Word of Mouth Basic Training -- Word of Mouth Marketing Association -- WOMMA

Posted on 01/26/06 | 0 Comments | Link

Bio

Podcast: Author Don Peppers on Driving Positive WOM

In this podcast, Don Peppers talks about customer satisfaction as a driver of positive word of mouth. Citing real-life examples, Don goes in-depth on the roles that employee empowerment, ownership, and excellence in service all play in word of mouth stimulation.

Recognized for over a decade as one of the leading authorities on customer-focused relationship management strategies for business, Don Peppers is an acclaimed author and a founding partner of Peppers & Rogers Group.

Don recently gave an enthusiastically received keynote speech at the Word of Mouth Basic Training Conference. In an exclusive free download from WOMMA, you also can read the first chapter of his book "Return on Customer".

To download the podcast, right-click the "Listen Now" icon and choose "Save As" or "Download Link Target"

Click the "Get Podcast" icon to subscribe to WOMMA's podcast series

More about Don:

Posted on 01/26/06 | 0 Comments | Link

Bio

Read Don's WOMBAT How-To: Determining Return on Customer

Read Don's WOMBAT keynote (PDF download)

Download chapter 1 of "Return on Customer:
http://www.womma.org/content/Peppers_chapter1.pdf

How-To: Working with Online Communities

5 Tips from Ubisoft's Nate Mordo

People who flock to online communities are superconductors. They know the latest about everything and spread the word about what's good and what's bad to everyone else. Here, Nate Mordo, Manager of Online Marketing for Ubisoft, shares his tips on reaching out to these communities.

Tip #1. Be honest and transparent
Internet communities are notoriously good at smelling a rat. If you're not honest, even by omission, you can get in big trouble.

Tip #2. Provide tools
More and more media is not simply being passively consumed but being remixed. Give a community tools they can use to upload artwork, create their own blog, or join a message board. For example, if a person is able to upload a picture of himself dressed as a character from a game, he feels like he's actually doing something rather than just passively viewing a trailer of the game.

Tip #3. Don't try to control the message
A brand used to be able to carry a company through hard times. Today, brands can't trust that anymore, because the minute a company does something "wrong," it's dissected online. If you decide not to put up a message board because you're afraid people might write something negative about you, you're simply hiding your head in the sand. Instead, learn from what is being said.

Tip #4. Hierarchy is important
In a community, "elders" begin to emerge, and their opinion counts more than the opinion of someone new. Communities like bragging rights, so find ways to make status clear. You might assign points based on how many times a person has posted or how much they read on the site. A certain number of points signifies a certain rank.

Tip #5. Differentiate between blogs and message board
A blog is a soapbox, mainly for a single person, with a small number of people who give feedback. It's "one-to-many." A message board is more of a roundtable, "many-to-many." The difference is subtle but important, and if you want to foster community you might want to consider both.

More about Nate:

Posted on 01/26/06 | 0 Comments | Link

Bio

Read Nate's WOMBAT presentation (PDF download)

How-To: Harnessing Influentials

5 Tips from Keller Fay Group's Ed Keller

"Word of mouth is not just about blogs or other technology channels," suggests Ed Keller, CEO of The Keller Fay Group and co-author of The Influentials. "Research suggests that at least 80 percent, and maybe more, of WOM occurs face-to-face or voice-to-voice."

Here are Ed's tips on harnessing influentials to create effective word of mouth.

Tip #1. Have something worth talking about
Word of mouth marketing works only if a product is new, high-performing, unique, fun, exciting, surprising, delighting to customers, or otherwise worth talking about. It's only these remarkable elements about your product or service -- as seen from the point of view of the consumer, not just you or your management -- that work effectively with WOM.

Tip #2. Say it to the right people
Word of mouth is most effective when spread through customers who are engaged with your product or category, have large social networks, enjoy positions of trust and confidence among people in their networks, and enjoy expressing their opinions. By targeting the right people, you increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your campaign.

Tip #3. Test your WOM
Just as marketers have honed techniques over the years to test advertising and improve ad effectiveness, WOM campaigns can be tested as well. Does the story appeal to influencers? Do they believe it's worth repeating? Does it come in portable "talk bytes" that are easily remembered and communicated to others?

Tip #4. Choose the right channel strategy
Consider all forms of potential communications channels -- PR, advertising, new and traditional media, direct marketing, customer relations management, product sampling, word of mouth agents -- as triggers of effective word of mouth. Choosing the right channel strategy is dependent on targeting the right people with a message designed to motivate conversations.

Tip #5. Measurement will improve your effectiveness
As with any marketing campaign, measurement is essential to planning effectively and maximizing results (not to mention justifying budgets). It's also important for providing the feedback you need to fine tune your results. Make sure you have a measurement system in place that will permit mid-course corrections in your targeting, messaging, and channel choice.

More about Ed:

Posted on 01/26/06 | 1 Comments | Link

Book

Read Ed's WOMBAT presentation (PDF download)

Day 2: Case Study 16: National Outdoor Leadership School

Bruce Palmer, Director of Admission and Marketing, National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS)

Bruce Palmer began his talk with an amazing number: 80% of those attending the National Outdoor Leadership School hear about it through word of mouth. Is there anyone who would not be envious of this kind of word of mouth success? Another amazing number...97% of attendees would recommend NOLS to a friend. Fred Reichheld would probably say that the Net Promoter score at NOLS is in good shape.

So what did they need....more of the same. They wanted to amplify their success...Increase enrollment though increasing awareness. They had the foundation of great WOM...a great product. So, they got on the bus, an alternative energy bus no less which is powered by recycled vegetable oil (RVO)...Enlisting their most ardent fans and devoted evangelists, their alumni. They went accrues the country on the tour, using the bus as a NOLs program on wheels and got great media coverage. Soy organic soymilk sponsored. Enrollment increased. Program a success.

NOLS seems to have the formula for success...Based upon what was said at the conference about consumer behavior and the requirements for a successful won campaign. They have a great product, customer evangelists, the bus was engaging and allowed for trial...And they have a blog

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Posted on 01/25/06 | 0 Comments | Link

Special thanks from WOMMA

We appreciate the support from people who went the extra mile to make WOMBAT a wonderful conference. We mindfully offer special thanks to:

To Dave of HearThis for producing an unbelievably wonderful podcast series that everyone appreciates.

