Word of Mouth – how to trigger the campaign amplifier

Sue Burden, head of brand & communications research at TNS UK, looks at the ways in which media planners can use the power of Word of Mouth…

WOM is of course not just a happy accident that multiplies the effect of your campaign via a myriad of digital comment and it is not just limited to brands lucky enough to have creative as outstanding and WOM-friendly as the Cadbury’s ‘Gorilla’ TV.

There are ways that the media planner can maximise the WOM potential for their campaign, right from the start.

1. Convince brand stakeholders that WOM will be a profitable strategy for the brand – there is now a growing body of hard evidence that can demonstrate the power of WOM:
   • quote Les Binet and Peter Field’s recent book, “Marketing in and era of accountability”, which analysed 880 IPA ad effectiveness case studies and shows that campaigns that were focused on achieving high talkability were more likely to achieve high profitability
   • look at the Word of Mouth Marketing Awards shortlisted papers on WARC.com
   • use the results from the TNS WOM Trial (contact me for more details), where we tracked WOM on 9 tracking studies in 2008 and found that not only was WOM often present at a similar level as advertising in mainstream media like TV, it was also primarily positive – an effective brand communications medium, with relatively low costs – an opportunity not to be missed.
2. Look for the WOM factor in your channel choice – apply the same WOM-rigour as John Woodward, Planning Director from Publicis – at the recent WOM Marketing Conference, he recommended that clients change their evaluation criteria for new creative work from “What does it communicate?” and “Do I like it?” to “What will people say about it after they’ve seen it?” and “Would I want to share it with someone?” The same questions can apply to every aspect of your recommended campaign plan.
3. Seek to amplify WOM with use of traditional media: a recent example of this was the T-Mobile guerrilla dance event at Liverpool Street station in London – a new “participatory” TV ad was being shot – the commuters invited to join in created an instant WOM effect; then a radio campaign featuring enthusiastic commuter participants amplified the WOM effect and built advance awareness for the new “Life’s for sharing” T-mobile TV ad.
4. Challenge the media owners to offer a WOM dimension to your communications plan – an obvious route is outdoor contractors providing poster sites in relevant, witty locations – not just a car insurance poster sited outside Silverstone – for every campaign there must be a suitable location that would beg to be photographed and uploaded onto You Tube. Most media owners offer an online presence to their audience; could they offer a chance for consumers to interact here with your client’s ad – to post their own experience of the brand? In this way, the WOM amplification value is planned in from the start.
5. Make sure the creative teams know about the WOM opportunities of each medium you propose – ask the media owners to supply examples of successful WOM using their channel and stimulate the creative juices.
6. Ensure clients commit internal resource to WOM – this may come from budgets and resource that would’ve previously been focused on managing traditional PR activities.
7. This WOM-managing resource will be needed to facilitate clients entering into a dialogue with consumers who contact them once they’ve seen the campaign – consumers are naturally positively impressed (and generate even more WOM) when a brand replies to a comment they made online.
8. Create a WOM campaign team with the client and relevant agencies – all should be fully involved and motivated to maximise WOM value.
9. Be prepared to make rapid changes as your WOM campaign progresses – successful WOM is not a question of months of preparation and then sitting back and watching it happen. Change the paradigm from 1. Learn and 2. Do to 1. Do and 2. Learn.
10. Include a measure of WOM on your tracking, as we did in our study. We find this very useful for clients and it will show them the power of WOM at work for their brand.

TNS: www.tnsglobal.com