Real world WOM strategies

We’re a word of mouth agency, not a social media agency - because we believe that people who use social media are also living, breathing, feeling homo sapiens, and that the barriers erected in marketing between the digital and physical worlds are a fallacy created by agencies who want to ‘own’ their space. According to Keller Fay, 75% of brand word of mouth still occurs offline, with 17% over the phone and only 7% online. Social media is a fantastic place for conversation to spread, accelerate and amplify beyond geographical boundaries - but it’s still just a microcosm that reflects what we’re doing, feeling and experiencing in our real lives.

So it’s worth reminding ourselves of some of the great real-world WOM stimulation happening out there. First up, Blu Dot, an American interior design retailer:

“To celebrate the one-year anniversary of its Soho flagship store, design-minded furnishings store BluDot teamed with Minneapolis shop Mono on a socially-driven outdoor experiment that seeks to address the question, “If good design can be anywhere, exactly where can it go?” BluDot has dropped 25-30 of its Real Good Chairs at various locations in the city, where they’re free for the taking to passers by.”

The sight of the bright, slick chairs is an excellent WOM trigger, and they’re making sure the project lives online with a Twitter feed for chair pick-ups, a Flickr set hinting at locations, GPS tracking via their own site and a post-project documentary tracking down the lucky finders in the works. Offline impact, online longevity: nice.

Another good example of joined-up WOM stimulation is VW’s Thefuntheory.com. Inspired by ‘the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better’, the company have challenged people to enter their Award recognising the ‘thoughts, ideas and inventions that help prove the theory’ and’ created three videos demonstrating what that might look like: The World’s Deepest Bin, a Piano Staircase and a Bottle Bank Arcade.

By bringing new interpretations to everyday life, the project has echoes of the ‘design thinking’ approach of infamous agency IDEO, and the crowdsourcing plus philanthropy angle is an effective one.

So next time you’re considering ‘creating a buzz about us’, think outside marketing boundaries. Do things that are conversational in the flesh as well as on screen.

via Permanently Uncached, Scanning Marketing and @benferrier

Brought into the world on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 and filed under Offline/Online.