To Jennifer of PJ Writing Group for writing how-to lessons that will live on for a long time after we're done with the conference.

To Ed and Brad of Keller Fay Group for becoming our 250th member and our first official spin-off member.

To Jason of TaylorMade-adidas Golf for the drivers and the spectacular golf balls.

To Jennifer at Peppers & Rogers Group for facilitating everything with humor and grace (even while injured).

To Tracy at Intuit for putting two and two together and calling at the last minute with a cool idea.

To Dana and Alex for producing an amazing web site and blog that makes conference producers everywhere jealous.

To Toby, Marianne, and Josh for bringing their passions (and their writing abilities) to the conference blog and helping us push the envelope a little.

To Owen and Jesse of coBRANDiT for introducing us to video blogging.

To all of our international members and guests. Welcome and thank you for coming from so far to be with us.

To Scott and Yvonne from HypeCouncil for making this fabulous candy bar promotion happen. Mmm, chocolate.

As they say on PBS, we want to thank our wonderful Sponsors for bringing this programming to viewers like you: Karen at Decision Analyst, Amanda at Organic, Josh at Kaava, Laurent at CRM Metrix, and David at MotiveQuest.

To our Media Partners for helping us get the word out. about the conference and the charity auction: Steve at AdRants, Tig at MarketingVOX, Francois at Corante, Nick and Ken at OMMA Expo, Brad and Josh at iMedia, Bob and Tara at BtoB Magazine

To the entire Coronado Springs staff for producing a wonderful event and helping us out with all the last-minute emergencies. As they say, it was magical.

To our amazing keynote speakers who came through and donated a free copy of their books to every attendee: Don for Return on Customer, Fred Reichheld for The Ultimate Question, Bob Garfield for And Now a Word from Me, and Scott Ginsberg for The Power of Approachability. To Mark at Harvard Business School Press and David at Doubleday for helping make this happen.

To our speakers who were the first to answer the call.

To Todd at 800-CEO-READ for helping get copies of Don Peppers' book and putting together a fabulous giveaway.

To our fellow conference producers who appreciate the need to reach the right people and helped us do it: Nils at BSI, Mike, Chris, and Natalie at BlogOn, Scott and Max at Shop.org, John and Denise from Inbox.

To all of the donors who bid on conference passes and helped us raise money for some very deserving charities: Norman, Stephen, Karen, Mark, Marianne, Tucker, Sheri, Jayme, Patrick, Michael C., Jeff, Diane, Walter, Michael H., Seth, and Nick.

And finally, to all of you for continuing to support WOMMA and helping build this fantastic industry!

Posted on 01/25/06 | 0 Comments | Link

WOMMA conference makes the New York Times

Stop the presses -- WOMMA's Word of Mouth Basic Training conference made Monday's New York Times!

Advertising Is Obsolete. Everyone Says So.
By Julie Bosman, New York Times

ORLANDO, Fla. -- AS advertising conferences go, the take-home message at the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association meeting was a little unusual: Don't advertise.

But at the conference, held here last Thursday and Friday, more than 450 advertising and marketing professionals listened to speakers tell them how to reach customers using some alternatives to traditional advertising, like viral and buzz marketing, that are becoming increasingly popular within the industry.

The conference was called "Word-of-Mouth Basic Training," and it was aimed at teaching attendees how to tap into the power of word of mouth, an ancient form of communication that many marketers have updated by using new technology like blogs, podcasting and online message boards.

At times, the conference could have been mistaken for a religious convention. Among Friday's offerings were sessions titled "Turning Customers Into Evangelists," "Word of Mouth in Faith-Based Markets" and "How to Create Brand Converts." (Later that afternoon, two speakers explained how to "Bring Brands Back from the Dead.")

Speakers with titles like "marketing medic" or "manager of influencer marketing" extolled the effectiveness of nontraditional tactics in an industry that has all but declared the 30-second TV commercial obsolete.

There were many cautionary lessons in what not to do. Years ago, marketers began randomly pitching products to teenagers who appeared to be popular, in the hope that the trendsetters would pass the information to others and create excitement about the product.

That practice has become much more sophisticated, said Jamie Tedford, the senior vice president for marketing and media innovation at Arnold Worldwide in Boston, part of the Arnold Worldwide Partners unit of Havas.

"The search for the cool kids, the kind of cool hunting that we all used to be a part of - it's just not that cool anymore," Mr. Tedford said.

Marketers are now reaching out to "evangelists," who are already die-hard fans of a brand, and persuading them to spread the word through their existing social networks.

"A lot of our evangelists are evangelists because they simply love the product," said Laurie Weisberg, a senior vice president of Informative, a word-of-mouth marketing firm. "They don't need to be rewarded with discounts or anything like that."

Loosely borrowing from Malcolm Gladwell's best-selling book "The Tipping Point," Ms. Weisberg lectured on the importance of using "influencers," or people who have large social networks and are good communicators, and "promoters," people who talk positively about a brand.

Word-of-mouth marketing makes it easier for people to do something they already do: share knowledge about new products so they can feel more important, said George Silverman, the author of "The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing."

"People engage in word of mouth because they want to look good," Mr. Silverman said. "Word of mouth is the most honest advertising medium there is. People don't want to hurt their friends and family and colleagues with bad information."

The importance of ethics and full disclosure was also a recurrent theme at the conference, as speakers repeatedly warned attendees not to misrepresent themselves when, for instance, pitching a product on an online message board. In other words, do not try to be stealthy, said Robert Ricci, the director of Web relations for Weber Shandwick, a public relations firm that is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

"If you're working on a video game, and you go onto a video gamer's blog, let your contacts know that you are an employee of said company," Mr. Ricci said while leading a session titled "How to Work with Bloggers and Communities, the Ethical Way." "Always let them know what your intentions are up front."

But replacing traditional advertising with word-of-mouth and viral marketing is an outlandish notion for most companies. A session devoted to integrating word-of-mouth marketing with traditional advertising drew a crowd, but the main lesson seemed to be how to persuade a C-list celebrity to market your product free. (In this case, the agency for Downy, the fabric softener from Procter & Gamble, enlisted Delilah Luke, a radio D.J., to rave about new Downy Wrinkle Releaser on the air.)

