WOM

Awards – aren’t we crazy about them? The desire to be recognized lies deep within all of us. Harder, better, faster, stronger. Perfectionists, we want to learn from the best and be the best. The best we can. And yes, we want that award – be it a simple thank you, a gift, a raise, or an Olympic medal.

Being in social media marketing, we keep an eye on the awards that celebrate the hard work and creative solutions in the digital word of mouth marketing field. The WOMMY’s and SAMMY’s are the Oscars and Emmy’s rocking our world. 

Throughout this year, we have been on a real rollercoaster ride from project to project, and campaign to campaign. We worked hard – and guess what? Last week, the WOM campaign we did for Bausch & Lomb Multi-Focal contact lenses this Spring/Summer was selected as a FINALIST in the 2009 SAMMY Awards. Our submission was picked as one of three finalists in the Best Integrated Social/Cross Media Campaign category.

Needless to say, we are beyond excited! In our category, we are standing side by side with such great agencies as OMD (who did a campaign for Jim Beam), and Qorvis, Doe Anderson, Padilla Speer Beardsley and Zezza (McDonalds). The winner of the category is still to be announced at the Awards Gala on September 17th at The W Hotel, New York. (All we need is just a little bit of luck!)

No matter what decision the judging committee makes next Thursday, we already feel like winners. And that’s a great feeling – fulfilling and energizing – that leaves us wanting to come back the next year with something even bigger and better.

Source: campusliving.com
 

As a communications agency that does a whole lot of things that could be called marketing (and always has, even when it wasn’t popular), I started thinking about changing the way we positioned ourselves. Should we be a “marketing” agency? With the advent of WOM and the launch of our Consumer Engagement Marketing division and the various ways in which we help our clients build their brands, not only through awareness but also via business development strategies, it just seemed a natural evolution. Until I started really thinking about it… In the IMC process, the agency lineup generally includes advertising, pr, digital, cp and media buying. Not marketing, so much. To re-position your company as a marketing firm might just make it difficult to pitch yourself.  Today, specializing might be the best thing to do. But specializing doesn’t mean you have to only do one thing, not really. If you are a communications agency you can add in business development when needed, or brand alliances, or even online viral marketing and content ideation. If you’re a media-buying agency you can come up with brand building platforms that reach well beyond what is considered your scope of work. Advertising agencies are definitely dipping down into digital in way they haven’t in the past. It’s all a big mix, which makes the case that a “marketing” agency could encompass all of these things and have a great place to live. But, I still think it just might be a case of all things to all people, but still a master of none…

Just a thought. We’re sticking with communications, albeit pr on steroids.
 

Our company is going through a natural evolutionary shift (in a good way!) I’ve been doing pr for 15 years now—from the bottom up—and I can attest to there being a new perception around what it is that we do. Public relations, along with other disciplines, has always been seen as a below the line proposition (throw them the scraps). But today, below the line marketing platforms are climbing up out of the trenches and making a name for themselves, and there’s a good reason why this is happening. People want to have a conversation, not just be talked to. People want to know what “other” people think, they aren’t so keen anymore to have someone tell them “this is the way it is so try it.” Social media has made it a whole lot easier to connect, share and tell stories. Social media does not belong to the advertising agency or the media-buying agency. It belongs with pr (and the digital shops). Recently, Sapient bought Nitro. Their position was below the line is on the rise and we are turning this ship around. So instead of the guy (or gal) in the corner office churning out television commercials to feed the beast, more engaging, high touch methods are gaining respect, and critical mass. In our agency we have a new platform that is WOM-based but incredibly high touch. We use automated tools, but most of the work is done person-to-person. This is a natural outgrowth of what we have always done and the results for these types of programs have been incredible. So much so that we are launching a new web-based business because we KNOW we can get it out there. What used to feel like a bit of luck has turned into an amazing ROI machine. So below the line agencies rejoice, it looks like our time has finally come!

