We had a family outing to the Cinema yesterday to see Avatar, the first film Directed by James Cameron since Titanic and on track to gross more than £1 billion in box office receipts (one of only five films ever).
“It’s an amazing film. If you see one film this holiday go and see this one”. “It’s brilliant, I’m honestly going to find time to see it again” Not my words, but the words of my brother-in-law and then my sister.
I must admit, I hadn’t heard of the film until this point (I know, I must have been on planet Mars). His enthusiasm did make me think I should. When my sister then spontaneously spoke about it on New Years Day, I knew I just had to book tickets there and then. We saw the film the following day.
It’s and interesting example of the additive effect of word of mouth advocacy. Clearly in the case of films it takes two positive endorsements to get me into a Cinema seat. But, how many does it take to get someone to change a mobile phone brand, change their choice of beer or open up a new bank account? Even more interesting … how do you stimulate this effect when you don’t have James Cameron directing your output?
More on all of this in 2010, the year of Brand Advocacy…and clearly of Avatar too!
