5.9.06
¡Viva La Revolucion!
-- OR --
Marketing Party Crasher
“I’m really excited about the Word of Mouth revolution!”
The college-age conference-crasher shared that with me as we readied ourselves for another session, this one about measuring the results of Word of Mouth marketing campaigns. The wide-eyed convert was like a whirling dervish, clearly caught up in the frenzied energy brought on by charismatic speakers, wry pundits, schmoozing execs and complimentary chocolate bars. We were attending an event held in January by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. The two-day Basic Training was a retreat of sorts, complete with moralistic mantras, zealous evangelism, idol worship, communal celebrations and, as always at these hype-fests, mutual praise among the missionaries. Veteran devotees and new converts had come from across the globe to learn more about developing marketing campaigns designed to get people to talk about their brands and products, a form of marketing known as Word of Mouth (WOM).
Indeed, the growing embrace of Word of Mouth tactics by the advertising and marketing industry is considered revolutionary. It sure sounds that way when hearing and reading the sermons of its high priests. Take Andy Sernovitz, CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, a.k.a. WOMMA. Railing against “sleazy” marketing behavior, Sernovitz laid out the group’s ethics catechism in an October, 2005 iMediaConnection article. He wrote, “The kind of marketing we do gives a powerful platform to consumers -- and forces marketers to respect them. We empower consumers by engaging with them in blogs, message boards, communities and in the real world. We give people the power to voice their dissatisfaction and expose dishonesty.”
Sounds good, right? Hey, I appreciate respect. I like power. And I sure as hell don’t want to be lied to or dissatisfied. I guess this whole WOM thing seems pretty OK.
But wait a minute. What about all those stories about stealth marketing? You know, the ones about chicks in bars promoting some new-fangled cocktail, but not letting on that they’re being paid to do it? What about those phony fans posting positive reviews on the Web about movies and books without revealing their gigs as paid promoters?
No worries. WOMMA and its affiliated pundits and marketing firms have got it covered. If the WOM revolution is to truly take off, they say, that covert stuff has gotta go. The WOMMA code of ethics clearly states, “We encourage word of mouth advocates to disclose their relationship with marketers in their communications with other consumers…We stand against shill and undercover marketing, whereby people are paid to make recommendations without disclosing their relationship with the marketer.” The commandments go on to stress the need for “Honesty of Opinion,” noting, “We never tell identity is vital to establishing trust and credibility.”
In November 2001, I offered Sales Pitch Society as a “heads up,” a prognostication that “if this person-to-person marketing trend persists,” it would have an impact on relationships and on society as a whole. Rather than simply ride the tide of this new human ad wave, I felt compelled to wonder aloud about the long-term effects of today’s increasingly entrenched Sales Pitch Society.
At the time, the burgeoning phenomenon of engineered WOM was in its nascent stages, barely emerged from its primordial promo goo. Now, four years later, this buzz-fueled marketing species has evolved. It’s walking upright, developing its own language, establishing cultural groups and social mores, and even christening leaders. WOM has spawned a bevy of marketing agencies specializing in its practice, a booming trade association, countless books and blogs written by a host of “experts,” business conferences, boot-camp-like seminars and newly-devised methods for measuring success.
In fact, as a true testament to its presence, the WOM movement has prompted analysts to estimate its value as a full-fledged sector of the marketing industry: JWT Worldwide figures that over 85 percent of the nation's top 1,000 marketers are doin’ it. Other appraisals show WOM as accounting for anywhere from $40 million to $150 million in annual marketing spending. Big ad agencies and advertiser clients like Hershey are even beginning to pay “slotting fees” to WOM marketing agency BzzAgent based on the number of people spreading the branded word and how long they do it.
Translation: marketers are spending millions of dollars to get us to talk, write, email, blog, rap - whatever - about their products. That’s money they used to spend on TV spots or print ads or, hell, skywriting. They’re not only tracking, aggregating and scrutinizing what we say about their brands online, they’re allocating marketing monies towards influencing us to do it more.
So, all those pie-charts and bar-graphs and stats that marketers employ to quantify return on their marketing investment are no longer just measuring how many people watched their ad or heard their ad or drove past their ad.
When it comes to WOM marketing, those pie-charts and bar-graphs and stats are measuring how many people became their ads. If that’s not creepy enough, what’s really disturbing is that today even more people are ready and willing to morph from human to hum-ad.
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This is the introduction to Sales Pitch Society II, an essay in PDF form. (No knowledge of the first Sales Pitch Society necessary!)
Want more? Download the first Sales Pitch Society PDF.
*Please note: Sales Pitch Society II is by no means an anti-capitalist or anti-advertising manifesto. In fact, it comes from the heart and mind of a spirited proponent of free market capitalism. Neither is this an effort to denigrate the individuals who work in the WOM industry. This is merely an attempt to spur further dialogue regarding the ethical and societal implications of engineered WOM marketing campaigns.
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