Some word-of-mouth firms are hired as a small part of a company's complete publicity campaign, which includes traditional print and television advertising. Bob Hutchins, the owner of BuzzPlant, a marketing firm in Franklin, Tenn., was hired to help promote "The Passion of the Christ" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" to Christian markets.

"Marketing to a Christian audience is no different than any other audience - just that they exercise choice based on a value system," Mr. Hutchins said, adding: "Once the faith-based community can get behind something and they believe in it, they will pass it along. The key to success to both of those movies was going to the gatekeepers."

The gatekeepers, in this case, were volunteers and other "field agents" who distributed promotions for the movies at church events, Bible study groups and youth organizations. (He said their compensation was often as minor as free movie passes.)

As the conference concluded, some attendees sounded almost awestruck about the possibilities of word-of-mouth marketing. "When you do word of mouth, you're finding out exactly what your customers are saying," said Parrish Johnson, the chief executive of Grapevine Marketing, a marketing and promotions firm in Atlanta. "That's what's scary."

Go and read:
Full Article

Posted on 01/25/06 | 0 Comments | Link

WOMBAT speaker presentations now online

The #1 request we receive at every conference is: "Where can I get a copy of the presentations?" The WOMBAT event was no exception.

We're proud to make available nearly every speaker presentation from both days of the conference. Downloads are free, so go ahead and save a copy of the presentation that intrigued you the most or contained a piece of information you wanted to follow up on.

If you're looking to learn more about how to "do" word of mouth marketing, viral, and buzz, flipping through the speaker presentations is a good first step.

Go to:
Agenda Day One
Agenda Day Two

Posted on 01/24/06 | 0 Comments | Link

New content added to WOMBAT web site

The conference is over and was a huge success!

We're kicking everything into high gear, so you may have noticed a few changes on the WOMBAT web site today. We have a few items you might be interested in:

* A summary of the event

* Helpful links to the onslaught of press and blog coverage

* Speaker presentations (from Day 1 and Day 2)

* Attendee list

* Photo gallery (Attendees are contributing to a Flickr stream for now, and official photos will be coming soon.)

* A link to where you can order the audio recordings from almost every session.

We'll be adding more and more each day, so keep checking back!

Posted on 01/24/06 | 0 Comments | Link

Post-WOMMA WOMBAT Withdrawal - Post Your Comments!

Well, now that was a conference!

First of all, thanks to the fellow WOMMA bloggers who helped me bring the conference coverage to everyone:

- Toby Bloomberg of Bloomberg Marketing and the Diva Marketing blog.
- Josh Hallet of hyku - another pro blogger and blog consultant
- Marianne Richmond of Resonance Partnership, LLC and the Resonance Partnership Blog

Thanks also to WOMMA for bringing us all to Orlando to be part of such as great thing. It was a pleasure working with such fine folks covering such a monumental event.

What were your thoughts on the WOMMA WOMBAT conference? Leave your feedback in the comments here.

Technorati Tags: bloggers, feedback, Josh Hallett, Marianne Richmond, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Toby Bloomberg, wombat06, womma+wombat

Posted on 01/22/06 | 1 Comments | Link

How to Create A Great WOM Campaign

George Silverman
The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing
Market Navigation Inc.
George Silverman's Word of Mouth Marketing Blog

George Silverman believes in word of mouth marketing and draws a distinct line in the sand between the old world of marketing and the new new world of marketing. He has a list of old market concepts and tools and new, new marketing. The really good thing about this list is that he really drives home the points with it. He began with the simple concept of speed and says that traditional marketing is just slow compared to word of mouth...He said word of mouth is 5 times faster than any other traditional media source. He then began differentiate the concepts:
Back in the old old days, marketers and advertisers embraced military analogies: advertising and promotion were guerilla campaigns, war...marketing captured the hearts and minds of consumers, crushed the competition, made killer profits and so on. Positioning was a battle; and these concepts were revolutionary.

In the new, new world Silverman says, we embrace our customers; we make love not war. In the new marketplace, we need new marketing. Now, marketing is a partnership, we ask permission, the former enemy is now the center of our universe. Marketing is Google....The consumer is in control of the information. There is too much information so the consumer isn't listening.

We don't sell to them, we help them buy. These are important distinctions and marketers need to understand the distinction. Consumers seek information before they buy, they seek information while they buy and they want information after they buy. The marketers and advertisers who get this, provide the means to the information, and is "there" during the process will make the sale and keep the customer.

And then Silverman made another important distinction: in the old old days we wanted to disrupt, intrude and break through the clutter: now, marketers have a higher standard to meet. They need to engage, not break the consumer; its not about the clutter, awareness or recall; its about the message and about the product and about experiencing as much about the product before the sale through the experiences of others. WOM is an experience delivery mechanism. And if it is a successful experience then it "triggers full adoption behavior" more than anything else. To repeat, a great WOM campaign "produces the successful experience that triggers full adoption behavior more than anything else."

Key points are the ones we have heard over and over: engagement, experience, customer is in charge, information, and who is in charge of the information.
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Posted on 01/22/06 | 1 Comments | Link

Editing Video Like Crazy

We are back in Boston and editing like crazy...thanks to all the great people who agreed to be on camera. We have a lot of interviews in the can and will be cranking thru them (and posting) over the next few days. Look for more insight from Mark Kingdon (Organic), Paul Rand (Ketchum), Jamie Tedford (Arnold), Steve Freidman (Weblogs Inc.), and others...we even wrangled some key quotes out of Bob Garfield. Stay Tuned. -Owen
(ps if you want to subscribe to the vids w/ a feed (iTunes or otherwise) there's one set up on our site.)

Day 2: Shave & A Hair Cut WOMMA Styled

Virgil Simons, The Prostate Net

Virgil Simons is on a mission to inform every African American man about the risks of prostrate cancer. (African American men are the highest risk group at approximately twice the rate of other American men.) Not only does he intend to spread the world about the dangers of the disease but he wants men to get tested.

