Recently in Word of Mouth Category


William Castle word of mouth pioneer.jpgExamples of Word of Mouth can be found in the most unlikely places.

Recently, I found myself watching the William Castle inspired documentary, Spine Tingler, a film that documents Castle's intriguing film making throughout the 1950's and 1960's. 

What I find striking about this documentary is how Castle is discussed. Most documentaries speak about the filmmaker's influences, his directorial style, and/or his themes; however, when many of his colleagues and other industry eminents spoke of this esteemed film maker in interviews, they often described William Castle as a "brand", and that for all of his talents as a filmmaker, his strongest asset was that he was a great "marketer." Granted, his reputation was that he was "King of the Gimmick"...but in many ways, William Castle is one of the unsung heroes of word-of-mouth marketing.

In short, William Castle would drive positive customer word-of-mouth about his movies through creative strategies, fostering a pop-culture brand which exists to this day - all of this within the context of the 1950-era media industry.

Castle's strategies for driving customer word of mouth include:

  • Creating unique "brand" experiences for audience members directly within his films.  Even now, he is known for his unique stunts, such as having a skeleton "emerge" from a movie and float through the audience (House on Haunted Hill); having a "punishment poll" to determine the end of a movie (Mr. Sardonicus); and most famously, having theater seats "buzz" a person in order to encourage them to scream, as if they were participating in the film itself (The Tingler).

    Moviegoers - then and now - recognized the director's willingness to create unique experiences for his audience. In short, his "stunts" were the 1950's equivalent of offline WOM campaigns.

  • Developing a distinct personal brand.  Castle would often appear in his movies to provide an introduction (and, of course, to explain the "stunt"). By doing so, he not only helped promote the film, he successfully created a personal brand that came to rival that of fellow filmmaker, Alfred Hitchcock. By closely identifying himself with his movies, Castle created offline buzz strictly due to the force of his personality.

    However, this same technique later backfired when he tried to produce the film version of Rosemary's Baby in the late 1960's. Hollywood saw him as strictly as a "B-movie" director, causing considerable negative word of mouth in the industry, ultimately preventing him from taking the role.

  • Encouraging and driving conversation around key influencers and customers.  Castle would often travel to towns where his films were shot, meeting audience members (primarily 8 to 14 year old's) and interacting with them through special events. Today, we might call this "viral marketing." 

    In addition, Castle developed strong relationships with key influencers within Hollywood, including Harry Cohn, then head of Columbia Studios. In fact, Castle's ability to engage influencers led to his films becoming financially profitable, as well as driving sustainable word of mouth with later influencers like Forrest J. Ackerman, collector Bob Burns, and most notably, John Waters, who wrote a tribute to Castle in the early 1980s.

So, in the spirit of William Castle's pre-WOM efforts, I turn to you, dear reader, and ask - are there any unsung pioneers of WOM? Any one in any context - popular culture, history, technology, business - who embraced word-of-mouth principles long before anyone else? Someone you feel is a true pioneer of WOM?






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With all the speculation about the potential success of the Ipad, we're seeing a lot of word mouth about this new product, from points of view emanating from all ends of the spectrum.  Not since Nostradamus put feather and quill to parchment have we had such provocative prognostication and conversation about the future; to wit, whether Jobs' new device will have the impact of Sir Isaac Newton (like, big) or Apple's Newton (tiny tiny).

And while much of the talk is about how the "marketplace" will respond to such a new product, it's easy to get over our heads quickly.  Let's not forget the "marketplace" is just a bunch of people, like you and me, who buy and use things we like and don't the things we dislike.  Following that logic, let's do our own speculation on the future success of Apple's new screen, the Ipad.

Ipad and using technology.jpgAs I see it, we, human beings, not the "marketplace," today use screens in our lives to do three things: 1) Create 2) Communicate and 3) Consume.  Pick up a Best Buy circular or wander into the electronics section of any big box and you'll see no shortage of screens on sale, of all shapes, sizes and forms.

Screens for Creation:  Computers do a really good job of this, whether desktop, laptop, or netbook; computers are screens that help us make things.  Typically with keyboards, they're singularly awesome at helping us we build, write, assemble, and edit content.  They're pretty good at communicating (email, social networking, and chat) and ok at consuming (surfing the web or watching a DVD). 

Screens for Communication:  Mobile devices are really good at this, and today's smartphones are powerful in helping us reach out and stay in touch through voice, SMS and MMS, and social networks.  However, these devices typically aren't the best at creating content (ever tried to write a long email on an iPhone) or consumption (ever tried to read a book on your Blackberry?)

