Question: What’s the one advertising technique that is almost 100% guaranteed to sell your product?
Surprisingly, it’s not hiring Jennifer Lopez to pose next to your car, or spending millions on a Super Bowl commercial.
No. In fact, it’s simply one person recommending a product to another person.
That, my friends, is called Word of Mouth.
Over the past decade, the Internet and social media have completely changed how Word of Mouth works.
And in one quick update called “Search, Plus Your World”, Google made Word of Mouth and social media marketing 100 times more essential.
But before we get to that, let’s take a walk back in time, to one hundred years ago, when we all lived on farms.
Frank, a local farmer, recently purchased a new rifle. Ted, his neighbor, stops by to admire the rifle.
“How’s the new rifle?” Ted asks Frank.
“Probably the best there is,” Frank replies. “I’ve had 20 rifles in my life, and this by far is the best.”
Ted’s been thinking about buying a new rifle, but couldn’t decide which to get. But because of Frank’s recommendation, Ted buys that rifle.
Word of Mouth advertising.
Flash forward to 2010. Beth and Sarah are high school friends. They’ve moved to opposite sides of the country to attend college, but kept in touch through Facebook.
Beth will be spending Spring Break in a beautiful hotel in New York City. She wants to show her friends where she’ll be staying, so she goes to the hotel’s Facebook page and shares some of the photos on her own Facebook page. “Look where I’ll be staying!” she exclaims in the photo captions.
Ashley wants to visit New York as well, but hadn’t decided where to stay. She spots the pictures Beth shared and visits the hotel’s website. She loves the look and decides to make a reservation.
Now here’s the magic of social media that differs from what it was 100 years ago: not only did Ashley see Beth’s post, but so did Beth’s 700 other friends.
Instead of a one to one recommendation, it’s now one to 700.
Word of Mouth advertising and Social Media Marketing.
And finally, let’s flash forward to the present day, with Google’s latest update: Search, Plus Your World. Now, when you search on Google, you will not only see the search results you’re used to seeing, but you will also see what YOUR friends have said and shared about what you are searching for.
Let’s look at an example:
Mary is looking for information on a dish detergent. So she does a search on Google.
As always, she sees a bunch of search results for dish detergents. But mixed in there are stories from her friends: one friend has posted before and after pictures of clothing she used a new detergent on. Another wrote a quick post saying how happy she was with that same detergent.
And finally, a third friend has shared something special: a coupon that the same dish detergent company posted on it’s profile.
Mary trusts her friends’ recommendations. She downloads the coupon and goes to the store to purchase the dish detergent.
Word of Mouth advertising and social media marketing, revolutionized.
Top companies are now engaging in social media marketing as a way to spur Word of Mouth advertising through social networks. And not surprising, it’s been working.
But now, with Google’s new update, social media marketing MUST be an ESSENTIAL part of your overall marketing and advertising plan.
Because if you’re not doing it, your competitors will be…and they’ll be stealing your sales.
Image Credit: 
Some rights reserved by Sean MacEntee
Believe it or not, there was a time before television. Radio was the broadcast media, and audiences found live radio ads just as ear-catching as the programs they sponsored. When TV programs started around 1940, most advertisers took what they knew from successful radio creative and tried like the devil to paste it into TV ads. Oops.
It took a few years for technology to align with creativity, but alas we finally saw the last of singing Texaco gas station attendants and Old Gold dancing cigarette boxes. Agencies and brand managers finally realized TV viewers wanted something completely different in a television ad. Good radio creative required theater of the mind, but good TV creative required doing the mental work for the viewer.
Fast forward to 2015. Here’s what you’ll probably read…
Believe it or not, there was a time before the internet when broadcast TV ruled media, and audiences found good TV ad as enjoyable as the programs they sponsored. When digital advertising was launched around 1990, most advertisers took what they knew from successful TV creative and tried like the devil to paste it into online ads. Oops.
It took a few years for technology to align with creativity, but alas we finally saw the last of the :30 second one-way interaction commercials that had been cut and paste from TV to online. Advertising agencies and their clients finally realized online viewers wanted something completely different in an online ad. Good TV required doing the mental work for the viewer, but good online creative required involving the viewer. (Think World of Warcraft)
Check back in five years and see if we were right.
Brandtailers has spent the last six months working on some amazing new online video technology that we will be introducing next spring. Although we can’t talk about it yet. working on this project continuously reminds us that consumers’ most precious commodity is still their time, and whatever can be viewed online vs. read online in a blog post (like this one – oops) is going to become even more popular in 2012 and beyond.
Most of us know that YouTube is now the second most powerful search engine in the world after Google. (Gee, who owns it?) But it’s more than that. The powers that be at Google had the foresight to realize that just as books turn into movies, reading content online will morph into viewing it. Let’s face it, we all prefer to take the easy way out. The day will come before too long when people say, “Remember when we had to READ things online?”
With this in mind, we’d like you to enjoy our semi-freaky Brandtailers holiday video-card, which just goes to prove there’s a reason why the U.S. Postal service is going out of business. We’ve always been somewhat known for our interesting holiday cards, normally shot, printed, processed and mailed averaged about $4,500. However this cost us a whopping $52.70. Welcome to the new world!
Following is a post we wrote in January of this year, predicting Social Media would end up looking very different at the end of 2011, mainly due to the change in interest from quantity of online relationships to the quality of them. Were we right? Read the post below and let us know what you think:
JANUARY 2011:
So, the new year is just about here and you’re putting some last minute adjustments on your 2011 marketing strategy. Looking back on 2010′s social media efforts, you realize you spent a lot of time trying to gain significant Twitter followers, Facebook fans, 5-Star Yelp Reviews and Foursquare Mayors. Well? What did it do for you? Can you show it brought you more business? Did your brand awareness significantly increase? Chances are, probably not.
