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Viral/Buzz

September 26, 2008

Most Highly-Targeted Message of the Entire Presidental Campaign?

The Great Schlep has launched with this genuinely funny -- and impactful -- video featuring Sarah Silverman exhorting her viewers to get their butts down to Florida to convince their Jewish grandparents to vote for Obama.

Sponsored by JewsVote.org, the microsite offers all the ammunition anyone would ever need to convince Zadie and Nana to vote Obama, down to a talking points PDF download addressing topics such as "He’s Black! Let’s talk about it!"

The viral traction seems to have already kicked in - the video's featured on Time magazine's Web site and is making the forward-to-a-friend rounds.

Sarah Silverman, meanwhile, has got my vote as the next Obama Girl.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 11, 2008

Mashup: 200 PR Execs, One Blender

How do you engage a group of more than 200 public relations professionals?

Bring in George Wright, marketing manager of Blendtec, a company known for viral videos on its site, WillItBlend.com.

Wright did not disappoint. With a garden rake and Blendtec blender as his props, Wright spoke at the Public Relations Society of America's T3 PR in NYC, a conference for PR professionals representing tech companies.

Wright has been on the speaking circuit, promoting the story of how he got Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson, pictured above, to don a white lab coat and agree to have his testing work be featured in a video shown online. A $50 investment resulted in a 700 percent increase in blender sales, according to Wright. (He didn't disclose the actual dollar change.)

And, the blender chewed up the wooden handle of the yard rake, no problem.

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 25, 2008

Absolut Behind Miracle Anti-Michael Jackson Drug Viral

Ever seen a spoof ad on the NYC subway?

No? That's what I thought.

Which is why my mind got bent six ways when I noticed BeKANYE yesterday on the downtown R train. Value proposition: two fizzy tablets dropped in water transform you from a white guy with receding chin and hairline into...well, Kanye West.

I couldn't find it online, but a friend did this morning. Funny thing is this afternoon, at the offices of a major publication, someone had tacked a digital printout of the subway print camapign to their monitor. This at least confirmed I had not been hallucinating of the subway (always a possiblity in +90 degree heat).

Absolut's the culprit, mocking direct and infomercials.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 1, 2008

'Sex and the City' and Facebook

It was the girls' night out at the movies and Facebook this weekend with the release of "Sex and the City."

Offline, women organized cosmo parties before heading out to see the movie.

Online, more 80,000 people signed up as a "Sex and the City" fan on Facebook as of early Sunday, many writing enthusiastic reviews. "OMG-This is the Girls at their absolute best!," wrote one fan.

(Who's counting, but fans of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," released more than a week ago, totaled 72,000 as of today.)

And, Pogostick.com developed a Facebook quiz, "Which Sex and the City Character Are You?" that has nearly 4,000 fans. Complete it to learn whether you're sexy like Samantha or correct like Charlotte.

How about you?

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 22, 2008

Countrywide CEO's E-mail Faux Pas

Disgusting.

That one single word made Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo look like an ogre this week.

It all started when Daniel Bailey Jr. used language from a form letter to ask the lender to revise the terms of his adjustable-rate mortgage so he wouldn't lose his home. Bailey's note went out to about 20 Countrywide addresses, including Mozilo's, according to the latimes.com.

Mozilo took to the keyboard:

"This is unbelievable…Most of these letters now have the same wording. Obviously they are being counseled by some other person or by the Internet. Disgusting," wrote Mozilo, who apparently hit the "reply" button instead of "forward."

Bailey posted Mozilo's note on Loan Safe, bringing widespread attention to the "disgusting" reply.

Countrywide issued a statement to the latimes.com saying the company and Mozilo "regret any misunderstanding caused by his inadvertent response to an e-mail by Mr. Bailey. Countrywide is actively working to help borrowers like Mr. Bailey keep their homes."

Posted by Anna Maria Virzi at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 29, 2008

STD's: No Laughing Matter

Except when they are. Planned Parenthood nails the sex ed instructor shtick with a new video site at TakeCareDownThere.org. It's funny and filthy stuff, just the way teenagers like it. Bonus points for use of "blow-jays."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 23, 2008

New U.K. Advertising Regulations Have Online Implications

Online word of mouth and buzz marketing techniques are to be governed by new U.K. legislation, which comes into effect on May 26, subject to parliamentary approval.

