Posted
7:59 AM by Keith
First WOMMA Summit a smashing success.
Word of mouth marketing is obviously an idea whose time has come.
In the opening letter from my WOMMA folder I found a message, “There’s a sense of history in the air. Can you feel it?”
I felt it. And what followed was two of the most rewarding days I’ve had in years.
As I wrapped up my role of moderator for the last two sessions of an incredible two days I sensed a reluctance to leave among the 350 attendees who jammed Chicago’s Intercontinental Hotel. The heart warming camaraderie was coming to a close as the world’s first-ever word of mouth marketing conference came to an end. WOMMA CEO Andy Sernovitz (andy@womma.com) had just pulled off what seemed like an impossible, Herculean task.
The closing of the first day’s session, the halfway point, found nearly 300 people, not at all tired from a day’s worth of marathon speeches but full of enthusiasm, hopping onto a bus for a long evening of storytelling at the beautiful downtown Chicago Reza’s restaurant on West Ontario. This event ran until 10:00 (your author, a little older than most of the crowd, went home at 9:00)
In only a few short months of existence WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) www.womma.com, generated over 100 charter members and rounded up attendees from all over the world (Austria, Brazil, Canada, Poland, Singapore are only a few of the dozen the author can recall) to fill the Grand Ballroom. With no advertising, using word of mouth only, WOMMA outgrew the original venue and had to relocate at the last minute. The last two days represented an incredible learning experience even to me who has immersed himself in word of mouth and viral marketing for the past four years.
One of the things I learned, somewhat to my consternation, is that Viral Marketing, which is what I have been pursuing aggressively, is not the end-all of WOM, but in fact a subset of this awesome communications tactic. In a very well done hand-out from Greg Wester of Soapbox Marketing he makes the point that we, as WOM practitioners, need to go beyond viral marketing pointing out that VM is “a form of marketing reliant upon the transfer of a pre-fabricated marketing message between and amongst consumers, a form of digital marketing hyped by email technology providers and advergame developers.” He goes on to say that “the result of this confusion is that marketers wise enough to focus on improving word of mouth often unwisely limit their scope to ‘viral’ marketing. Word of mouth marketing includes any marketing where consumers are responsible for the message’s content and/or message distribution. ‘Viral’ is only one form.”
This WOMMA conference was the forming of a new industry in America, complete with ethics code, standards council, education council, and buyers guide … all readily available at www.womma.org.
A blue ribbon panel of speakers included a stirring presentation by Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki, best selling authors Emanuel Rosen, Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, Ed Keller, George Silverman and Mark Hughes … plus 47 other luminaries from the world of marketing, advertising and public relations including my friend Paul Rand, head of Ketchum’s global technology practice and developer of IRM (Influencer Relations Management).
An exhilarating time was had by all. In addition to the exciting presentations, very-well done (and brief) PowerPoints was an exciting luncheon exercise put on by Jackie Huba, co-author of Creating Customer Evangelists. Jackie and Ben have written a small paperback supplement to their big book and handed out copies to everyone over a box lunch on Wednesday to support a little exercise. Each person was assigned a table and then a chapter within the book to study and discuss per a round table discussion. The comments and results were then gathered for review by the WOMMA group for publishing. It made for a very vocal, fun filled lunch hour.
One point made repeatedly that I think is important to share is the issue of whether WOM is a BtoC or BtoB phenomenon. The answer is both! It is equally effective whether consumer or business focused. Because the consumer approach is so highly visible it gets most of the press (Subservient Chicken, Oprah’s Pontiac’s) but there were endless exciting BtoB stories covering businesses ranging from the pharmaceutical industry to a Chicago area Automotive Consulting Group. When Emanuel Rosen announced from the stage that I was developing a white paper on WOM to be published by the newly formed ITA (Illinois Information Technology Association-- formerly the Chicago Software Association), I was approached by innumerable people offering me their cards with promises of BtoB stories to share.