For what it’s worth, you’re not alone. This whole social media thing is in its infancy. Just like the marketers who were trying to figure out the best ROI for television advertising in the early 1950′s, we’re trying to figure out how social media will help us sell more thingamajigs.
That being said, we doubt as much emphasis will be put on quantity in 2011 as it will be on quality. The assumption that 10,000+ Facebook fans is an automatic opportunity for marketing success is already an old-hat. More Facebook users are “hiding” irrelevant content on their own Facebook feeds than ever before. When asked why, over 90% say it’s due to too much irrelevant content coming at them.
The next twelve months will be a fascinating time of watching (and helping) marketers fine-tune their online brand connections to the qualitative associations that will have a positive impact on bottom lines. Having the biggest number of potential customers will be replaced by having the most reliable number of quality customers. It’s an age old process of marketing substantiation. The only thing that changes is the communication tool. Yesterday it was TV. Today it’s Facebook and friends. Tomorrow? Who knows – stay tuned. It’s right around the corner.
When I saw Rick Perry’s Presidential Debate “Oops” re-played on the news this week, I cringed. Not because I was concerned for Rick Perry (this is a non-political blog post), but because of how easily I compared Perry’s “Oops” to the average commercial on TV today.
Think about it…
Governor Perry’s self-promotion opportunity was experienced by millions of TV viewers, just like a typical broadcast advertisement. Perry was using the time and place to convince millions of citizens to choose him over his competition, again just like a typical broadcast advertisement. Viewers may not have expected Perry to be great, but they didn’t expect him to be embarrassing. The same holds true for the average modern day TV advertisement. Perry destroyed his powerful self-promotion opportunity by coming to the party unprepared to give consumers what they really want – trust. The same holds true for most commercials.
If we take the time to analyze why we use our remote controls so aggressively during commercials, it’s because most ads embarrass us with their lack of consideration for our intelligence. Even more disappointing, the main reason today’s bad commercials aren’t getting Perry’s current level of negative press is because we’ve become immune to them. We expect Perry to deliver presidential capabilities in a debate, but we don’t expect commercials to deliver influential messages that make us want to respond.
In the movie Art & Copy, Lee Clow, Chairman and Global Director of TBWA\Worldwide, said most advertising today is bad because everyone involved with the creative itself is afraid. How true. The marketing committee of the product or service is so afraid of failing they won’t take chances. That’s why there’s a committee in the first place, right? And the agency is afraid of losing the account, so they wouldn’t dare suggest any potential risks. And yet, risk is where art meets influence, and we consumers are enticed to take action.
Instead, consumers end up experiencing the mundane. Add the current economy into the scenario, and there is even more fear of failure resulting in messages as embarrassing to most consumers as Rick Perry’s brain freeze is to potential voters.
Isn’t it a shame we’re used to it? I’d like to see the advertising industry take a stand for the customer, and promise them that all future advertisements will be produced to deliver compelling, interesting, entertaining, and truthful creative messages. Maybe Brandtailers will take this lead. Who says change always has to come from the big boys?
(Yuck. We really don’t like the term “Social Media,” but we feel compelled to use it here so you’ll get the point of our message. Do yourself a favor, though, and stop thinking Social Media – start thinking Online Brand Management. It makes much more sense)
But for now…
The idea of hiring college interns or fresh, young twenty-somethings to manage social media is a hot topic these days. And a crazy one if you ask us. It’s like hiring someone to manage your TV advertising because he watches 3 times as many shows as you do. Oh, and he knows how to do everything with just one remote control. What the heck does that have to do with marketing?
Here’s what we’re hearing a lot these days…
Boss to employee: “We’ve got to get going with this Facebook and Twitter stuff. Do you have any idea where to start?”
Employee: “I’ve got no idea. Heh, unless you want to hire my wife. She’s hooked on Facebook these days. But my kids don’t even tweeter.”
Boss: “What about Cindy down in HR? She’s young. I’ll bet she tweeters. Maybe we could give it to her. She could do it a few minutes every week.”
Employee: “Yeh. She’s got a little free time. I see her on Facebook.”
Boss: “At work!?!”
Employee: “Oh yeh. All the time. But what about getting a college kid? We could hire him as an intern and wouldn’t have to pay.”
Boss: “Hmmm. Good idea. Who wants to pay someone just to do Facebook. Why don’t you check into that.”
So, let’s see. The average business today has what is, probably, the most powerful opportunity in years to properly position and market their brand to a highly targeted and relevant audience, and they want to hand that responsibility off to a youthful, untrained kid. CAN YOU SAY CRAZY?
Oh sure, Brandtailers has interns. Great ones, hand picked from the best colleges with the best advertising and PR programs (ala Chapman University). But we don’t entrust our client’s brands to them! Yes, we get some of them involved with our clients online efforts – but only after 60 hours of training and testing and only with constant supervision, guidance and ongoing webinars to improve their talents. Even then, they’re often doing the background work, i.e. gathering research and info for interesting posts on Facebook. We do not leave a client’s online brand in the hands of anyone who doesn’t completely understand the full marketing strategy, goals and objectives of a client’s brand. The online world is not a separate place from all other brand messages – it’s another place. A new one that has more potential to grow your brand than any other media has since television’s hay days.
If you’re a business leader reading this, please take our advice. DON’T “Just Do It”. Read a few case studies about businesses who understand the place Social Media has in marketing, and the powerful part it can play in the 21st century businesses’ success, or failure.
