Brand New Day Word of Mouth: Madison Ave.--Are You Listening? - BusinessWeek

Reading through the blogworld today and came across this posting by David Kiley over at Brand New World.

Here'€™s an idea to save traditional media. What if marketers and agencies viewed every ad they create and buy as a medium for word-of-mouth.

A few years back, we wrote:

And just look at the entire WOM phenomenon. Now, as part of full disclosure, we participated in the first WOMMA conference and are very good friends of the WOMMA team. But think about it, if you identify campaign 'A' as your WOM campaign, aren't you in effect saying that you don't expect anything from the rest of your campaigns? Shouldn't the goal of great storytelling be that people talk about everything you do??? Shouldn't you be creating TV commercials, events or online activities that all make people want to talk about them?

Honestly, we believe that it doesn't matter what tactic you use, as long as it creates a compelling, authentic and relevant experience for your brand. And it doesn't really matter what tool you use to deliver that story, as long as it's a good story and people want to hear it.

We still spend so much of our time trying to figure out how to intrude into people's lives, that we don't think about what to do so we're invited in. WOM is not a marketing strategy; it's the outcome of a great product telling a great story. During another rant on WOM, I wrote:

My final comment is this. This artificial debate about who's better isn't helping us at all with our clients --€” the brands that buy our services. Frankly, the amount of time that we spend arguing about which tactic is better is why we'€™re not being invited to the strategic thinking table. ALL forms of advertising have value -- based on what story you'€™re trying to tell. It's not a battle between traditional media and new media. We should be focusing our collective efforts on how we can help our clients captivate their audience, rather then on tactical ways we can help them capture their audience.

We believe that agencies will have a greater responsibility in the future to not just help clients talk about their brands, but how to make their brands better and more valuable to their audience. We can't just use cool tactics any more. We have to help clients create relevance with their audiences.

One of my favorite examples today of a brand that has really created a brand new relevance for their audience is Webkinz. Ganz took stuffed animals and made them cool, hip and the must-have toy for 5 - 8 year olds, at least the ones that we know. I need to write a full article about them, but my daughter and her friends spend lots of time on Webkinz.com and collecting Webkinz animals. My daughter even plays online with my Mom and her significant other.

OK, time to start getting ready for the day. Lots of Xmas shopping to do and now that I know CompUSA is closing, I need to see if they have any good deals today!

Link: Brand New Day Word of Mouth: Madison Ave.--Are You Listening? - BusinessWeek.

Link: Experience Manifesto: WOMMA's Word of Mouth vs. Advertising.

Link: Experience Manifesto: WOMMA's Word of Mouth vs. Advertising: A logic game.

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