That being said, I find it surprising that more brands aren't providing simple ways to allow their customers to share information offline.

One company that has it figured out is high-end audio manufacturer Bose. I've been a happy owner/early adopter of their QuietComfort noise-canceling headphones for a number of years (on my second pair, in fact, after leaving my last pair in a hotel room safe - Marriott, hope your cleaning staff who "didn't find them" is enjoying them!). When these headphones first came onto the scene, chances are if you were wearing them while on a crowded business flight or vacationing, someone would come up to you and ask about them. Now, seems like everyone is wearing these $300 headphones everywhere I go!

So, what's the ingenious thing that Bose has done? They have simply included informational pass-along cards right in the headphone case. That's right - for probably less than $0.10 in packaging, they've incorporated a offline referral tool right with the product.

When someone asks, regardless of whether or not I feel like talking about the headphones, how they work, etc., I can simply hand them a card which directs them to a website where they can get all of the information they need. (Note to Bose - why not direct these referrals to a special landing page that acknowledges they were referred by a friend, with reviews/testimonials, etc. as well as provide a way to better track the referrals? Drop me a line and we can talk more...)

Bose has made it easy to spread the word. How is your company making it easier for your happy customers to pass you along?

(Oh, and JetBlue and Enterprise, hope each of your cleaning crews are enjoying the two 32GB iPod Touches I also managed to leave behind over the past year... but that's a story for another day!)

Total spending on WoM marketing is expected to increase 10.2% to $1.70 billion in 2009 and grow at a CAGR of 14.5% during the 2008-2013 period, reaching $3.04 billion as more brands include WoM in their media mix and ROI metrics improve.

Other Key Highlights:

• "Spending on U.S. word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing increased 14.2% to $1.54 billion in 2008, as brands recognized the need to get involved in consumer and business conversations and allocate resources to WoM. Spending increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.6% from 2003 to 2008. "

• "Spending on WoM content and services increased 13.0% to $1.26 billion in 2008, as major marketers integrated WoM into the media mix and shifted to specialized WoM firms that help drive long-term campaigns. Spending rose at a 37.3% CAGR of 37.3% from 2003 to 2008. "

• "Spending on WoM ancillary products increased 19.7% to $286 million in 2008, due to growing demand for return-on-investment (ROI) data and the impact of WoM campaigns on consumer purchasing behavior. Growth can also be attributed to the increasing sophistication of WoM tools that are being used to monitor online and offline conversations. Spending grew at a CAGR of 39.1% from 2003 to 2008. "

Who's Investing in WOM?

According to the study, consumer product goods (CPGs) companies are the major adopters of WoM, accounting for 17.4% of spending in 2008. Other top categories include food & drink, finance & business-to-business services, electronics & telecommunications, and retail (they note that auto & transportation would have been in the top five if not for their industry's recent financial woes and cuts in spending).

Shift in Consumer Behavior

Not really a surprise here, but the study notes/validates that consumers are abandoning traditional and ad-supported media, migrating to digital and consumer-supported media.

For more information (or to purchase the report), click here.

I recently returned from WOMMA's Word of Mouth Marketing Summit in Las Vegas. It was a fun (yet sleepless!) few days and it's always great running into/reconnecting with familiar faces as well as meeting new ones.

Historically, these events have always left me invigorated and full of new ideas. But this time, something felt... "different" (and it wasn't the shots of Petron that we did at the Wynn just a few hours earlier after an all-night Blackjack marathon )

In the opening "State of WOM Address" given by WOMMA President John Bell, he said something along the lines of the word of mouth marketing industry reaching a "tipping point". I think what he meant was that WOM is about to transition from a "niche" form of marketing and a tiny part of the overall marketing mix to a more "mainstream" tactic that is on the top-of-minds of any C-level executive.

Yes! I agree 100%! But after two days of panels and networking with people from a variety of backgrounds (brands, agencies, services), I started to wonder, could word of mouth marketing, rather than reaching a "tipping point", be "jumping the shark"?

Thinking back to the "early" WOMMA events (2005), there was an electricity/excitement in the air. It's really hard to explain, but everyone was drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid. The excitement wasn't about what had been done, but about the potential of what could be done. There were far more questions than answers, but that was fine, because it was forcing people to think about things like tactics, metrics, and business models. And for brands, how can they sell WOM to their boss and how do they budget for it?

Flash forward 3.5 years - word of mouth marketing has matured into a multi-billion dollar industry. There are tons of books, blogs, and even awards dedicated to the concept. So although I didn't find it surprising that audience members (many of whom were new to the industry and first-timers at a WOM-related conference) were asking many of the same questions as back in 2005, the vibe was much less "electric" and more "uncertain", and what surprised me was the lack of concrete answers being provided, in particular with respect to:

• Tactics
• Metrics
• ROI
• Ethics

How can that be possible? Are we, as practitioners, really still figuring things out? Or are we hesitant to share too much info with other agencies/potential competitors (since the event was probably 90% vendors/agencies)?

