NOTES FROM WARC/WOM EVENT

Here’s a few rather hastily typed thoughts from today’s World Advertising Resource Centre Word Of Mouth event in London. We couldn’t stay for the day but nonetheless caught three really interesting talks, each in its own way giving good food for thought.

First up, we saw Contagious mag’s Paul Kemp-Robertson offering (in true Contagious style) a highly thought provoking range of case studies and ideas. He broke down his talk as follows...

• Radical Transparency – aka the west coast US biz culture in which there’s freedom to fail, to change course, to admit the brand isn’t perfect all of the time. In WOM terms, this is all about enlisting the global smart mob – throwing out a challenge onto the web, expanding your intellectual capital base. He referenced Patagonia, the US outdoor clothing brand, and its endeavours at inviting the audience to comment and advise on its eco credentials. Also the Japanese-centred trend for QR codes, with products linking you through (via your mobile) to pages on who made the products

• Next came Brands As Entertainment – with talk of Time Bandits (“don’t buy time, create time with your audience”), brands as production companies (Doritos’ Snack Strong Productions, Cadbury’s Glass And A Half Full Productions, M&S Productions), on how Bebo’s open media platform focus has it viewed as the smartest social media operator by brands wanting to offer entertainment and of the Katemodern drama’s successful integration of Cadbury, Orange and Proctor & Gamble brands into its storylines.

• After that, Two Track – in essence offering more content to those who show more enthusiasm and a greater willingness to engage with your brand. And in getting there, brands, we were told, need to see themselves as a network of the unacquainted – to bring the unacquainted together and to enable them. Not quite sure how all of this joined up (!) but it got us on to the equally interesting topics of subject-based social media networks (www.ning.com), small scale experiences that get blogged about (eg, a really nice Mini Clubman initiative wherein cinema goers could wave their arms in the air and change the direction of the car on screen), a European shopping mall initiative that allowed friends/families to be photographed appearing on the front cover of the Ikea catalogue (with the ability then to send off for a custom catalogue with said image on the front cover) and Vaseline’s intriguing Prescribe The Nation docu-research project, in which a prime influencer was found in one Alaskan town and the impact of that influence was mapped in a film and on a website.

• Next, Branded Utility – such as Fiat 500s being fitted with USB sticks, containing data you can load up on your computer post drive, to learn how you can belt about town more efficiently/economically, widgets for the Nike + service; and Jenny Walker, an on-mobile personal assistant for businessmen, who’ll organise your diary by day, appear in a slinky dress in the evening, make recommendations for night’s on the town and even book you a cab home at the end of the evening if the effects of Jenny’s backers, Johnny Walker, have got to you.

• Finally, Connected Products – like O2’s Cocoon phone which, as soon as your enter the O2 Dome, comes alive, making recommendations and inviting you into VIP spaces. And Uniqlo’s Try, a visually incredible attempt at building a community through an online application which aggregates consumer feedback.

Phew…

From there in was into rather more analytical environs, with Walter J Carl of ChatThreads looking at methods of measuring WOM. He noted four ways in which WOM can be deemed to add measurable value: referrals (factoring in the implications of negative ‘referrals’ too), reducing acquisition costs, the acceleration effect (accelerating the adoption process through engaging with consumers early) and learning and insights (NPD, averting crises etc). Thereafter he talked through ChatThreads G2X Analytics approach to offline measurement and intriguing use of networks maps as part of the measurement process.

Finally, we caught Chris Ramsey of Radian6, who shared his thinking on the ROI in engaging via social media. Sensibly, he stressed that brands need to enter this sphere with particular objectives in mind (ie, reducing complaints, improving page ranks, upping engagement, increasing sales and leads etc) and acknowledged that there’s no definitive form of measurement at present (and that, instead, the diversity of means should be viewed in a positive light).

Time for a lie down...