Source: brandingbrand.com

This has been an interesting year so far. At the end of 2008 we had a lot on the books, but closing the deal was difficult as brands were starting to get scared. The market was shifting. The concept of zero credit started sinking in and fear became the overarching mood. As we sat on the edge of 2009 we had the feeling that it was time to batten down the hatches. I knew we needed to get smart fast and push forward some of the new strategic platforms we were starting to explore. WOM was beginning to gain strength and finding a neat connection between communications and sales was clearly going to become even more critical in a tight economy. So, we started moving in on our target. We launched a few WOM programs with clients (great ROI) and developed an innovative Web-based lifestyle hub. And guess what? It’s working! Lots to do, exciting times ahead, but when it’s all said and done adversity will either bring you down or will push you to make it happen. I have the best team in the world (I do!) and we’re doing it right (inside joke, check out www.icanhascheezburger). LOL.

Source: prayerwarriors.wordpress.com

I’ve written about this in various incarnations already, but thought it would be worth putting it out there in a more straightforward fashion. 

As online WOM starts to take root and brands start asking for their communications programs to include platforms that feature Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms, the question is posed: Who’s best to lead the charge?

Our company works with consumer products brands that are beginning to understand the value of leveraging the emerging and evolving online WOM and social media marketing levers (something we have been promoting for a while now). As they start considering their options, various agencies are putting forth their WOM credentials – most notably the digital firms (and for good reason, obviously). We’ve always contended that public relations agencies are the right partner here because this has always been our job—talking to consumers. Why we LOVE WOM so much is because now we can go direct with our key messages and the conversation can continue past a strategic media placement (plus, there is GREAT ROI). Granted it can get tricky, but almost everything is tricky these days.

So who should do the job? A friend of mine who was at Yahoo forever said that the recent Forrester conference was all about social media —a few years ago SEARCH was the buzzword. Digital agencies have long been the proponent of search, and other notable ways to make sure a site is SEO. My opinion is that both parties working in tandem best serve this new frontier. Together there’s nothing we can’t do. Separately, we both bring a lot to the table. Digital agencies are going to start bringing in pr professionals to lead their WOM campaigns, and pr agencies are starting to add digital staff members (we have). Digital + PR.  It’s the way of the future, so get on board!

Over a year ago our company hired an outside firm to run a WOM campaign for an online promotion we were doing for Valentine’s Day. After looking at what they did I thought, hey, if we don’t start doing this ourselves we’ll either be obsolete, or miss out on a new revenue stream. Let’s face it, you can’t afford to bypass either when you’re running your own business.

But how to get started in what was a burgeoning discipline? Basically, study some of the success stories in this new “genre” (though most of these stories are happy accidents) and, in our case, apply some of the same tenets we use in lifestyle public relations to this online discipline: create a good story and tell people about it.  Since we rep consumer brands it is our ultimate goal to encourage people to choose our client’s products and services over the competition. Online WOM just means reaching out to people directly with that pitch. The Internet has made “direct access” possible in a way the media never did. But that doesn’t mean you throw your traditional media relations to the curb, integration of the two just creates a bigger, better plan.

But what has this got to do with the geek factor? As a public relations agency we know all about building the right team to create and distribute a story. It’s pretty straightforward, though your success will depend on your ability to read the culture right and develop a creative platform with great ROI (brand alliances, spokesperson endorsements, Hollywood promotional partnerships, etc.) But for online WOM we are talking Squidoo lenses, twitter, and google analytics. There are all kinds of “tricks”* that can help your campaign gain traction faster. This is where the geek comes in. Although you may never be able to take him to a meeting (he’ll start talking in a language only he understands and usually with a rapacious intensity that might scare people), he is entirely necessary and must not be overlooked. And if he is faithful to his designation (most often self confirmed) then he will be satisfied adding the much-needed fuel for your fire without being a front man.

So don’t forget the geek. You’ll need him. And if you’re a “traditional” public relations agency don’t forget the online WOM, you’re going to need that too. It’s not going away.

*As a member of WOMMA transparency is critical

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