Prostate Net has two challenges: 1 - how to find every guy. 2. how to convenience men to take action e.g., get tested.

At the heart of Virgil's simple but brilliant strategy, is a word of mouth program using community barbers and barbershops. In the African American culture the barbershop is a place outside of school, church and home that reinforces black life. It's a place for every day talk among friends to exchange gossip and ask advice.

Unless they really mess up your hair, barbers are trusted members of the community who usually have known families for generations. Fathers bring sons for their first hair cuts who then grow up and bring their sons and so it goes. To put it into word of mouth marketing terms, barbers are influencers.

A national effort was tied to the sequel from the film The Barbershop. In addition, celebs filmed PSA spots. Promotions coincided with cancer awareness week. The program even reached Jay Leno's radar; Jay mentioned it on The Tonight Show. That's word of mouth on steroids.

To assure that his barbers are comfortable talking about prostate cancer, and are perceived as credible, Virgil created a training program complete with framed certificate ready for display.

The other half of the equation involves the action - the testing and that means involving medical centers. Virgil built a business case focuses on benefits to the medical centers.
-increased traffic to the medical center
-increase reveune
-increased market share
-clincial trials recruitment

2004 Results
-27 medical centers
-500 barber
-over 10,000 men screened
-over 440 PCA cases diagnosed

Throughout WOMBAT we heard the secrets to a successful word of mouth program are make it easy and give something back. The Prostate Net has that covered too.
-Posters in medical centers
-Listings of participating barbershops
-Counter cards in barbershops
-Handbooks for barbers
-Post-training and recognition plaques for barbers
-$250 screen coupons in barbershops
-Merchandise items for barbers and consumers
-Incentives for barbers
-On-gong recognition for barber efforts

Now that relationships with barbers are being developed, Virgil's vision is to build the first digital grassroots effort to bring healthcare information directly to where people work and live. "Wired Barbershops" will include computer stations complete with printers. It will take urban healthcare education to the next level.

The future includes building relationship with organizations such as American Cancer Society, American Medical Society, corporate partnerships. Blogs and podcasts are also on the to do list.

As Virgil said, "At the end of the day will you be at the barber shop?"

www.prosttenet.org
www.prostatenet.com
1.888.477.6763
P. O. Box 1292 Secaucus, NJ 07096

Technorati Tags: WOMMA, WOMBAT, WOMBAT06,

Day 2: Polo Gives Back And Connects With College Students

Samantha Skey, Senior Vice President, Alloy Media & Marketing

About 60% of today's college students live in the bubble of a college campus. According to Samantha it's not easy to market to this audience; however, with a total disposable income of over $200 billion it might be worth the effort.

Samantha stressed that word of mouth is critical to reaching this market.
-70% of college females say talking to friends is the most influential when making a purchase
-9 out of 10 college students pay attention to input from friends

Example
Alloy Media & Marketing was challenged to increase demand for Polo demin among college students. They created relevancy and hit on an emotional note through a cause related event on campuses that supported Hurricane Katrina survivors.

The goal was to encourage students to donate their old jeans in exchange for a Polo jean coupon. Students' old jeans were displayed creating a cool mural and instant gratification; donors could see right away that they were involved with doing something good and important.

Displaying the old jeans also produced immediate excitement as kids compared jeans and told friends the stories behind fades and rips. In addition, the denim jean "mural" built buzz and drove more students to the event.

Campus ambassadors were recruited and asked ask to bring 10 friends to the event. And friends brought friends who brought friends...

Polo sponsored the event on 7 different campuses, received positive feedback from local media. In order to ensure that the event was perceived as "legit" Polo partnered with Habitant for Humanity.

Results
-4000 jeans sold
-2000 jeans donated
-Polo succeeded in connecting to the denim category with college students.

Technorati Tags: WOMMA, WOMBAT, WOMBAT06, POLO,

Day 2: Turning Customers Into Evangelists

Betsy Weber, Chief Evangelist, TechSmith

WOMBAT attendees have the coolest titles. Betsy's is Chief Evangelist. Her story is how a small software company, based in Okemos, MI, turned its customers into passionate fans who love talking about TechSmith and its products.

While some of the other sessions focused on high-level strategies, Besty provided a treasure chest of tips and suggestions that we could take home and with a tweak here and there implement with our own brands.

Step One - Your product/service. Betsy reminded us that turning customers into fans begins with your product or service. As the saying goes...GIGO (garbage in/garbage out).

Step Two - Power Listening. TechSmith has developed multiple customer touch points: meet-ups; feedback links on their website; blog; customer advisory boards; beta tests with customers. Where was Betsy off to after an intense 2-days at WOMBAT? You guessed it. She was meeting with customers in the Orlando area.

So you may say, meeting your customer where they live is great if you have a big budget. If you don't have the bucks to visit them, invite them to visit you. TechSmith has a standing offer to their customers to drop by for a chat when they're in town. You may ask, how many people get to Okemos? I don't know. What is important is the offer is on the table and that's what counts.

Step Three..Four..and so on .. let's just say here are
Betsy's Best Bets To Turn Customers Into Evangelists
-Include an extra 30-day free evaluation with every box
-Create a button to wear
-Create a brag tag button for web sites
-Create a brag tag to add to video
-Create a "presentation in a box" for user groups that includes a PowerPoint deck and support materials. Put it on your website for easy download.
-Use geo maps on your sites or blog that identifies where users are located. Helps with building user groups.
-Blogs allow for comments. Listen and respond. One of TechSmith's most important relationships (Channel 9) began on the blog.
-Have developers talk at user forums. Betsy says it's better than any formal training.
-Build good will by getting out into the community.
-Give your customers something for nothing. TechSmith doesn't charge for tech support.
-Speaking of tech support, make it easy to talk to a real person on the phone.
-Offer free training. Better users turn into evangelists.
-Respond back to all inquiries. Betsy sends handwritten thank you notes.
-Speaking of thanks, remember to thank you your customers.
-Give your customers something to talk about.
-Surprise your customers or as Betsy says, Make Their Day. How about an out of the blue call? Or invite a customer to participate in a screen cast and then put the video up on your website or blog. [Give a copy to your customer to add to her blog/website?]
-Make it easy for your customers

Take Aways
Listen
Get out
A pair to share
Involve
Use the Buddy System
Build Goodwill
Take your mothers advice - say thank you
Bonnie Raitt was right - give em something to talk about

Books recommended by Betsy
The Tipping Point
Creating Customer Evangelists.

