Word of Moss

A great site was forwarded to me by our Digital guru Mr James Warren this week. Swotti is an on-line  advocacy monitor. Type in any brand name and it searches 3million opinions and instantly gives you a result - fantastic!

Storytelling is an important part of any Advocacy strategy. In a world where you have lost control of your communication channels, inspiring others to pass on your messages is an essential ingredient in any comms plan. Storytelling provides the sugar coating to corporate messages ..helping to make them viral.

Storytelling of course requires great storytellers to ignite intial interest. Steve Jobs is often quoted as one of the best. This video is an interesting breakdown of his art. Another is done by Nick Rabin at Weber Shandwick who has a neat step-by-step approach to storytelling.

Marketing Week 24/4/08 covers an interesting survey just released by Millward Brown into WOM. For me one of the most interesting findings is the declining influence of company websites. Since 2006 their influence on consumer purchase decisions has decreased by five points and now less than half of respondents questioned use them as a source of information when looking for advice or information on what products to buy. 

It raises an interesting question as to whether companies are spending too much on designing fabulous websites and not enough on what is truely influencing their consumers. According to Millward Brown, the vast majority of positive wom recommendations are being made off-line. Not really surprising, but easily forgotten when budget setting.

Two interesting developments in the mum advocacy space today.

Firstly research by Keller Fay has identified that expectant/new mums have a third more conversations than the average, with two thirds of these including a brand recommendation. In summary they have 109 conversations per week about products and services (100 positive/9 negative), make 65 product recommendations and 45 of these recommendations convert into an intention to purchase.

Separately WOMMA reports that Johnson & Johnson invited more than fifty influential mums to a three day conference, where these socially connected individuals were included in a whole range of activities to build their relationship and involvement in the brand. 

Two cute examples of a growing focus on advocacy!

There’s a great article in the Times Money section this morning “How to join the internet vigilantes”. It highlights the number of “consumer revenge” websites springing up in the UK and the impact they are having on corporate decision making.
Some of the “Badvocacy” blogs highlighted included:-
Talktalkhell.wordpress.com– set up by an unidentified TalkTalk customer who was clearly unhappy about his phone and broadband provider.
Orangeproblems.co.uk – set up by a customer who was left without a broadband connection and claims to have 7,500 members.
Consumer action group.co.uk – set up by a man who was unhappy with his
Lloyds TSB Bank charges and now claims 7,500 members.
Lots of examples and a demonstration of how the internet is empowering customers. It’s also shows how business is having to open up, engage and involve a much larger group of stakeholders today.

As I have posted many times – transparency and participation are the key words in the new advocacy world and these are best practiced before rather than after any crisis.
You can find more examples of badvocacy by going to http://www.petitiononline.com/ , including a number against Tom Hicks, the part owner of Liverpool Football club. Interesting also is Hick’s response. Apparently he phoned the guy who started the petition to directly address his concerns. Not sure whether he managed to win the argument, but it sure shocked the petitioner and helped to create a lot of buzz amongst supporters!

A speech by Seth Godin (made some time ago) that I came across today. If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth watching.

The point he makes is that successful marketing comes down to successful idea spreading. Those brands who can spread an idea further - win. At the heart of the ‘idea-spreading’ model has been mass media. That model is now broken - consumers are ignoring mass media. The future is about making products remarkable - getting people to talk about and become advocates of the product. Spot on …

So what’s the priority, creating more advocates for a brand or reducing the number of badvocates?

It surprises most to learn that badvocates have 3x more impact on growth than advocates. Last week Dr Paul Marsden reminded an audience of this at a Weber Shandwick Advocacy event in London. His study at the LSE demonstrated that a 2% reduction in badvocates equated to a 1% increase in growth (you would need to increase advocacy by 7% to achieve the same result). Also interesting is what drives badvocacy. Research indicates that up to 50% of badvocacy is caused through frustration at a company not listening.
So, set up your Ideastorms, Mystarbuckideas and other channels of communication and get listening. It’s an easy way to grow your business!

I’ve just spent the afternoon being dragged around town searching for the latest Hannah Montana video. If you have a 8 year old daughter you will know exactly who Hannah is. You’ll also know the power of the Claire’s Accessories brand to pre-teen girls….a long blond Hannah Montana wig was purchased from them today!

Claire’s are clearly smelling an opportunity amongst this group. Every child today who purchased anything from the shop got a lovely “I love Claire’s” sticker plastered on their front. It’s an old fashioned marketing technique and a little bit more environmentally friendly than oversized branded shopping bags, but a nice touch that speaks to a truth and acts as a nice little billboard for the store.

I post regularly on this blog about the new techniques that brands are adopting to leverage advocacy. I haven’t talked much however about what lies at the heart of every highly promoted brand - a big brand idea.

This weekend I was introduced to Monkey at my local cinema. Monkey, for those who don’t know, is the PG Tips character … and Monkey has just made his first feature film! In the film, Monkey takes you on a journey of discovery as he finds out about the role of the Rainforest Alliance and how they are helping PG Tips ensure that all of its tea suppliers meet their sustainability standards. 

Beyond any doubt this is a big brand idea. At it’s heart is something you can care about, the message is delivered in an engaging and entertaining way and there are lots of opportunities to get involved, buy the merchandise (DVD’s and T-Towels are coming to a Supermarket near you) and sing the praises of the brand. First class stuff. It’s turned me into an advocate!

Starbucks have now joined the growing list of corporations that are recognising the power of putting customers in the driving seat. In the last few days they have launched Mystarbucksidea which like Dells Ideastorm asks customers for ideas on how to improve their offering and then gives them the chance to vote. So if you want a free cup of coffee from Starbucks on your birthday or free Wifi access in all Starbucks stores, click on the link above and vote!

It’s an interesting experiment and one I’m sure will work. It’s a lot better engaging openly with your customers on your own turf, than fighting a rear guard action on somebody else’s.