March 2005
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J. Walter Thompson's Craig Davis has been promoted from Chief Creative Officer for JWT Europe, Middle East, and Africa to Chief Creative Officer Worldwide. Mediasmith has hired Angelique Vega as Media Director, Ward Flock as VP Business Development, Carol Fullam as General Manager, Clair Henvey as Media Strategist, and Jay Schaefer as Interactive Media Buyer.
Job: Issues, advocacy, and blog powerhouse EchoDitto seeks a Client Services Manager to work on all aspects of client campaigns and a Web Developer to work with the CTO to futher refine products and technologies. Send resumes to jobs@echoditto.com.
Job: Capella University (Minneapolis, MN) seeks Manager, Brand Advocacy & Outreach, to increase awareness of Capella University through word of mouth, referrals, and other customer advocacy initiatives. Info: tom.clemens@capella.edu
Job: FOLIOfn, Inc. (Vienna, VA) seeks VP Marketing. Must have track record in developing and implementing viral marketing strategies. Info: recruiting@foliofn.com
Slashdot: "Read the Eula, win a prize"
>> http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/23/2315211
Guerilla Marketing Grows Up: Budgets for buzz will continue to rise as the medium matures, a report predicts.
>> http://enews.primediabusiness.com/enews/promo/v/284
P&G has created a personal profile of pop star Hilary Duff to run on the home page of the social networking site, MySpace.com.
Duff's profile includes logos for Secret Sparkle deodorant. The promotion features a sweepstakes offering visitors the chance to win an iPod, a sign-up for more information about the product, and similar MySpace profiles of other superstars throughout the length of the promotion.
P&G execs feel that "mass marketing will keep losing effectiveness as media choices and consumer control grow, so it has made charting new paths to consumers a priority," according to a New York Times article.
Learn more
Want to help spread the word about National Monkey Day? Go to PetitionOnline.com to sign a petition asking the government to make December 14 the official day.
This humorous campaign used the free petition creation service to harness word of mouth on a mass scale. It's a fascinating example of the word of mouth community creating its own word of mouth tools.
The service is free, but those who sign up receive a confirmation email asking them to donate $1 to maintain PetitionsOnline.com as a free speech forum.
More info:
http://www.petitiononline.com
http://www.monkeyday.com
A recent survey measuring consumers' consumption of 28 different media formats found that word of mouth beat all 27 other forms of media in the electronics category and the home improvement category. Word of mouth took second place in the apparel category.
The Simultaneous Media Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, was derived from 14,000 consumers, and aligned their consumption of media with retail store shopping behavior, product consumption, and media influence.
More info:
http://www.bigresearch.com/news/big011705.htm
Talk about "organic" product placement... Pinot noir, a red wine loved by the lead character in the critically acclaimed movie "Sideways," has experienced a 16-percent jump in national sales since the movie was released, according to Nielsen research which cited supermarket, drug, and liquor store sales data.
On the other hand, the character refers to merlot with a four-letter invective, yet sales of merlot, the leading red table wine in the U.S., climbed 3 percent, according to Nielsen.
The lesson? It's tough to say what will spark word of mouth -- or which way sales will be influenced.
Learn more
WOMMA Summit -- New Speakers -- Sign Up Today!
Guy Kawasaki and Emanuel Rosen Keynote
------------------------------------------------
Word of Mouth Marketing Summit 2005
Chicago, March 29-30
http://www.womma.org/summit
The first-ever conference on
the art and science of word of mouth marketing.
We have 40+ amazing speakers confirmed, including the smartest authors to ever spread the word on word of mouth:
Guy Kawasaki: Selling the Dream and Art of the Start
Emanuel Rosen: The Anatomy of Buzz
George Silverman: The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Jackie Huba & Ben McConnell: Creating Customer Evangelists
Mark Hughes: Buzzmarketing
Ed Keller & Jon Berry: The Influentials
Don't miss this event if you're involved in viral, buzz, word of mouth, evangelism, grassroots, and other customer-centered marketing strategies.
Seating is limited - this will sell out - sign up soon.
More info:
http://www.womma.org/summit
Steve Rubel of WebProNews suggests tracking photos on Flickr, a free photo sharing site, as a way to measure a brand's word of mouth reach. Marketers can see how their brands stack up against those of their competitors by looking up photos consumers have posted.
For fun, Rubel ran a head-to-head check of certain brands. For example, publicly posted photos of iPods beat out iRivers 824 to 4. Yahoo! (410 photos) beat out Google (342) and MSN (96).
Learn more
As non-traditional tactics for reaching consumers increase, industry leaders worry that "newcomers will treat buzz marketing like more traditional disciplines," leading to mediocrity and channel noise, according to a Promo Event Marketing special report.
But, as guerilla tactics prove themselves effective, budgets for buzz will continue to rise and the medium will mature, the report predicts.
Check it out for an interesting view on the state of the word of mouth industry.
More info:
http://enews.primediabusiness.com/enews/promo/v/284
Certain ads deemed "too hot" for airing during the Super Bowl have gone viral, spreading word of mouth online.
Smart marketers can take advantage of this phenomenon by embracing the controversy and buying sponsored links. For example, advertisers can buy the phrase "Super Bowl ad" along with their brand name. It just may convert the campaign from bust to boom by turning it into a viral blitz.
Learn more
It's easy to create buzz when consumers passionately love your brand. But what if they hate it passionately? Try spreading the hate in the same way you'd spread the love, as Marmite, the infamous "yeast extract" has done.
Marmite has launched two new sites geared to its passionate fans/detractors: a Marmite Love Fan Club and a Marmite Hate Fan Club. The Hate Club boasts "10 Ways to Ruin a Sandwich," including the Marmite and Cheese Nightmare.
The Hate site is so brilliantly campy -- featuring a jar of Marmite that sports devil horns -- it makes you want to go out and buy the stuff just to see how awful it can be.
More info:
http://marmite.com
How harmful is negative word of mouth? A new study by Canada's Verde Group shows that more than 50% of Canadians say they will not even walk into a store if they have heard something bad about it.
Other key points of the study:
-- Consumers are more likely to complain to friends and family about know-nothing customer service reps than any other problem.
-- Most consumers who experience problems with their retail experience do not complain; instead they take their business elsewhere.
-- The top problem driving customers away is lack of courtesy and respect from CSRs.
More info:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/January2005/25/c6712.html
Electric Artists (New York, NY), a global marketing agency with strong WOM expertise, seeks a Business Development executive to identify and pursue new business prospects across the media & entertainment industries, as well as consumer products and brands. Latest news/projects can be found at www.ElectricArtists.com/news. Email resume to: jobs@electricartists.com
Matchstick, Canada's leader in word of mouth marketing is currently seeking a Marketing Program Manager to join its dynamic team in Toronto. The position requires a culturally connected individual with strong professional skills and
solid marketing and management experience. Send resume to: opportunity@matchstick.ca
Razor and Tie (New York, NY), an independent entertainment company, seeks candidate to oversee production of viral tools such as e-cards, banners, and HTML emails for artist promotion. More info: jobs@razorandtie.com
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