TheCustomer

I hesitate to challenge the Economist, but just this once…

The pitch of their ‘ultimate marketing machine’ article is grounded in analogue principles, where marketing is controlled, scheduled and edited by the advertiser. Not online it isn’t. The customer has control.

This though is embedded in thinking from Cluetrain to Tipping Point: markets are conversations, which marketers may participate in and influence, but they do not control. This is the fundamental shift brought about by the internet. All else is short term competitive advantage in analogue marketing’s 4 p’s.

Link: Internet advertising | The ultimate marketing machine | Economist.com .

almost-too-smooth-to-be-true…

I like this - it’s soo monkey see monkey do - but I also know a number of folk who would be flummoxed by the complete lack of buttons to be pressed.

Ease of use does not always equal usability!

Link: Orchestrate - Manage Yourself.

Wow
What a stunning new service.
And I suspect that this is tech running ahead of many adwords users’ creative abilities - we’re going to see some horrible train-wrecks for video ads.
And they may be all the more effective for that!

It’s going to be an interesting ride…
Link: Inside AdWords: Click-to-play video ads for AdWords.

I’ve not seen such detailed research evidence for ‘word of mouth’ marketing before: very interesting, and much more prevalent than many give it credit for!

Link: Emergence Marketing: Can word of mouth marketing be considered a “new” media “channel”?.

Can word of mouth marketing be considered a “new” media “channel”?

Dave Baltar, the CEO of BzzAgent, along with the BzzAgent Director of strategy led a pretty interesting workshop on how to run a word of mouth (WOM) marketing campaign at Ad:Tech last week.

First let’s look at some of the numbers that were bandied around - as some of them were quite interesting:
2/3 of the US economy is influenced by WOM - this is according to a McKinsey report
15% of all conversations contain a reference to a product - based on a recent Northeastern University research paper
40% of all WOM episodes include a reference to other media - according to their own research
80% of consumers trust WOM recommendations more than any other source - according to a Forrester reportThis is all very much in-line with the research done by Everett Rogers on Diffusion of Innovation - some of which was first reported in the 60’s and 70’s

At BzzAgent, they now have close to 160,000 BzzAgents - volunteers who engage in conversations with friends, family, and acquaintances and make word of mouth recommendations for products in the context what happens naturally in their environment. In trying to develop and manage WOM as a real media channel, BzzAgent tries very hard not to turn their evangelists into “sales” people. In fact, the principles they adhere to include - no scripting, 100% volunteer, double opt-in, allow both positive and negative WOM, and ensure disclosure.

While WOM is not a “new” media channel, but one that has been in existence for as long as social networks have existed, if you look at BzzAgents’ rate card, it looks like they have been able to turn WOM into a manageable and predictable media channel - and that maybe something new. For $65K they will deploy a 1,000 agents, which will generate 47,375 conversations over the period of 12 weeks. If you’ve got a little over $2M to spare, they will deploy 75,000 agents who will generate 3,553,125 conversations in a 12 week period.

If this is all working, and all indications are that it is, then there may be another hidden “lesson learned” here - one that companies should apply to their traditional sales force - have them be less scripted, and freer to improvise and create real dialogues with their prospects instead of delivering sales pitches. But that is not “new” either - David Weinberger and his co-authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto have been saying that for over a decade..