Technorati Tags: WOMMA, WOMBAT, WOMBAT06, Customer_Evangelists

Day 2: Oxymites Chat It Up With College Kids

Drew Neisser, President & CEO, Renegade Marketing Group

Panasonic's Oxyride Extreme Power battery is positioned as the next generation in technology designed for the digital era. So it made perfect sense to target the college crowd. These kids consume batteries like beer at frat parties...great segment to tap into. But how the *!@? do you get college kids to care about a commodity product like batteries? That was the challenge facing Panasonic and their agency Renegade Marketing.

In doing their homework, Renegade Marketing learned that this audience is multi-tasking, blogging, planning fun stuff and even putting a few hours into the books. They love irrevent humor. But they are skeptics from the word go. They have more energy than most batteries. That was the hook...Panasonic wanted to convey that Oxyride was even more energetic than college students.

Renegade Marketing needed a killer idea that would connect with the target audience when they were involved with their passions e.g., music, games, online. And they wanted a campaign that had legs. And they knew it had to include that irrevent humor.

Ta da! The Oxymites...edgy, animated characters each with their own back-story meant to personify the buyers. Bully, Fighter, Helper, Hyper and all the rest of the Oxymites are designed with an "x/o" that relates back to the packaging.

Drew Nelson believes that effective campaigns have layers, especially for big brands, one layer is rarely enough. The Inner layer put the product in the hands of the consumer on college campuses and at concerts.

Students had an opportunity to interact with the Oxymites. How about a game where you bang on a drum until the Oxyride's head explodes? The target loved it. (Remember .. irrevent humor.) Winners were given t-shirts, wrist bands and more. Panasonic's prize was the kids thought t-shirts were cool and wore them creating more word of mouth buzz.

Jason Mraz was brought in as a sponsor. Panasonic won again when Jason used Oxyride batteries in all the mics at his performances and boasted that they were double the life of other batteries.

The "inner layer" touched 50,000 kids. Did they talk about the batteries? Drew is realistic. Batteries no. Oxymites? Jason? Yup! "The brand that understood them and was attempting to live their life style."

Second layer took the brand online into places where college students hang out like MySpace, and Yahoo. A community was built where kids could engage with each other and of course an Oxymite website that included download IM skins, games and even information about batteries.

Results
-10 million IMS
-Half million visitors to oxyride.me.com

The right blogs to advertise on couldn't be found; instead 9 blogs were asked to blog They were given plasma tvs and some other spiff. They had complete freedom..no editing from Panasonic. The first post was about a blogger's experience in lesbian bar. As Drew puts it, "Panasonic didn't blink."

TV was used with spots only on late, late night: 1a-4a. This gave Renegade Marketing an opportunity to create "un PC" spots staring the Oxymites. The production elements were cool...done in same black and white style as the characters with splashes of color.

The campaign was picked up by the NY Times along with other traditional media.

Take Aways
-Focus
-Engage offline
-Engage online
-Layer

Technorati Tags: WOMMA, WOMBAT, WOBAT06, Oxymites, Panasonic,

Posted on 01/20/06 | 1 Comments | Link

Session C: How to Build a Great Reputation Online

Ben Straley, Director of Marketing Judy's Book
Paul Williams, CEO iKarma
Herbert Ong, CEO Genuosity

Ben Straley talked about reputation value and reputation management. Reputation value is driven by what others write online and off. Reputation management is essential and the first rule is to embrace the concept that it is important and must be managed and integrated into the operation and marketing of your business.

Paul Williams is the CEO of a company called iKarma which is an online reputation management system similar conceptually to the Ebay feedback system. The iKarma system is an open system where comments and feedbacks regarding your business or service can be posted by clients and customers. You set up an account with Ikarma and can start rating businesses and services with a 1-5 star rating and open comments. The business or person that is written about can respond. ikarma seems to be getting positive word of mouth from the blogosphere..

Paul Williams suggests that "you can turn bloggers into happy customers or you can turn your happy customers into bloggers." Your customers, he said are friendly, already like you, have friends and family with active social lives; bloggers, he says already hate you, have online friends and live at home with their mothers. Customers give you standard WOM which is limited to your circle of friends. Relationship Management Systems (RMS) such as iKarma give you unlimited reach and influence. RMS can add credibility to customer opinions. WOM has more power,advertising has more reach. RMS has more endurance. Makes sense.

Herbert Ong, CEO of Genuosity Inc. talked about the importance of testimonials. He says that reputation is word of mouth and testimonials are the most important part of reputation. He has an equation that summarizes what he means:
PWOM (positive word of mouth)-NWOM (negative word of mouth)= your reputation

He suggests that you always ask for testimonials from your customers and that you collect and display them. They represent your reputation.

He says that promoters, or evangelists, represent positive word of mouth. Passive (amiables) are neutral or no word of mouth and Detractors represent negative word of mouth. It is important to turn the Passives into promoters. He suggests that you need to make it easy for the passives to give positive feedback: use a link in your email signture to a testimonial capture page. An added benefit is with search engines...they eat content and testimonials are content. Additionally you should try to get your customers to do video or podcasts.

He summarized by saying that you should lead with a remarkable product or service..not with marketing.

Day 2: Word of Mouth Rewards

Scott Meldrum, HypeCouncil
Bob Troia - Affinitive

Scott Meldrum

HypeCouncil works with major brands to develop rewards programs for loyal customers. Some key points:

REWARDS

R - Relevance
Based upon customer demos and the brand. Think about a hybrid vehicle, obviously not every customer would receive a car. Remember to ask the customer, 'what do you want?'

E - Exclusivity
Involve them in the process. It's not always about discounts. Many loyal customers want to establish a closer association with the brand. Give them the inside track.

W - Win-Win
What's good for you customer is good for the brand.