On the agency/vendor front, are folks jumping into the WOM/SM arena out of true passion/belief or are they just trying to latch on the next "big/cool" thing or make a quick buck? Will the industry simply become dominated by a small group of large PR Social Media agencies? If times become tough economy-wise and competition more fierce, will things like ethics be tossed out the window? Please tell me no!

However, I do truly believe that the industry is at a crossroads. The lines are being blurred between PR, marketing, loyalty/CRM, and customer service as these tactics increasingly overlap. Demanding accountability and establishing consistent metrics among both brands and agencies is the only way to ensure things "tip" rather than "jump". Hopefully this stirs up some healthy dialog - I encourage you to post your thoughts below, or drop me a tweet!

Oh, by the way you can check out all of the live "tweets"/micro-commentary that were posted during the WOMMA Summit by looking for posts tagged #womsum (or just click this link).

This is the wrong attitude. The expectation is small spend, huge results (often in a short amount of time). With traditional marketing channels, there is a linear relationship between spend and return (i.e., if I know that I get a x% response rate on a direct mail piece, I can simply set my budget accordingly to hit my total response goal; each $1M in additional advertising generates a x% lift in sales, etc.). With WOM or viral marketing, the relationship ideally resembles more of an S-curve (not a J-curve, as you might be led to believe) - fairly linear until a certain point, then takes on a more exponential shape until flattening out again (or falling off entirely). How you get to steep part of the curve is a factor of time (i.e., bigger spend gets you there faster). It's "organic" versus "amplified" WOM.

Most marketers want to first dip their toes in the WOM waters so they piece together a small budget to try something out, which is understandable. But if their budget is set too low, time frame is too short and expectations are too high, they are doomed to fail (they never hit the exponential part of the curve) and are left with a bad WOM taste in their mouths.

There's tons of research out there showing that Word-of-Mouth is the most impactful and trusted form of marketing around. But to really see its benefits, marketers need to spend more, not less.

WOM should be treated as being "effective" rather than "cheap"!

Word-of-Mouth (WoM) Marketing is the fastest-growing segment of the $254 billion marketing services sector of the media industry, which includes among others, branded entertainment, direct marketing and public relations. WoM marketing grew almost five times faster than the overall marketing services sector in 2006 and more than six times faster than the overall media industry and nominal GDP.

Spending on word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing jumped 35.9% in 2006 to $981.0 million and is expected to top $1 billion in 2007, making it one of the fastest growing alternative media segments. Driving the growth is the continued consumer shift to alternative media and the marketers' need for increased brand engagement and ROI.

Does your boss still need convincing?

Related Links:

Press Release: New PQ Media Forecast: Word-of-Mouth Marketing Spending To Break $1 Billion in 2007
Word-of-Mouth Marketing Forecast 2007-2011

According to WOMMA, the Wommies are "designed to recognize amazing word of mouth campaigns and the smart people who create them."

That being said, it's truly an honor to receive this award, which was judged by a panel of our industry peers and chosen out of over 50 submissions by some of the best and brightest marketers around.

We will be presenting a case study of the program at WOMMA's Word of Mouth Marketing Summit, which is taking place Nov. 14-15 in Las Vegas. To learn more about WOMMA's Summit and Research Symposium, visit www.wommasummit.com.

Related Links:

MyA41 Passholder Community Case Study (via WOMMA case study library)
WOMMA Announces Wommie Award Winners (press release)

So says Andy Sernovitz (the founding CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association) in this iMediaConnection article, where he gives some nice props to our work for Square Enix. Andy also talks about the The Five Ts of Word-of-Mouth Marketing - components that any successful word of mouth campaign shares:

Talkers: find the people who like to talk
Are they your customers? Neighborhood moms? Doctors? Bloggers? Think about the people who are most likely to tell a friend about what you're doing. Make sure they know about your new topic of conversation.

Topics: give them a reason to talk
Give people a reason to talk about you. It doesn’t need to be fancy. A special sale, good service, a cool, new feature, a better flavor, a funny package. (Remember the Gateway computers that came in cow-patterned boxes?)

Tools: help the message spread faster and further
Do everything you can to make it easy for talkers to pass along your topic. Include postcards and stickers in the box when you ship a package. Put up a chat room so people can talk to each other. Join a blog conversation. Hand out samples. (Did you ever get one of those emails with a "secret" coupon that was supposedly for employees only? Did you forward it?)

Taking part: join the conversation
Conversations die out when there’s only one person talking. When people are talking about you, answer them. Reply to their emails. Comment on blogs that write about you. Send a lot of thank-you notes.

Tracking: measure and understand what people are saying
The word-of-mouth conversation is the best feedback you’re ever going to get. It’s far better than any other kind of market research because it is the authentic voice of the consumer. Hear what people are saying, learn from it and use it to be a better company.

Read this Book!
If you haven't already, I highly recommend you get a copy of Andy's new book, "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking," which is a great guide full of ideas on implementing successful word of mouth programs, regardless if you are a major brand or a mom-and-pop restaurant.

see also:

iMedia Connection: Chrysler, Coke: New Brand Buzz Leaders
Square Enix: Slime Knights case study