Screens for Consumption:
  This is where it gets interesting because, to date, screens built primarily for consumption were either really big, such as your monster HDTV at home, or really small, like your Ipod nano.   Big consumption screens were made for groups of people to experience the content together, primarily video, and small screens were primarily for individuals to consume music first, with video as an afterthought.  And here is where Mr. Jobs has laid his bet...we will want to consume all types of content, including content that has sight, sound and motion, personally. 

We consistently hear of Ipad users marveling about the device's immersive, incredible capability to experience content, whether it's movies, books, photos or the web.  This is where the Ipad seems to shine brightest; it's a phenomenal personal consumption device first and foremost, that allows you to communicate (email, social networking, but not phone); however, it's not a very good creation device (no camera, virtual keyboard, limited storage, etc.) because that's not its focus.  We've never seen a device that emphasizes personal consumption in a way the Ipad does, which is why it's revolutionary and, I speculate, while it will be a runaway success.


The_Future_of_the_Ipad.png
How might we measure this success, you may ask?  Enter the (not yet industry standard) Kissel Formula for Word of Mouth Capability (The KFWOMC).  This highly scientific (ha!) formula stipulates that a product's ultimate success (PS) is dependent on how highly and smartly marketed a product is (M), multiplied by whether the product Sucks (-) or is Cool (+), which directly correlates to its Word of Mouth and whether people will talk about and make the product successful.  I would imagine the equation would look something like this:

M * (-)S or (+)C = (+ or -) WOM = PS (approximately)

In practice, and without a tremendous amount of intensive regression, the formula could help us explain disasters like the movie Waterworld and New Coke (both highly marketed but sucked), and runaway successes like sliced bread (high "cool" factor for the time) and the mobile phone.  Ok, so looking back is always easy, but what about the formula's predictive capability?
 
Looking forward, and using the above formula, the Ipad will do well...highly marketed, great story, very cool, leading to positive word of mouth, leading to product success (hey, over 500,000 sold already!)  The formula, however, does not bode well for Baltic evening wear becoming the next fashion trend, nor for any future entertainment vehicles that include Janeane Garofalo.  In regards to Apple's newest innovation, only time will tell on how successfully this new device can impact the future of how we create, communicate and consume content.





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With a greater number of brands and marketers realizing the value of blogger and influencer outreach programs, it's becoming necessary for these individuals to find ways to differentiate themselves from their counterparts. If the goal is to engage consumers in new and innovative ways, how can bloggers or influencers stay ahead of the game to be recognized as a leading expert with mass appeal and influence? In short, how do they prove to marketers that they're right for the job?
 
The increasing use of live video broadcasting from mobile devices might just be the ace in the hole that bloggers and influencers need. There are a number of different phones that support a handful of mobile broadcasting services, such as Qik, Bambuser, and Next2Friends, but Ustream is emerging as one of the most widely used platforms currently available.

Ustream offers a free, interactive video broadcast platform that allows anyone with a webcam and an internet connection (or smartphone with the Ustream Application) to broadcast live, high-quality video to an audience of unlimited size. Users can either broadcast live to their Ustream channel or straight to their own website with an embeddable code.

Ustream for Android.JPGThis 'Social Stream' feature also allows Ustream users to chat live with viewers and simultaneously send updates to their Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and AIM accounts - all in real-time. With the combination of this live broadcasting and online connectivity, a new level of interactivity has been created for users.

Imagine that a car company is hosting a test drive for influencers and bloggers. Now imagine that one of the bloggers in attendance is broadcasting the event live to their blog. Using Ustream or similar technologies, they could easily conduct live video interviews with product directors, capture in-the-moment footage of a test drive, demonstrate the car's sound system, or show off the rumble of the car's exhaust. By communicating with viewers in real-time, the blogger is able to tailor the viewers' experience and foster deeper engagement.

As with any sort of endorsement or review, transparent disclosure of the blogger's relationship to the brand and/or product must be shared as well. When done responsibility and consciously, using live and mobile video broadcasting could be a creative way for bloggers and influencers to set themselves apart.

So, I ask you, what best practices would you share when using this technology? What do you see as some of the risks and/or benefits? How will brands and marketers evolve this this to fuel engagement and recommendation?

Image Source: http://techcrunch.com/2009/09/17/ustreams-mobile-video-broadcasting-comes-to-android/






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