If you've been anywhere on the planet, chances are you saw or heard something about the controversial Clinton / Obama YouTube video titled 1984 Vote Different; posted by Phil de Vellis on March 5 (AKA parkridge47). By my estimates, a few million alpha types went to YouTube directly while somewhere between 150 to 250 million likely caught it on the "OldTube" in the U.S. alone. I would not be surprised if the awareness of the video reaches a billion people in some form. Amazing! What you saw is a classical example of viral marketing. A week later, the buzz about the video continues. The rerun factor was the main attraction on the Sunday morning political talk shows. There was very little substance in the analysis. Nobody went beyond the YouTube experience. Nobody explored viral marketing or the strategic implications to the traditional two party system. I did not see any indication that the talk show hosts understood the real difference between the various forms of word of mouth marketing (WOM) nor the fundamental message being delivered by the creator of the video (on Huffington Post).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo
I happen to be reading Connected Marketing by Justin Kirby & Paul Marsden (ISBN-10: 0-7506-6634-X, ISBN-13: 978-0750666343), when the 1984 YouTube video first came out sometime around March 5th. The first time I watched the video, I sensed we might be at a magic moment Malcolm Gladwell calls tipping point. I spent some time looking at WOM marketing from a more academic and theoretical perspective. I thought I would post a blog this week for those who are not familiar with word of mouth marketing (WOM). Moreover, I wanted to look at the sociopolitical and commercial implications of WOM marketing. By no means is this post intended to be a primer on WOM. It certainly would do justice. Nor is my intent to compare / contrast The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell to some of the other books like The Anatomy of Buzz and Connected Marketing. I just want to stimulate a deeper examination of this relatively new form of marketing and point you to some excellent resources.
Let me seed some thoughts and answer some of these questions:
- What are the different WOM marketing techniques?
- How are they different?
- Are WOM marketing, buzz marketing, and viral marketing all the same thing?
- Why does WOM marketing fundamentally work?
- How does WOM marketing work?
- Can a WOM marketing campaign be scripted or do they simply happen?
- Can WOM marketing be used for b2b?
- Is WOM marketing only for trend setting products/services?
- Can WOM marketing be used for an established brand?
- Can WOM marketing be used for a non-product / service related things?
- How about an idea, opinion, or "igniting" something that becomes defined by the ad?
I'll touch on some of these areas. If we accept the premise that traditional network and the underlying business model is dead and moving to the internet (paid TV advertisement), maybe there is a more effective new way of reaching key voter demographics.
Sociopolitical implications: Could YouTube and other digital multimedia social websites further fragment the younger demographics or will it coalesce and unify them into a single voice that can breakup the two party system? Thomas Friedman, might ask - are we seeing the democratization of the presidential campaign machinery. Is this the end of the two party system, as we know it? I think the tables are about to turn for presidential campaign managers.
The internet and advent of e-commerce changed the legacy push model to a pull model and shifted purchasing power towards the consumer. Perhaps we are seeing a similar paradigm shift in presidential campaigning. Instead of worrying about getting the message out to constituents, maybe the constituents have discovered an ingenious way of changing the rules. Instead of getting the campaign message out, maybe the community drives the message and the campaign. I think Phil's clever video gave us all the same immediate gut wrenching reaction. Is this for real?! Are you kidding me! Who created this? It almost had a liberating sensation. Wow! Could this be the end of paid campaign commercials created by candidates, as we know it? Thanks for proving a great point. Now anyone can make a video ad and have a free channel to broadcast it out to millions. I guess you don't need millions to produce and broadcast a 30 second spot. It does not even have to be for a product or service. As the 1984 video demonstrated, a WOM ad could be for an idea or opinion. Could the 1984 video be that tipping point? Is this the new marketing paradigm? With the advent of Tivo and other filtering devices, we have learned how to block ads. Now it appears, we are taking control of creating those very ads. Instead of being at the receive end of message the candidates are trying to put out (push), perhaps the networked voting community can form a formidable representation of a message it wants to project (pull). That would be a radical change.
I bet the pundits and campaign managers are scrambling to get themselves up to speed on the various types of word of mouth marketing (WOM). The more connected are probably strategizing about the implications. Phil de Vellis clearly stated his intent in the March 21sth Huffington Post. As Phil pointed out, the digital medium is not exclusive to anyone. YouTube provides a frictionless platform (distribution channel) to reach a significant audience. Anyone with a PC and some basic multimedia editing skills can create a short media event that captures and / or ignites a popular view, opinion, trend, culture, or idea. As Phil showed us, it does not cost anything, but a few hours and lots of imagination. Truly innovative! Could this be the "disintermediation" of the presidential campaign process, as we know it? The discussions, outcomes, and possibilities are endless.
As Kirby and Marsden point out in their book, not all forms of connected marketing techniques are the same:
Table 13.1 is out of Connect Marketing (click the image for full view). The table shows the different types of WOM marketing. Why is WOM getting so much attention? The traditional forms of marketing are becoming obsolete. This table (below) form Connected Marketing summarizes marketing, as we know it:
Grab yourself a copy of Connected Marketing or The Anatomy of Buzz for an in depth study of these issues. I highly recommend Connected Marketing to anyone who is marketing professional or MBA type. Based on the number of clearly listed peer-reviewed references at the end of each chapter, I would say Connected Marketing is a good candidate for academicians. I am not sure if I answered all of the questions.
Lots of good WOMM resources and experts. I'll try to list a few WOMM resources and other postings regarding the Vote Different citizen ad:
Word-of-mouth Communications http://www.wom-study.blogspot.com/
Silicon Valley Watcher. Richard Koman's 3/21 posting http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/MT-3.34-en/mt-tb.cgi/1709
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