Perspectives on the Digital Marketplace
4.18.08 by Blake Cahill {Blake Cahill, Interactive Marketing, New Media, Social Media, WOMMA, Word of Mouth Marketing}
Did you know that next month you can find me speaking at WOMM-U? May 8 and 9 I will be in Miami Florida enjoying the weather and the 2-day comprehensive and interactive educational experience that is WOMMA’s Word of Mouth Marketing University.
Let me know if you are planning on attending. I’m looking forward to a great event.
4.8.08 by Blake Cahill {Blake Cahill, Blogs, Brand Management, Consumer Generated Media, Interactive Marketing, New Media, Social Media}
Peter Kim, a lead analyst at Forrester, is kicking off a session on Word-of-Mouth Marketing with Janet Eden-Harris from Umbria and Dave Balter from BzzAgent. Pete opens with some updated stats about the decline of mainstream media consumption and the increasing amount of time consumers are spending on the Internet. The time consumers are spending is increasingly spent around creating, sharing and consuming content in ways they hadn’t before. With respect to content that is passed along not all content is equal - it is important to remember it is a reflection of the sender.
Janet from Umbria, now a division of JD Power & Associates, shared a variety of case studies from SC Johnson and a major jeans manufacturer - some interesting insights around some of their client engagements. Dave shared what his definition of WOM is “the sharing of an honest opinion between two people”. He then explained their “BuzzAgent” process which is consumer enrollment, campaign invite, product/service shared with folks invites, then feedback reporting for the agents. Everything is transparent and non-scripted. An interesting stat - “40% of WOM interactions include another media form”. WOM is a high-effective in compliment to traditional media - you need a mix. Also, remember a large portion of WOM actually takes place offline verses online. Very interesting stats as measured by BzzAgent about the effectiveness of WOM’s viral nature. The example provided was that when they start a program with say 10k agents they then reach out to 12 individuals on average who then speak to 4.14 individuals for a total WOM effect/factor of 628,000 conversations. Naturally, these happen over a period of time and generate the equivalent of 1.4M hours of conversations.That is pretty impressive but results scaled down a bit as you move away from B2C and tangible products. Some solid questions and audience participation about whether it can really work in B2B or for services verse tangible products.
Good session - Pete, Janet, Dave.
4.8.08 by Blake Cahill {Blake Cahill, Brand Management, Customer Experience, Interactive Marketing, New Media, Social Media, Social Networks}
Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, of Forrester and Groundswell fame, are conducting a session about the groundswell that is affecting brands and companies. The four step approach to the groundswell for companies and brands is to think in term of the following acronym “POST” (People, Objective, Strategy, and Technology). To tap into the groundswell there are a couple of groups that can benefit from leveraging social media such as: Researchers for “Listening”, Marketing for “Talking”, Sales for “Energizing”, and Support for “Supporting”. Their is a big need for brands and companies to develop two-way conversations/dialogue with customers in order to fully leverage the value with social media.
A variety of examples about social media engagement/viral video like the tried and true “blending i-phone”, but a great new example of how Ernst & Young is engaging to aid recruitment strategies and P&G are approaching things very differently to engage with consumers. Charlene’s examples were to highlight the new ways of talking and engaging with customers via social media. Josh is up now and is covering the “Energizing” portion of the session. Examples highlighted Friskers and Brides.com. And a great overview of Dell and Lionel Menchaca’s team, who we are proud to support with our TruCast technology. The punchline is listen, learn, get started, don’t try to boil the ocean, focus, pilot, engaged and then replicate.
4.8.08 by Blake Cahill {Blake Cahill, Consumer Generated Media, Customer Experience, Interactive Marketing, Social Media}
Good morning from Los Angeles and the Forrester Marketing Forum. Harley Manning is on stage explaining the new environment for marketers. The decline of traditional channels and rise of new channels and the challenges they present. “How do we get back to strategic marketing” he asks…the new imperative is Engagement. Brian Haven, a great analyst from the Forrester team that we work with quite a bit, will be leading the opening session on Engagement and how brands can drive success via direct engagement with their consumers. We will be hearing from over the next two days from Casey Jones from Dell, Cathy Halligan from WalMart, and Nancy MacIntrye from Leap Frog Enteprises, plus many others. I will do my best to cover/post from as many of the session I attend today and tomorrow.
2.13.08 by Mike Spataro {Brand Management, General, Interactive Marketing, Mike Spataro, Social Media, Social Networks}
Michael Dell’s interview with Shel Israel provides a great glimpse inside his company’s strategic approach to social media – a term you almost feel the Dell CEO doesn’t like when you read between the lines of his interview. It’s easy to see why the tech giant has gone from the poster child for not getting the blogging community to among the best in the world at it in just a few short years.
To Michael Dell, it’s all just an extension of his company’s longstanding policy to listen and learn from its customers and detractors. The only difference is it’s now through this new channel on the Web. Rather than steal Shel’s thunder, its better you hop on over to his site for the full interview. My favorite Dell quote from the piece though is, “We don’t own our reputation, we just own our actions.”
And while Dell continues to get a lion’s share of credit for its social media accomplishments, dozens of other brands are doing just as well operating somewhat under the radar and outside the media spotlight. One of those companies is Disney. Even though its been up and running for several months, very few people have noticed or written about the wildly successful Disney Moms Panel of experts who advise people about visiting Disney Parks and Resorts.
I was fortunate in a previous job to work with the PR machine at Disneyland on several major campaigns. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Disney struggled for years with its Web strategy and wasn’t the first to jump into social media. However, a lot has changed over the past year and the Moms Panel is proof positive that change is underway in the land of Mickey. Yes, Disney hand-picked the moms and trained them, but they exercise no editorial control over responses.
The fact that more than 10,000 people volunteered to be one on the panel tells you how powerful social media can be for Disney in the years ahead. It’s hard to imagine a brand that doesn’t have more to gain - or lose - based on how it addresses the new challenges of communicating with its customers online. Keep in mind, this is a brand that has a history dating back to Walt himself of controlling every single item of what has been published about its global company and image, so getting used to giving up some of that message control is definitely a bit scary. Look for more good things from the folks at Disney this year.
