Competing with traditional marketing is just not necessary

Buzz Agency is looking to compare (compete?) WOM with traditional media through a “WOM Impact Guarantee” programme. The challenge requires a 300,000 US dollar investment in both traditional and word-of-mouth media. If WOM doesn’t outbase traditional competitors across four brand metrics–brand awareness, consumer opinion, purchase intent and actual sales, BzzAgent promises to refund the marketer the full cost of the campaign.

Maybe its because we’re Brussels based–and what is the EU if not a conglomerate of co-creation and (sometimes over-extended) collaboration?–but we just don’t know if this kind of competition is necessary. WOM and traditional media complement; they don’t compete. Successful media campaigns look to integrate traditional media and word-of-mouth, not to separate or isolate the results.

We measure mainstream media trends at the same time we meausure social media trends here. Comparisons demonstrate the efficacy of both WOM and traditional campaigns, as well as where the interests of both intersect. Analysis suggests which consumer profiles finds which types of media campaign most appealing.

This is the objective of online co-creation and collaboration. Allowing PR firms to create more effective and integrated campaigns that combine both traditional and WOM. Each industry, brand, product, and service requires campaigns modeled to suit the interests of the clients and the consumers–there is no one size fits all marketing campaign.

The concept of the long tail is that more effective marketing money is spent on more receptive markets. WOM is definitely a strong aspect in this, but WOM itself is multifaceted. What creates buzz and generate conversation is never easy to predict, but with the right tools and a little time, PR Agencies use software to analyse what works for clients or consumer and what doesn’t.

A lasting market is an environment in which consumers and producers look to establish long-term relationships. A market is collaborative. Shouldn’t marketing be too?

3 Comments »

1. [...] Competing with traditional marketing is just not necessary. “Comparisons demonstrate the efficacy of both WOM and traditional campaigns, as well as [...]

   Pingback by Liens en vrac (07/08/08) | Olivier De Doncker — August 7, 2008 @ 9:02 pm

2. [...] lose insights into what makes buzz valuable. As discussed in earlier blogs, offline events impact online buzz.  For example, word-of-mouth in English is limited to neither a [...]

   Pingback by Attentio Blog » Blog Archive » Where does WOM come from? — September 17, 2008 @ 1:14 pm

3. [...] lose insights into what makes buzz valuable. As discussed in earlier blogs, offline events impact online buzz.  For example, word-of-mouth in English is limited to neither a [...]

   Pingback by WOMM Center » Blog Archive » Where does WOM come from? — October 15, 2008 @ 2:00 pm

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