Under the new Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading regulations, it will be illegal to "Falsely claim or create the impression that the trader is not acting for purposes relating to his/her trade, business, craft or profession," or to "falsely represent oneself as a consumer."

In layman's terms, it will be a criminal offense to plant positive messages about a brand in blogs or forums, use brand ambassadors or buzz marketing specialists, and to seed viral ads, without clearly stating that these actions are being carried out by, or on behalf of a brand.

In addition, there are new implications for ads including an "invitation to purchase." These will now be required to include a full description of the advertised product, which could prove difficult given the limited space available in many interactive ad formats such as banners, buttons and text messages.

In practice, it seems highly unlikely that these laws can, or will be enforced, given the sheer scale of the Internet and its global nature. That said, it will undoubtedly be in the interests of major advertisers to keep firmly within the confines of the law.

As Marina Palomba, IPA Legal Director noted, "While many advertisers will continue with such campaigns and get away with them, this is in my view a risky and undesirable way forward. If advertisers and their agencies ignore the ethics of responsible advertising, the damage to the advertising and marketing industry generally will be considerable, undermining all commercial messages, their effectiveness and the self regulatory systems."

The new regulations will implement the European Union's Unfair Practices Directive (UCPD) in the U.K., which should have already been introduced by the end of 2007.

U.S. regulators have also looked into the WOM marketing industry.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 1:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 14, 2008

Sony U.K. Froths Up Another Viral

The ad team for the Sony Bravia team in the U.K. has released a series of viral videos on the Web: First there was "Balls," then "Paint," and Bunnies followed. A new series of videos, Sony Foam City, made its way on YouTube, and a supporting microsite for Sony's new line of digital cameras an camcorders.

The video is a similar piece where a neighborhood of an urban area is taken over by, in this case foam, and it's affect on the area residents. Many are armed with Sony cameras to capture the event.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 17, 2008

DoubleClick Acknowledges Widget Ads, Will Support Them

There used to be a running joke at DoubleClick that the company should hire a VP of widget technology. "It'd be a short-lived career," VP of Advertiser Products Ari Paparo told me in an interview last August. He uttered the somewhat mocking remark by way of acknowledging that ever more advertisers were asking for widget capabilities.

Six months later DoubleClick is giving them what they want. The Google-owned firm today announced support for widget (i.e. "embeddable") ads. The function will reside within DART for Advertisers, where agencies will be able to easily add "virality" to their rich media campaigns.

Gigya is supporting the ad sharing component through its Wildfire technology, which can process widget installs on 50 social media platforms, including social networks, blogs and bookmarking services.

The main value DoubleClick can bring to the widget advertising phenomenon is standardized reporting. DFA customers will be able to obtain metrics on the number of impressions, interactions, viral “grabs” for each of the social networks. That may eventually help marketers gauge the conversion impact of all that viral sharing.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 10, 2008

Live By the Crowd, Die By the Crowd

The SXSW conference has been all about bottom-up media; individuals and crowds creating, selecting and elevating content above and beyond whats doled out to them by traditional media outlets and corporations.

Sure, Business Week journalist Sarah Lacy's keynote interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg yesterday was a trainwreck, an abortion, went down in flames and every other metaphor for disaster. Why? Because Sarah was all about Sarah, all the time (except when she was dissing her audience). The media took her to task for it. So did the blogosphere and the Twittersphere (to which her "screw all you guys" response bears special mention).

In real time.

Her self-justification in this YouTube interview only makes something bad something much worse indeed.

Ironically, Sarah has, in unifying thousands of conference attendees against her (and providing the burning topic for conversation at last night's parties) become the most valuable object lesson in what's so endlessly discussed here in Austin. The word made flesh.

If you doubt the pundits, experts, panelists and pontificators, the Story of Sarah proves them right. In a highly weird way, it's almost the best thing that could have happened here. Except, of course, for Sarah herself.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 7, 2008

The Worst Viral Marketing Campaign - Ever

Just picked up the conference bag and badge. It's exciting to be at South By Southwest, and in Austin, for the first time.

