, what didn't, and lessons learned
* How you can use WOM to stand out from the crowd
Featured Speakers:
Erik Rothchild, CEO, WheyUP
Ted Wright, Managing Partner, Fizz
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
02/27/2008: Meeting Business Needs by Meeting Social Needs: How United Airlines Used Their Online Community to Generate Insights and Genuinely Connect with Their Customers
On Wednesday, February 27, 2008, WOMMA hosted a WOM Wednesday call featuring Dan Comenduley, Project Management, Customer Metrics and Insights for United Airlines, and Julie Wittes Schlack, SVP of Innovation and Design, and Manila Austin, Director of Research, of Communispace. The call centered around social networks, which are rich with potential to help you better understand your customers, form relationships with them, and directly or indirectly drive word of mouth. In formulating a social networking strategy, businesses should be asking themselves:
* Big or small?
* Public or private?
* What are the best uses of large, public social networks and communities vs. small, exclusive ones?
In starting up their online community, United had to address all of these issues. United's decision to start on online community sprang from the company's goal of creating the best customer experience amongst all U.S. airlines -- including its low-cost competitors. According to Dan, creating an excellent customer experience is the key to building lifelong relationships with customers. And it's those relationships that count.
United decided to use an online community as a way of gaining consumer feedback and insights. Dan outlined the ways that United has used its private, invitation-only online community, including:
* Targeting and learning about premium customers - the 13% of fliers that represent half of the airline revenue.
* Gathering immediate response and deeper insights from a group of people who aren't afraid to give their honest opinions responses
* Soliciting questions from community members that lead to innovations
After outlining United's case study specifically, speakers shared findings from a recent comparison of a large, public community and a small private one in terms of:
* Quality of information
* Honesty of posts
* Helpfulness of information to both community members and the hosting organization
* Frequency of posts
* Quantity of posts
* Value of community input for actionable business decisions.
Presenters illustrated theories about what specific social needs are met by the different types social media platforms.
Featured Speakers:
Dan Comenduley, Project Management, Customer Metrics and Insights, United
Julie Wittes Schlack, Senior Vice President, Innovation & Design, Communispace
Manila Austin, Ph.D., Director of Research, Communispace
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
02/13/2008: Super Buzz or Super Blues: Did Advertisers Find the WOM Sweet Spot Amidst the $2.7 Million Spend?
On Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008, WOMMA hosted a WOM Wednesday teleconference featuring WOMMA Board Members Jim Nail, of the Cymfony division of TNS Media Intelligence, and Pete Blackshaw, of Nielsen BuzzMetrics. Jim and Pete gave their post-game wrap-up of Super Bowl advertisers' strategic touchdowns and fumbles -- detailing which brands got it right, explaining some missed opportunities, and the describing role of word of mouth marketing in the pre- and post-game buzz.
At nearly $3 million for a 30-second spot, a Super Bowl ad can’t be validated on a traditional media planning basis -- it has to dazzle consumers and generate enough WOM to justify the enormous hit to the advertising wallet. Speakers discuss many of the integrated-media elements of the not-so-traditional Super Bowl T.V. ads, including:
* What consumers were talking about before, during, and after the big game
* How successful pre-game tactics were used to generate WOM produce measurable results
* How advertisers used social media tools to amp up their ad value -- and opportunities for more social media usage that were missed
* How advertisers used WOM to take advantage of the 48-hour window of post-game buzz
* What worked, what didn't, and how these techniques can be applied to ad platforms beyond the Super Bowl
For Super Bowl 2008, advertisers competed fiercely to make their ads into WOM-worthy events, in many cases using highly-integrated techniques that went well beyond the ad-buy itself. Which brands garnered the most buzz? How effectively did they compete for pre- and post-game word of mouth? And how well did they leverage the large audience to go beyond pushing a message at consumers, and begin to engage them?
Featured Speakers:
Jim Nail, CMO, Cymfony/TNS Media Intelligence
Pete Blackshaw, Executive Vice President, Nielsen Online Strategic Services
Listen to the audio recording of the call (for WOMMA members).
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