A - Advocacy
Deliver rewards that build brand champions. Do not reward with monetary items. Strike a balance so that advocates don't push too hard. Don't give away a large item, i.e. if you were giving away a vehicle you might end up getting 10,000 people who aren't loyal to you brand attempting to 'win'.

R - Relationship
You are working with fans, so there is an emotional aspect to the relationship that is sometimes hard to quantify. Sometimes is not about marketing it's about sharing.

D - Deliver on the Promise
Once again it's a relationship, deliver what you promise. Don't violate the trust.

S - Simplicity
speaks for itself

Bob Troia

There are a number of rewards program, but what are you rewarding...(Bob talks very fast....too fast)

Social Capital - your sphere of influence
Social Currency - things that help you make connections

Co-creation: allow you customers to help develop the product.

Items in a video game were named by members of the community. They were also given assets to create their own items. This led to anticipation of the game.

There was a point incentive system as part of the program but there was a low redemption rate only 29%. Also many were reluctant to 'cash-out' their points because they points were associated with status.

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Posted on 01/20/06 | 1 Comments | Link

Podcasting 101

Dan Cooke
Interactive Marketing Whirlpool Corporation
1-269-923-4535
daniel_w_cooke@whirlpool.com

Podcasting is red hot...its about a year old and it is being called the "next big thing".

Why the hype?

Dan says its simple math. C+R=U
convenience+relevance=usage

Case Study: Whirlpool

Why did they do it?
Fit with the brand startegy
Nurture emotional connection to brand
Be viewed and respected as an innovator
Develop new insights and learning
Grow loyalty and affinity to brands

Brand Positioning: Imaginative solutions that help her be incredibly productive.

"We're all about helping families in their lives. This is about connecting."
Audrey Reed-Granger
Director, Consumer Insight Whirpool Brand

Whirpool's Approach
Internaly produced (1-2 per week)
Don't push products
Real life, with real people
Enable WOM
Vanity URL (whirlpool.com/family)
Syndication

How Do You Get Started?
1. Develop content strategy
message
audience
Explore Options

2. Take Action
make ir relevant
think viral
start small

3. Produce it
record it

4. Promote it
get the word out
put on website
include in blogs

5. Measure it
quantitative
downloads
page views

qualitative
feedback

Additional resources

Forrester research: Trends and Best Practices
ipodder.org
podcast alley
feeed burne
odeo service
singing fish.com search engine

Final Thoughts
Have a bias toward action
start small
test, learn and refine
solicit feedback
consider sponsorships
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WOMMA, WOMBAT

Day 2: Using WOM to Bring a Brand Back from the Dead

David Neupert, CEO M80
Jim Elliott, Cole & Weber United

Talking about empowering your fans. Embrace them. We're talking about 1% of your audience, but in the case of a large market, that 1% can become a huge marketing machine.

Family Guy

It was cancelled by FOX. They looked to recruit people to help market the Family Guy DVD. The original response was 'Screw You, you cancelled the show, why should we help you?"

How do we turn this around? They started to work with the influencers to change opinion that this was a good thing.

For each project they put together a team, that team is mostly web-based and they are a marketing team. Team members receive original clips and content from FOX. To the team members it is bragging rights, they have it first. Team members receive an ID that is tagged to all their initiatives. Everything they do to help market the product is tracked. A built in ROI.

The entire campaign is built on pass-a-long. A high-interest user might pass along a clip to a low-interest fan that will pass that along to friends and family.

Team members constantly provide feedback. One of the overwhelming items was that fans wanted the show back. They took that back to the client. The show is now back on the air.

The total Family Guy team was around 7000 people, once again that's around 1% of the viewer base.

FOX used all the information gathered to make season 2 better and the movie better.

Rainier Beer

In the mid-70s there was a beer, it was an icon in Seattle. They enjoyed 60-70% market share. Then it died.

Three years ago Pabst said, can we bring this back from the dead. And it was dead. The brand was sold and eventually moved out of the state. Many of the locals had some resentment, they though the brand had abandoned.

They went to bars and they drank and talked and drank and talked. They found out who the 'talkers' were. What they learned that in the 70's the people owned the Rainier brand. They re-launch couldn't be a marketing campaign. It had to be from the people.

They identified two guys and let them talk and drink and talk and drink and talk. They determined that what people loved was the commericals from the 70's.

They started a campaign that involved a petition to get the commericals back on the air. They created a TV shows. Tim and Chuck drove to bars in an old Ford F-250 with a large neon R on the back of it. It started to steamroll.

The campaign web site is at Remember Rainier.

Jim's running out of time and is rushing through things....I'll post more in a bit.

Day 2: Spread the Good Word! | Case Study: WOM In Faith-Based Markets

In the faith base market, almost every college in America has up to 25 different faith based organizations. For example, when The Passion of The Christ came out Ground Force Network (GFN) built a whole outreach campaign to get to each of these student organizations.

It's easier to get into churches and other faith based orgs. at the ground level. Thinks "church ladies network." It's often to get in the door starting at the top, but if you can move something in at the ground level, especially with the influencers, you're further ahead on winning the game.

Church Field Agents:
- post materials on bulletin boards

Case Studies:

- The Maker's Diet
- The Chronicles of Narnia

A few interesting tactics that I'm seeing separate GFN case studies from some of the other WOM case studies we've seen.
- VERY passionate, faith based street teams that are mobilized at near light speed
- Deep connections with the college and youth community, mostly thorough their outreach programs
- Feet on the street supporters that ARE PROUD to support the products

The acrostic "CAPTIVATE" for incredible WOM marketing:
* Community
* Anti-Spam
* Personal Interaction
* Tools
* Integrity
* Viral
* Authentic
* Testimonials
* Events

There was an interesting analogy drawn to marketing to the African-American community some 30 years ago in seeing them as a monolith, which was a bad idea - same in

Technorati Tags: faith-based marketing, wombat06, womma+wombat

Day 2: Best Buy Avoiding Typical Mistakes

Laurie Blum - Best Buy
Joe Mele - Avenue A | Razorfish

Rather than going in order Laurie and Joe are playing off each other. They work together so the interaction is great.

Strategic issues, there are sometimes unrealistic expectations and tactical issues which are in execution.