If you're here, try to catch the panel I'm participating in, which promises to be a ton of fun. Henry Copeland, Jeff Jarvis, Steve Hall, Charlotte Selles and yours truly are going to nominated the 10 worst viral marketing campaigns of all time, then award The Suxorz Trophy to the all-time worst.

A snarky good time is all but guaranteed!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 26, 2008

Puff Daddy Tries Widgets to Promote his Vodka

The alcohol industry is regulated heavily by the Federal Government as to exactly how and where it can advertise, and that includes online. As such, I was particularly interested to see Ciroq Vodka, the brand produced by Sean "Puff Daddy" Comb's Bad Boy Entertainment and Diageo, expand its online advertising efforts to include the use of shareable widgets.

Interpolls created the widgets which are similar to those developed for its other clients including Scion and Ford, but the Ciroq widgets have an extra feature -- an age verification requirement. To see the widget's content, which includes a video featuring Combs and recipes for drinks made with the vodka, viewers much enter their birth year. As widgets are intended to be "grab-able" and placed on a users Web site or social network site, it occurs to me that it's only a matter of time until a minor somewhere is extolling Comb's vodka to friends via his Facebook page, but the widget will require age verification before each viewing, according to Kwasi Asare, new media marketing manager for Bad Boy Entertainment.

"It's the same as any other age verification online," he told me. "The tough part of working through these new technologies is how does this fit into existing legal framework? There's not a lot of precedent for these kinds of things."

Bad Boy Entertainment is placing the widget initially on sites that require age verification to help weed out minors, he said, and it also distributed it last Sunday on AOL for a one day run. Based on what kind of response it sees the company may or may not continue to use the widget, but the unusual nature of the technology appeals to the company, Asare said.

"Puff has established his career to doing new things that have never been done before," he said. "It's important for us to be cutting edge not just from a product standpoint but from a technology standpoint as well."

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 7, 2008

WPP's GroupM Acquires Majority Stake in Social Media Agency

WPP's GroupM announced today that it has acquired 75 percent of the share capital of LaCommunidad, the Dutch interactive agency behind imaginatively named viral tracking technology, ViralTracker.

LaCommunidad specializes in viral and social media campaigns, and has worked with big name European brands including ebay, Ford, and Dutch Airline KLM. According to a release today, the investment "continues WPP's strategy of strengthening its capabilities in digital media."

WPP recently acquired a minority stake in U.S.-based Integrated Media Measurement Inc., the developer of an end-to-end media measurement system that links media exposure to consumer action.

However, rumors of a more significant ad-related investment have been circulating since last September. One possible target is rumored to be SpotRunner, an Internet agency offering localized Web and TV ads for small businesses, in which WPP already owns a small stake.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 7, 2008

Al-Qaeda Spread Viral Videos Through Mobile Phones

Terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda are distributing viral video clips through mobile phones, according to reports from the Associated Press.

An announcement was apparently posted late Friday by Al-Qaeda's media wing, Al-Sahab, on websites commonly used by Islamic militants. The statement read, "The elite jihadi media group presents the first batch of al-Sahab videos to be downloaded to cell phones."

Eight previously unavailable videos are believed to have been specially encoded for mobile, making them ideal for viral distribution through Bluetooth, infra-red and wireless file transfer – technologies which have become increasingly popular in a region with limited broadband penetration.

A message from al-Qaida's No. 2 figure, bal-Zawahri, introducing the videos read, "I asked God for the men of jihadi media to spread the message of Islam and monotheism to the world and spread real awareness to the people of the nations."

According to Associated Press, Ben Venzke, head of IntelCenter, a U.S. group that monitors militant messages, said that this was not the first time that the organisation had released videos designed for cell phones.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 3, 2008

Late Night Talk, and JibJab Stabs at '07

Late night talk shows came back from hiatus despite the writers' strike, and while I don't often watch, I caught the intros for "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night." Jay Leno's monologue was punchy; David Letterman's was not so much. Letterman's writers may have negotiated special terms in order to come back to work, but their hearts are still on strike, trust me. The other thing going for the Tonight Show, it debuted JibJab's roast "In 2007."

