This is old content! The Womnibus Blog has been retired. For the new stuff, visit The WOMMA Word.
Skip to Content | Skip to Navigation
← October 2004 | Womnibus Home | January 2005 →
The Consumer Electronics Association released a new survey on teen consumer electronics which highlights the importance of viral marketing to that segment.
"A key insight from the survey relates to the nature of peer pressure," says Sean Wargo, CEA's director of analysis. "Seventy-two percent of those surveyed say they are more likely to want a given product if a friend owns it."
Virgin Mobile's new viral Web campaign -- Chrismahanukwanzakah -- has had roughly 110,000 unique visitors, e-cards have been sent to about 500,000 Virgin Mobile users, and a ring tone based on the campaign's jingle has been downloaded more than 411,000 times, according to an article from MediaPost's Media Daily News. Virgin Mobile's VP of Brand and Communications, who is monitoring buzz on various blogs, says the campaign is "kicking ass" and generating lots of press, including an article from ABC News.
http://www.chrismahanukwanzakah.com/
MediaPost's article:
http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsID=284067
ABC News article:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=311874&page=1
What do you do when you are selling a complicated product that doesn't readily lend itself to viral word of mouth? Create something fun that is viral-worthly, and is somewhat related to the topic.
Usability guru Mark Hurst gets people visiting his consultancy with a companion website called This Is Broken that highlights usability disasters in the real world. The site describes itself as a project to make businesses more aware of customer experiences. Mark posts readers' horror stories about usability disasters in the real world.
It's funny and it gets forwarded.
It's easy to do and easy to maintain.
And each post drives visitors back to Hurst's main consultancy site.
It's been popular enough that the New York Times covered it too.
So, start thinking about a lighter side of your business that you can package for word of mouth delivery.
More info:
This is Broken
Jonathan Carson of Internet-tracking firm BuzzMetrics talks about monitoring "word-of-mouth influencers" online as a market-research tool in this Wall Street Journal article.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110071998028976955,00.html
Check out WOMMA founding member Pete Blackshaw's predictions for buzz-inspired marketing throughout 2005 in his most recent ClickZ article. (Watch for increased product placements, more free wireless, and integrated marketing misfires, he predicts.)
Fans of the Mozilla Foundation's new Web browser, Firefox 1.0, rallied to raise money and place a two-page ad in the New York Times. This terrific example of word-of-mouth marketing generated a triple marketing whammy: the group's innovative way of bringing together Firefox advocates to raise money for the ad generated stories in the New York Times and elsewhere, technical design problems created more press when the ad was delayed, and finally, the ad itself ran (to yet more fanfare).
Perhaps one of the most exciting recent examples of consumer generated media and word-of-mouth marketing is the success of an online iPod ad created by high school teacher George Masters that went viral after being picked up by several blogs in early December. By December 13, it had been viewed over 37,000 times. But not only did it reach thousands of consumers (with no effort from Apple) -- it has also set the marketing world abuzz, with some experts heralding homemade ads as the future of advertising. (Wired News, December 13) A lesson to companies that don't hold consumers dear to their hearts... imagine what Masters could have done had he been anti-Apple.
TiVo Inc., in a stunt designed as a direct slap in the face to Comcast, gave away nearly 2,000 free digital video recorders to Comcast subscribers who showed up at the TiVo office bearing a Comcast bill and a toy for charity. This came as a result of Comcast's flubbed launch of its digital video recorder service in San Francisco, with customer service reps giving subscribers mixed messages about availability of the service. TiVo ran a full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle, calling Comcast the "cable company that stole Christmas." Subsequent articles in the Chronicle and elsewhere generated enough word-of-mouth publicity to draw 2,500 Comcast subscribers to the TiVo offices.
The Word of Mouth marketing industry and WOMMA got excellent coverage in the New York Times Magazine on December 6. Author Rob Walker's insightful cover story features WOMMA members David Godes of Harvard Business School and BzzAgent's Dave Balter.
More important, the article provides a well-reasoned, positive analysis of the issues, deals fairly with controversial topics, and generally leaves our industry looking good. There is also a fascinating examination of the motivations behind why consumers choose to buzz, even when not compensated.
If you're doing word of mouth marketing, you belong in the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Join WOMMA to take advantage of our exclusive member benefits, and build your reputation as an industry innovator. Join today ».
© 2005-2008 Word of Mouth Marketing Association. All Rights Reserved.