Strategic

Are your expectations realistic, is your product or service viral-able? (common theme at WOMMA, if you have a bad product no WOM is ever going to make it better). Viral things can't be started and stopped on calendar dates. It's almost impossible to say, "We'll get X number of users from this campaign"

Can you make it like the chicken thing (think subservient), but our demo is women 35-45. That's not a good fit.

It's not always not about the 'funny'. Non-funny things can be viral.

The Viral Equation (Kinda hard to blog an equation)

What should you do?
- Educate your internal constituents
- Set realistic parameters
- Don't let them believe the hype
- Confirm that the marketing rules still apply
- It's not all funny (keeps repeating)
- Embrace failure

Tactical

You need to get digital rights. Things that are cut from other productions can't be put in your campaign. Make sure you have an appropriate budget, just because it looks 'low-cost' doesn't mean it is.

Integration, you need to plan way ahead. Determine how to involve all your media assets. Know that you can/need to measure (goes back to expectations).

Case Study

Best Buy developed the 'Silence is Golden' campaign which are small commericials which promote silencing cell phones in movie theaters. In association with this campaign a series of 'movies' were created.

One of them was PumpUpTheMovie.com It was a video of a cheerleader being tossed through a basketball hope. There was quite a bit of discussion of how it was done, was it fake? Thousands of inbound links from blogs and web sites.

Technorati Tags: wombat, womma

Posted on 01/20/06 | 1 Comments | Link

Attendee Interviews: Frank, meet Tupperware

At conferences, you meet the most amazing people like Nikola of Tupperware and Elisa of frank (as in 'frank discussions')

Everyone gets something different out of these conferences. Overall, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive! Some of the ideas stirring around with Nikola and Elisa:
- co-creation of content and marketing messages
- the unstoppable power of social media (so much so that entire business are now built on social media consulting)
- you companies need to tie into influencers and have real discussions
- WOM, inside and out! - bring internal, not just an external play
- collaborate on marketing - next age of marketing

Someone needs to get Elisa and 'frank' to speak at the next event. In our 'frank' discussion about WOMMA and WOMBAT, it's readily apparent that their on the right track. If you're in Minneapolis on February 28th, check out The Day of Frank and frank's seminar social media and how leverage it for your enterprise, inside and out.

According to Nikola, in Serbia McDonalds is like a palace - marble, eat off the floor, 6 months to get a job there. Who knew?

Technorati Tags: feedback, wombat06, womma+wombat

Day 2: Case Study - Daimler-Chrysler: Product Seeding with Influencers

Patrick Thoburn, Matchstick

In 2004 the Chrysler brand was in crisis. Many predicted the end of the Chrysler brand name. Then came the 300C. It was the first product of the collaboration of Chrysler and Mercedes Benz. After the launch Chrysler realized they had a buzzworthy vehicle.

Chrysler loaned a man name Steve Kowch a 300C. He was known among his friends as the 'Car Guy'
In the one week he had the car he made significant impressions among friends and co-workers.

Disclosure is of course a big issue. Steve was upfront with the fact that Chrysler chose him, this added to his enthusiasm. There were a number of factors they use in their profile.

Behavior: Looking to buy within 1 year, tend to talk about the process of buying
Attitude: Open to domestic sedan
Connectedness: Wide social circle, prone to spread of auto advice
Knowledge: consumption of auto media
Status: For example realtors

Brand loyalty does not always relate to brand influencers. Their primary picks were non-Chrysler fans. Their previous non-advocacy of the brand led to more credibility in their message to friends/co-workers.

What's the methodology? They used telephone and intercept interviews at upscale shopping destinations. They also looked for people profiled in national magazines, newspapers. One out of fifteen people researched was seeded with a vehicle.

150 influencers were invited along with a guest to a launch event for the car. After the event all the influencers were contacted to see what their impression was. A few of those were given cars (105). After one month all participants received a follow-up survey.

The average participant:
Drove 436 miles
14 Total Passengers
62.5 Conversations About the Car

A total of 42 car sales were directly attributed to the seeding program.

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Day 2: Online Feedback Is Good For Marketing

Josh Sinel,Kaava
We're hearing this over and over...online data is a new source of information. You can't control it...but what can you do about it and how can it help move the brand forward?

Josh reminds us that the information that is gathered online is a major mover in understanding how business can react to their customers. However, people speak differently online than they do in focus groups or other traditional research techniques. So, with any research technique, one of the challenges is how to analyze the data. And of course as with any marketing strategy you must set goals and objectives.

How Tos ...
First, strategy is to build a data base which means technology before you can mine and then analyze it.
Second, recognizing the noise factor...what is relevant ...and filter the noise
Third, although technology is necessary, you must understand the limits of the technology
Fourth, it comes back to human research skills

Benefits
-Large sample of current relecant opinons and beliefs
-Fast turn around
-Immediate understanding or competitve landscape through consumers' mind
-Early identification of consumer product experience ... positive and negative
-Listening to the "language" as well as hearing voice of the customer

The loudest and most prolonged voice not necessary be the most important. Bread crumbs are important ... follow the bread crumbs

Brett Hurt, Bazaarvoice
The company will officially launch February 2006.

Brett began with telling us a story of how he and his wife trusted an amazon review, about a baby carriage, over advice from family and friends. It seems he's not alone in the influence of strangers when it comes to making purchase decisions. Why? Reviews are about personal experiences and frequently included lots of research information.

Brett tell us that conversions are higher when people use customer reviews.

Tips
-Make it convenient for the consumer and don't let the results get dusty before you analyze it.
-Add results about your top rated products to your website with a direct link.
-Create a What's Hot area for products pulling great reviews.

As with any research reviews will pull strengths and benefits and weaknesses. Look for gaps in your product line and of course, customer concerns should be addressed with direct feedback to the customer.

Leverage your influential customers ... those who frequently review products. They may not be your highest revenue producers but these are the folks that will help you sell so invite them into a customer council.

Added benefit: as reviews increase per page natural search increases. Found that people who came in through these pages convert higher and come back more often.
Technorati Tags: WOMBAT6, WOMMA,

How to Motivate Fans, Advocates and Evangelists

Laurie Weisberg, Informative
Jamie Tedford, Arnold Worldwide
Jen Scott, Maxwell PR

Laurie Weisberg spoke about finding out who is talking about your brand and why... She works for a company called Informative that provides an application to answer the questions.
Essentially the Informative solution segments consumers into advocates and influence and measures their behavior.