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Viral: ID Computer Geeks and Serial Killers

Before he was on the news as a serial killer, would you have thought Jeffrey Dahmer was a computer programmer if you had seen him on the street? Malevolent Design Weblog Malevole created a viral that makes site visitors identify a mix of 10 programming language inventors and serial killers. It turns out I "know my java beans from my fava beans."

Posted by Enid Burns at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 4, 2007

Paying For Play at SayHeyHey

Online dating sites are nothing new, but the latest site to go live has me amused not just because of its wacky kids looking for love, but for its adoption of some interactive advertising tricks, namely pay-for-placement and ad supported video.

SayHeyHey officially launched this week as the brainchild of Alex Gurevich and Soudy Khan. The site lets singles record and share videos of themselves for free, including Penny from Berkeley who's apparently into guys with glasses and Nick in San Francisco who's looking for a girl who likes girls. Silliness aside, a quick check of the site didn't show any advertising running with the videos as of yet, but approximately 500 videos are running so far.

The company did me that they're planning to add pay-for-placement early next year, so lonely hearts with some extra cash will be able to purchase more prominent placement of their videos. After all, who needs personality in their singles profiles anymore if they can just buy their way into the dating clutches of other lonely singles?

Posted by MatthewNelson at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 5, 2007

The Color of Bunny

The best film series franchises may actually be advertisements. The Sony Bravia team in Europe continues to create incredibly sequenced commercials, which get picked up virally on the Web. "Play-Doh" follows "Paint" and "Balls" in the series where the creative really shows the color HDTV is capable of displaying.

A Sony Bravia Europe site has additional interactive elements including a "Colourwall" that shows the 16.7 million colors available on the Bravia HD sets. If you upload a picture, you can claim a pixel of color as your own hue.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 3, 2007

Sony Widgets its HDNA Campaign

This week Sony added a widget component to the HDNA campaign it launched in August. The widget, created by Freewebs.com, and gives users the ability to post the creative on Freewebs sites, social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, or the ClickZ blog.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 26, 2007

Next Dove Viral to Bow Oct. 1

Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty has met with blockbuster success. By now, it seems, everyone on the Web has seen (and re-seen) the spot that surely qualifies as the campaign of the year, Evolution.

Next Monday, the latest video in the series bows -- we just got a sneak peek. Unilever's longtime agency Ogilvy created the spot in which a sweet 7 year-old girl in bombarded, in about :60, with all the body image related advertising she'll see in a year. Tagline: Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does."

The spot is engaging, highly impactful, and will doubtless spawn even more consumer dialogue about women and girls' self esteem images. This is great advertising and great irony. What's in the crosshairs of the campaign after all is nothing less than....advertising.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Deer and Tails and Trees and Propagation

What's the perfect metaphor for combining word-of-mouth with major ad campaigns?

Yesterday, Carat's Sarah Fay told advertisers they should be "planting a tree" rather than painting a house. At a Yahoo event this morning, the similes and metaphors continued.

Mediavest's Jim Kite, president, connections research and analytics, told advertisers they're no longer in the "message delivery business," but rather the "message propagation business." He was followed by Ogilvy Vice Chairman Steve Hayden, who popped a drawing of a "big-eyed deer" onto the screen (presumaby, it was staring into an advertisers headlights). The deer was joined in short order by what looked like a goggly-eyed snake, but Hayden called the creature the "big-eyed tail."

Clearly, consensus is needed on the right industry term for the phenomenon of consumers passing along brand messages. Word-of-mouth? Viral? They just don't seem to be cutting it anymore.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 13, 2007

Borrowers Bare Fangs with Facebook Group, and a Bank Relents

HSBC felt the wrath of online WOM recently. The firm said late last month that it was scrapping plans to charge interest on its U.K. graduate accounts in response to pressure from an online Facebook campaign.

That pressure came in the form of a Facebook group launched by the National Union of Students (NUS) and titled "Stop the Great HSBC Graduate Rip-off!!!" The group has amassed almost 7,000 members since its creation in mid-July, and its founder, NUS Vice President for Education Wes Streeting, credited the collective online protest with forcing HSBC to back down.

“There can be no doubt that using Facebook made the world of difference to our campaign,” he said in a statement.