Another important point that was made is that WOM is now a mainstream marketing tool, part of the total marcom mix, not necessarily limited to the domain of PR firms, or marketing companies, or ad agencies … but to anyone who has an interest in marketing communications that can put the process in motion. It’s not always the fastest, but it is by far the most potent. And in fact it is typically better started by an internal company evangelist and then supported, or sustained, by outside professionals.
A title that should soon be appearing on the client side, in addition to VP or Director of Marketing, should be Online Community Manager, Customer Evangelist, or perhaps most appropriately traditional Product Managers should morph into, or assume the additional duties of, Word of Mouth Manager. I think the key issue is that full responsibility must reside with a single empowered individual who should be as close to the CEO as the CMO … or closer!
Today’s blog is totally inadequate for presenting all the great material that speakers shared with the audience but a few that stood out from my own personal perspective were the following:
From Andy Sernovitz, WOMMA CEO, in his opening remarks: … there are two visions of the future concerning what we do, our industry, and our jobs … and we must make a conscious choice regarding each as we move forward. Do we, as WOM practitioners, want to be viewed as the voice of the consumer—or manipulators? As partners in a unified WOM industry—or isolated niche specialists? As marketing pros—or experimenters on the edge? In order for the WOM industry to grow and flourish it is obvious that we must vigorously pursue the former alternative in each case, and vigorously reject the latter.
From Pete Blackshaw of Intelliseek, cofounder of WOMMA: Consumer-Generated Media (CGM) describes a variety of new sources of online information that are created, initiated, circulated and used by consumers intent on educating each other about products, brands, services, personalities and issues.
Ever growing in number and format on the Internet, CGM refers to any number of online word-of-mouth vehicles, including but not limited to: consumer-to-consumer email, postings on public Internet discussion boards and forums, consumer ratings web sites or forums, blogs (short for weblogs, or digital diaries), moblogs (sites where users post digital images/photos/movies), social networking web sites and individual web sites. Although influenced or stimulated by traditional marketers and marketing activities, online word of mouth is nonetheless owned and controlled by consumers, and it often carries far higher credibility and trust than traditional media, especially as media channels become more fragmented and less trusted. The growth of its influence poses challenges and opportunities for marketers.
From Emanuel Rosen, ten questions to ask yourself before your next marcom campaign: 1) Does this product lend itself to WOM? 2) Are we reinforcing the concept and the message behind the product? 3) Can we release information gradually? 4) Are we giving our customers something to talk about? 5) Do we give them an opportunity to get involved? 6) Are we making it easy to spread the word? 7) Can we stimulate interaction between customers? 8) Can we identify network hubs by category? By their activism? Through surveys? 9) Are we seeding the networks? 10) How is this campaign going to affect the network hubs credibility?
Another note: For all of us who grew up in direct response you may want to know that WOM lends itself particularly well to test marketing. In other words build a small flame first, and then use it to fan the flames of a conflagration…after learning what your market responds to.
And in taking your product to market keep in mind that while case studies are important, stories resonate better, because all people are innate story tellers.
From David Ries of DEI, eight simple rules of WOM: 1) treat people like they’re smart and savvy—because they are. 2) relate to people as individuals. 3) reach people on their terms. 4) give people a way to tell you what they think—and take it seriously when they do. 5) conversation/test is the new medium. 6) useful information is the currency of influence. 7) let go of corporate control of the message. 8) you get what you pay for.
From Rick Murray of Edelman, five words to consider: Insight, into consumers. Creativity, bellwether of great campaigns. Integration, of PR, ads, clients. Measurement, because we need to know what a home run looks like before we start the game. Courage, to break with tradition.
From Keith Bates: If you’re reading my blog regularly you know that it was established almost two years ago to share my knowledge and experience with both viral marketing and word of mouth and that it’s goal has been to help readers understand the process well enough to know where to turn for help. Awareness of word of mouth is growing exponentially in the press and in the marketplace…and now you have the best resource anywhere ... www.womma.org.
Visit their site, join the organization. Read the PowerPoint PDF’s soon to be available from the Summit. Tell Andy that Keith sent you. Participate, and share your experiences so that all of us who believe in the power of WOM can do an even better job for our clients and our customers. A big two thumbs up for WOMMA, and for Andy Sernovitz.