There are two trial offers available for WOMMA Basic Training attendees if you call 1-800-829-1979.

Jamie Tedford from Arnold Worldwide gave a Word of Mouth Pop Quiz:

1. WOM is primarily driven by influentials & sneezers b. Real people: its not just for cool people any more..Real people talk about your product everyday
2. WOM is better than a.Conquest tool b. Loyalty trigger...loyalty trigger; WOMM is for lovers; brand lovers are more likely to buzz than prospects
3. The most rewarding motivation for WOM: $ or information; information. information is WOMM's currency. share information because of the uneven distribution of information. stop hunting start mining. start with brand lovers and love outward.

Jenn Scott: Maxwell PR spoke about a successful word of mouth campaign conducted for Kettle Chips.
For the Love of Potato Chips: How Kettle Chips spread the word
Product fanatics...Loyal fanatics
peoples Choice Campaign: Event Sampling that garnered 16,000 flavor suggestions
email news letter: the dirt; craven
peoples choice web soddenly voting
media relations...Traditional media campaign
trade communications

Results of the People's Choice Campaign: 50,000 votes cast
Sales increased

Next up Crave Club ...06
People's Choice II

Day 2: It's Showtime! | Case Study: Showtime: Building Barbershop Buzz Via Radio And Telephone with Gregory Wester

Showtime ran an audio blogging, phone based promotion for Barbershop, The Series. (they ran the campaign through VoodooVox)

25% of people calling in from the target market press 9 (on their phone) to check out more about the contenst

Tips to success:

1: Target the right evangelists

2. Make is easy (really easy)
- get your friends to call
- listen to your story
- the more friends that call, the more that listen, the more likely you are to be a winner

3. Use multiple motivations
- mixture of motivations to get involved

4. Your catalyst - Their words
- text message to phone - forward to friends

5. Give them tools to facilite to word of mouth
- text messages, phone numbers, easy to forward

6. Gumbies are played out

Results:

Incall is a great way to engage
wom tracked via phone
voice recording created awesome wom material

Live dj reads
Broadcast integration
Web integration
Flash-based viral

Demo targeting is done by

ratings & impressions
1. pilot show - no nielsen ratings
2. pilot test, so just concerned about results from the project itself

Pilot test campaign under $30K . Sweet.

You know you've got the right people in the room when a customer of they system (VoodooVox) pipes in and expresses how much of an evangelist he is for the system. Anyone have a VoodooVox tattoo? Get this man some ink! (and some cash)

VoodooVox got some great PR when they turned their IVR system for some serious good around Katrina - they set their IVR system up for recording calls from Katrina victims where family members could dial in to VoodooVox, type in their loved one's regular phone number, and see if they'd left a message on their status. Talk about NEEDING word-of-mouth to propagate...

Technorati Tags: audio blogging, wombat06, womma wombat

Day 2: Jackie Huba - How to Create Customer Evangelists

Jackie Huba - Church of the Customer

This will be a workshop. We're going to talk about how to create things that work within your company. (Link to Jackie's Slides)

We need to talk more about WOM and loyalty. That's what Jackie is interested in, long-term positive word of mouth. What are your all-time favorite brands and what are you loyal to?

Answers:
- NetFlix
- Google
- Diet Coke
- Apple

Why do you use NetFlix? They love it. Would they ever try a competing service? They would never use Wal-Mart. They identify with the company, they're looking out for them. They've grown with the company.

Loyalty is not buying more stuff. It's an investment of sacrifice that somebody would make to strengthen a relationship. You can ask a friend for $20. Could you ask your customers for $20?

Satisfaction is not a good measure of loyalty. It was perhaps airlines that started the 'loyalty program' that is more about continued buying, but nobody in the audience is really 'loyal' to any of these 'loyalty programs'

The loyalty ladder:
- Satisfaction
- Repeat Purchaser
- Word of Mouth
- Evangelist
- Ownership

Tivo spent millions in advertising, but it was a friend that sold Jackie. Why don't companies enable this?

The pinnacle is when the customers have a sense of ownership, they feel responsible for your success. Southwest allows passengers in on the flight attendant interview process.

Evangelists love to give constructive criticism. Some firms are marrying the call center with the marketing department since many of the calls are suggestions.

Evangelists will also defend you and support you. You need to start with a remarkable product, if you don't have that then you are lost. From there we go to true believers.

The Six Tenets

1. Customer plus-delta
You need to know what people are saying about you?

Tom LaTour CEO of Kimpton Hotels calls 10 customers every day and asks them what they thought about their experience. You need to have customer outreach. Their loyalty card lists his phone number and e-mail address on the back, and he answers!

2. Napsterize you knowledge
How can you take a product and go from 0 to 58 million users in a short span? Blogging allows you to continually publish information. The 'Office' started to have distribution via vodcast. Take pieces of information and allow it to be spread quickly.

3. Build the Buzz
When Jackie and Ben wrote the book the word 'buzz' had a different meeting. When you work with evangelists you need to keep a steady stream of information. Build a Bear Workshop does a great job of continually building WOM. Evangelists often can do a better job of selling than a company can.

4. Create Community
Too many organizations think of their customers as numbers on a spreadsheet. Get your customers together. Bill Samuels, Jr. CEO of Maker's Mark, go listen to the podcast. Marketing without fingerprints....they don't push their brand. They were concerned that the company was growing so much that they were concerned that they didn't know the names of their customers. Maker's Mark provides their evangelists with business cards. You get your name on a barrel. They will even let you know when your barrel is aged.

Does your company have a Mecca? Is there a place that your evangelists can come to connect?

5. Make Bite-Size Chunks
Is there an easy way to sample your product/service? If somebody recommends your product how can that new customer have a taste? Izze does a great job of zero-fingerprint marketing. When the sponsor and event there are no signs or banners, only product. People feel that they have discovered the product (ownership)

6. Create a Cause
This isn't always supporting a a charity. What are you really selling? Is it a product or a cause?

Word of Mouth is Not a Media Channel

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