Back story: Previously, as with many U.K. banks, opening a student account with HSBC would entitle the holder to an interest-free overdraft not only throughout their years of study, but also for three years following their graduation. When the bank moved to renege on the promise, the collective outrage of Britain's post-grad population spurred the Facebook group, and the mea culpa. “Like any service orientated business we are not too big to listen to the needs of our customers," HSBC’s head of product development Andy Ripley said in a statement.

Posted by Jack Marshall at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 10, 2007

Book Promos Get Wikis and Video

Well, if anything, the fact that book marketing is getting hot online indicates one thing: some people still read things other than tabloids and free dailies. Video production outfit TurnHere today said it's expanding distribution for its BookVideos.tv video site, which features clips of authors discussing their latest titles. Videos on the Simon and Schuster-sponsored site will now be seen on new partner sites like blip.tv, LibraryThing, GoodReads, WhatsOnMyBookshelf, Book Divas and Veoh. TurnHere has been pushing its author and earlier local/travel video clips onto Google, MSN, Yahoo, YouTube and other sites for awhile now.

The firm has also introduced a widget to add it to other sites. Since the site launched in June, TurnHere enabled users to send e-mails with the videos or embed them on other sites, add comments, or click to buy the books.

On the more collaborative tip, Near-Time and The History Press have started up an online book community to promote True Richmond Stories, by Harry Kollatz Jr, due out next month. There's some free content available, including what look to be downloadable print quality images, but the site offers the entire book to paying members. It's a wiki-style site that will allow the author to make updates and engage in the reader community.

As the press release puts it, "Near-Time Premium extends the life cycle of a book and helps make each project more profitable. During pre-press, content gets to market faster and enables a community of interest around a topic, giving technology and STM publishers a distinct first-to-market advantage. When a title reaches backlist, online distribution allows publishers to capitalize on the long tail of the topic."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 6, 2007

iPhone Price Drops, Does Jobs Rise to the Occasion?

The fallout over yesterday's announced iPhone price drop was immediate -- and angry. Apple's stock tanked as blogs filled to the brim with step-by-stop instructions on how to return your old iPhone and buy a new one -- at $200 off.

Steve Jobs to the rescue? In an open letter to iPhone customers in which he (improbably) claims to have read each and every angry e-mail sent to Apple over this issue, he's making an offer to every iPhone owner who doesn't return their unit, then exchange it for a new model at $200 off what they paid for it in the first place.

The offer? $100 credit towards their next Apple purchase.

Now, math isn't my forte, but I do know the difference between $200 in my pocket and $100 with Apple's name on it.

Still, Jobs gets credit for reacting swiftly, decisively and publicly. The question is, will iPhone owners swallow it? Time -- and the blogosphere -- will soon tell.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 13, 2007

The Humdrum Habits of Digital 'Influencers'

A new report from JupiterResearch upends some conventional wisdom about reaching "influencers" online with the finding that these individuals don't necessarily dig on social media -- at least for research.

As Jupiter analyst Emily Riley put it in a statement: "Although a high level of online activity may suggest the influential brand advocates would respond to social marketing tactics, they are actually more traditional in their manner of research." The report finds influencers are more likely to read a blog than write one, and more likely to seek value and reliability than whatever's hot this season.

In other words, the much-hyped influencer persona is above all things practical, skeptical and unmoved by social marketing. (release)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 10, 2007

The Science Behind Travelzoo

Ever wonder what's behind Travelzoo's Top 20 newsletter with the best deals in travel? A team of scouts cull through travel sites, and get offers from sources, then get together for a pitch meeting. Each deal is then confirmed to be sure it's attainable. The site documented its efforts in a news-style clip it posted on YouTube (link).

Posted by Enid Burns at 2:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 30, 2007

Nancy Drew Sleuths Marketing Opportunities

With just over two weeks away from the movie release of "Nancy Drew," a modern telling of the classic teen mystery series, yet another marketing campaign surfaces at the mall. Earlier this month two separate campaigns deployed the Web and mobile phones to peak viewers' interests. Now there's "Nancy Drew and the Cotton Caper" making its appearance in malls in 15 markets around the country.

