Successful Word of Mouth Requires Enabling Conversations

Word of Mouth Marketing Association CEO Andy Sernovitz opened the session, "Word of Mouth Marketing: Create a WOM campaign in five easy steps," by suggesting five steps needed to make a word of mouth campaign successful:

• Find the right people
  
• Give them something to talk about
  
• Create tools to make it easy to talk about
  
• Participate in the conversation
  
• Track and measure
  

Sernovitz also clarified that word of mouth marketing can involve other advertising tactics (other than true word of mouth) such as buzz marketing, viral marketing, product placement, grassroots marketing, referrla programs and brand blogging.

Edelman Worldwide EVP Rick Murray presented work done for Viagra in which he identified social influencer networks, provided facts to dispel rumors about Viagra, created a website that enabled conversation, admitted the project didn't incorporate participatory conversation very well but summed up claiming a 63 percent increase in "informed" conversation about Viagra.

Hass MS&L Director of Online Outreach David Binkowski took the audience through work done for the Phillips Senseo individual coffee maker which consisted of identifying young, single coffee makers who spoke passionately about coffee online, sending the product to these passionate coffee drinkers to trial and write a review which was then posted online and enabled to be sent to a friend. While specific number were not provided, Binkowski did state traffic to the review site and an increase in sales.