The Cotton Caper draws from a partnership between Warner Bros. Pictures, Cotton Incorporated, General Growth Management (the owner of malls across the country), and Her Interactive (the publisher of the Nancy Drew video game series). Activities originate in a "cotton-themed interactive mall experience" where consumers receive an activity book of clues and instructions to find answers hidden in a mall display. Looking for more sleuthing after a trip to the mall? Consumers can go to Cotton Incorporated's thefabricofourlives.com and subsequently the microsite for Nancy Drew and the Cotton Caper where consumers can find more clues, locate a participating mall, learn about the title character's cotton-laden wardrobe. There's also a link to longtime "Nancy Drew" video game publisher Her Interactive and a snowball fight mini-game made for the upcoming title "Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek," which retails on June 12.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 17, 2007

Aspiring Action Heroes Wanted

Every so often Verizon creates a campaign to push its broadband initiative. The latest is Verizon's Action Hero site created by R/GA. The site allows visitors to create and even star in their own techno thriller.

Site visitors choose a villain, cast a hero from a catalog of digital faces or upload a personal photo to get dual directing and staring credits. Users then choose the intro sequence, chase scene, and blow-up ending to the film. Verizon says it will send the edited video within 24 hours, but I got a link to my feature film within the hour. Users can share the video with friends, or post it to the Verizon Action Hero site for all to see and appreciate what broadband can do.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Microsoft's Second Second Life Presence

Millions of Us, a virtual worlds/social media agency, recently launched Microsoft Virtual Studio in Second Life. They're also touting the success of the adjacent Microsoft property Coders' Cove island.

The community-building effort challenged coders to find hidden "eggs" and solve puzzles in order to win access to a mysterious blimp hovering above the area. Winners were accorded 900 square meters of virtual land (their lease is up in November, though).

Which reminds me -- this coming Monday, May 21, ClickZ is sponsoring the first-ever conference wholly devoted to Advertising in Social Media. We're going to be discussing projects in Second Life, social networks, syndication, and much, much more.

Check out the agenda, and if you're in New York, please make every effort to join us. We have an amazing line-up of speakers and one very cool, topical topic.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 30, 2007

Mobile Pass-along Rate

It’s understood that magazines have a pass-along rate, growing circulation beyond subscriptions and newsstand. Does mobile have a counterpart? On a panel at the Mobile Entertainment and Advertising Summit, Jeremy Wright, worldwide head of marketing services at Enpocket, referred to the behavior as “show-to-others.” He said it’s important to show to advertisers “the impact is much broader than a simple click through.” Of course this phenomenon will be difficult to measure.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 1, 2007

What Color is Your Microsoft Office?

You may have heard about a new bit of Microsoft Software: Vista. It's actually a whole line including several versions of the operating system and Office 2007. To add a little fun to what some see as potentially boring productivity software like PowerPoint 2007, Microsoft has created a short personality quiz to match users up to the appropriate software. Here's a fun, quick diversion. Though it's a bit pale in comparison to the multi-million dollar "Wow Factor" campaign to promote Vista.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 31, 2007

City-Wide Bomb Scare Spurred by Outdoor Placements

CNN is reporting the city of Boston reacted to outdoor installments placed by Cartoon Network to promote its Adult Swim series "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" by calling a bomb-threat. The ads consisted of an electronic circuit board with LED lights in the shape of one of the show's characters. In DIY fashion, the units had a home assembly appearance with exposed wires making them appear of questionable origin. The devices were placed in several locations in several cities: Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia. The light-up characters only raised a scare in and around Boston.

Posted by Enid Burns at 7:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 28, 2006

John Edwards Embraces YouTube, Viral, SMS,

Presidential hopeful John Edwards jumped his own announcement of his plans to campaign in 2008, scheduled for today, by posting a video on YouTube yesterday in which he pre-empts the news.

Edwards' appeal is for Americans to join his OneCorps campaign, and his call-to-action is to do so either on his Web site or via SMS (text 'hope' to 30644). He makes sure to ask viewers to forward his message to friends.

And it seems to be working.The enthusiastic feedback on his YouTube page runs very much toward "you've got my vote."

Where the effort falls short, however, is the campaign's stubborn insistence to capture e-mail addresses, no matter what. Want more info via SMS? Want to learn more about OneCorps? You're not going to get it..unless you fork over your deets and get on yet another e-mail list. Even the reply to sending an SMS message is, "Please txt us your email."

It almost feels like you have to pay.

C'mon, Senator Edwards. You've gone this far in embracing new media. Take the final step and don't throw up barriers to your message, or to your supporters. Embrace other communications channels (To be fair, the OneCorps.com URL redirects to blog.johnedwards.com, but it's not loading today, so no word about RSS feed availability).

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 13, 2006

FTC Response to WOM Issue Won't Change Much

With the Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing industry already policing itself when it comes to disclosure, a recent FTC statement sent in response to a call to investigate the industry probably won't change a whole lot.

OK, that's my assessment. Gary Ruskin, the man behind Commercial Alert, the marketing watchdog group that sent the petition over a year ago, managed to eek out a positive comment while speaking for a Washington Post story. “It will change practices in the word-of-mouth marketing industry.”

Ruskin says that because in the letter sent to Commercial Alert, dated 12/7, the FTC writes, "it would appear that consumers may reasonably give more weight to statements that sponsored consumers make about their opinions or experiences with a product based on their assumed independence from the marketer." In other words, the failure to disclose the consumer/marketer relationship would be deceptive, similar to previous false testimonial related cases cited in the letter.

"In conclusion," states the missive, "the FTC staff will determine on a case-by-cased basis whether to recommend law enforcement actions to the Commission." It goes on to suggest Commercial Alert "bring to our attention instances in which word of mouth marketing practices may cause consumer injury."

Commercial Alert isn't exactly pleased with what seems to be the FTC's request for more hard examples of deception. The org put out a press release recently regarding the letter suggesting, "the Commission gave the word of mouth marketing industry a giant Christmas present by refusing to launch a wholesale investigation of the industry for deceptive marketing.”

Evidently, Commercial Alert figured demonizing Procter and Gamble’s Tremor in its original petition was enough to get the FTC started. (Tremor is P&G's WOM agency that has thousands of kids signed on to help pitch products but doesn't required disclosure.)

To me, this looks like the FTC saying, yes, disclosure is important, but we're not about to put the time and energy into a full blown investigation of an industry in which the majority of its campaigns take place offline in actual in-person conversation. A very small percentage of WOM actually occurs online where the FTC might be able to track it.

Also, and perhaps more important, what Commercial Alert requested is a disclosure requirement. The fact is the Word of Mouth Marketing Association has spent the past year developing a set of guidelines for disclosure of the relationship between its member companies (from agencies to big brand marketers) and the people they enlist to spread WOM. Oh, and let's not forget it'd be pretty tough for the FTC to police what people say to one another, especially offline.

An interesting thing to note are some findings from a study by Professor Walter Carl that practically dismiss the notion that disclosure will somehow erode the supposed power of WOM:

For about 5% of the conversational partners who were not aware of the agent’s affiliation with the marketing organization there was a negative “backlash” effect when they found out. These negative feelings could be directed toward the agent, the interaction with that agent, the brand being discussed, and/or the company who made the brand, product, or service. There were virtually no negative feelings, however, when the conversational partner was aware of the agent’s affiliation.

It'll be interesting to see if Commercial Alert attempts to provide solid examples of deception via WOM marketing. To be honest, I think the disclosure issue is a red herring.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

WOMMA, Watch Your Buzz!

So I'm scanning one of the very few non-work related blogs in my feed list when I come across this item about the recent FTC ruling on word-of-mouth marketing regulation.

The stunning exerpt: "yesterday's decision was a victory for the extremely creepy "Word of Mouth Marketing Association," who want their street teamers to be able to shill without any type of disclosure requirements."

Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. WOMMA's all about disclosure, disclosure, and still another helping of disclosure. In fact, I sat in on WOMMA board member Jim Nail harping on that very fact at a Yahoo event just yesterday.

But that's not the point, is it? It would appear the Word of Mouth Marketing Association has its own issues to contend with, both insofar as "association" and "word-of-mouth" are concerned.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 12, 2006

WOMMA is Growing Up

Andy Sernovitz, the first CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), is moving on. He informed members Monday that he will give up his role at the organization at the end of March to pursue consulting, writing, speaking, and teaching opportunities, as well as spend some time with his growing family.

"Seems like ages ago, I fielded the first call from Andy re: a plan to put structure on what back then was an idea on a piece of paper," Pete Blackshaw, CMO of Nielsen BuzzMetrics and WOMMA co-founder, told ClickZ. "We've built a great organization, and Andy deserves a world of credit for getting WOMMA where it is today. He's a real fighter, and that's what we needed in the first phase of building a great association."

WOMMA will continue to be led by Susan Tibbitts, executive director, who joined the WOMMA staff more than a year ago, as well as a recently expanded staff of eight. The group elected a board of directors in May.

Those two factors make Sernovitz comfortable in his decision, he wrote in his farewell letter. "Experience confirms a lesson that my dad taught me about starting a business: The most important service a true entrepreneur can provide to his company is to get the hell out of the way when the startup days are over."

Sernovitz said will remain an active member of the organization.

Sernovitz led the organization in several efforts to set ethical guidelines for word of mouth marketing, which some family groups felt did not go far enough; and to defend WOM from overzealous legislators.

"I didn't always agree with Andy on all issues, but he got the job done. We've built a great organization, and Andy deserves a world of credit for getting WOMMA where it is today. He's a real fighter, and that's what we needed in the first phase of building a great association," Blackshaw said. "Importantly, he hasn't been afraid to address the difficult, sometimes acrimonious and always thankless issues like word-of-mouth ethics. Marketing needs more leaders who are willing to swim upstream on the issues that truly put consumers in the center of the equation."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 5, 2006

If Viral & Buzz Education Were a Vocational College

"I had to do some nasty stuff before I finally got a successful internet video. The viral learning center helped me stay focused." Worth a watch.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 1, 2006

Word-of-Mouth in New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Travel Council asked me up to beautiful Meredith, NH to keynote their Fall conference on marketing. My online marketing talk centered on the importance of user-generated content and participating in the conversations consumers are having about your business.

But the best lesson came from a member of the audience following a brief talk by the owner of the Inns at Mills Falls, Rusty McLear, and Alex Ray who runs the Common Man restaurants operated on the hotel properties.

Rusty and Alex alluded to contributing to the community and doing well by being good business citizens, but they didn't refer to specific initiatives. Then, a member of the audience raised his hand and told the audience that when his August wedding had to be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances, the hotel and restaurants forgave all his contracts for the event.

The two entrepreneurs shrugged off their good deed, but they did note that the gentleman had just told a couple hundred people about his good experience, and likely had related the story several times before. "We're in business to make money," noted Rusty, "but not to take the last dollar."

Strong brands tell stories. Really strong brands know when to sit back and let others tell the stories for them.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 17, 2006

Can a Good Viral Have a Good Sequel?

Sony enjoyed a viral lift from a TV spot it did called "Balls" where colored balls were filmed flowing down the hilly streets of San Francisco. Now it hopes to achieve similar attention with its "Paint" spot. This time the commercial was filmed in Glasgow by director Jonathan Glazer and features a fireworks-like display of exploding paint in a building complex.

The Bravia folks created bravia-advert.com just to show off the ad and making-of content. While there's the ability to download the ad and various behind-the-scenes video and images, there is little ability for a viral to happen from the site itself. On YouTube there's several version of "Balls" and making-of video for the "Paint" spot, but the creative itself isn't there just yet. One interesting note is that while there was extensive cleanup after each shoot as detailed on the site, it clearly took multiple takes, and a short video of one such disaster is posted on YouTube.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 5, 2006

Consumer Control & Marketing - In A Nutshell

At the CMO Council Summit, Dean Harris of Kayak, Josh Brooks of MySpace, and Page Murray from Palm are talking brand building.

The panel is just discussing the trend of consumers' increasign control over marketing efforts, and what marketers should do about it. A nugget of wisdom just dropped from Page's lips that sums it all up better than anything I've yet heard or read on the topic.

Page said: "Go with god."

Amen.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 20, 2006

CGM's Milky Way

Web 2.0 on steroids? Maybe. Hopefully, without the added hormones.

Watching the Tuscan Whole Milk user reviews pile up has been something of a spectator sport here at ClickZ HQ all week.

Current total: 765.

Many of the submissions are funny enough to...well, to make milk shoot out of your nose.

Impact on sales? No idea.

Brand buzz? No question about it.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 31, 2006

Hoops & Yoyo

Ever hea