Word-of-mouth marketing -- Smart or sneaky?

It's 12:35 p.m., and the microwave line in your office kitchen is lengthy, but you stay because Stacey from accounting is talking so excitedly.

“Before now, my teeth only felt this clean after I went to the hygienist,” she exclaims. “You've got to try this toothbrush!” You make a mental note to check the product out the next time you're shopping and head back to your desk.

Would you believe Stacey as much if you knew she'd been engaged by an advertising company to talk about her toothbrush exactly like this?

People have always talked about the things they use, recommending (or dissing) products and services. It's called word of mouth, and advertisers have always known that it's the best kind of marketing their product could have, but they've never tried to control it. Until now.

New ways to receive media messages
Traditional advertising — in magazines or on radio and TV — is still, of course, a big part of most marketing campaigns. However, as new media (e.g., the Internet) emerge and technology makes it easier to ignore advertisers' messages (pop-up windows can be disabled; digital video recorders let you skip ads), some advertisers have begun looking for new avenues into our consciousness.

And knowing that family, friends, neighbours and coworkers often talk about stuff they're eating, watching, driving, washing with or otherwise buying, they're simply encouraging these people to talk about their products. They do this by offering volunteers free samples or trial periods for services; in some cases, before the items are available to the public.

What the talkers love the most, though, is getting a coveted spot on the inside track to what's hot, upcoming and cool: an opportunity to be seen as in-the-know and on-the-edge.

Becoming a buzz marketer
I was personally introduced to "buzz" marketing at a casual gathering of girlfriends, where my pals Kim and Larisa both mentioned seeing pilot episodes of "Shark" and "Brothers and Sisters," which would air on Global TV that fall. How was this possible? Did one of them know someone at the station — or even in Hollywood?

It turned out they'd both joined The Influencers, a word-of-mouth marketing firm that sent them DVDs of the pilots and asked them to talk to their family and friends about the programs. They even had business cards promoting the shows and explaining how anyone could sign up to be an "influencer" just by visiting a website. Intrigued (plus, not being one to say no to free stuff ) I happily jumped on the buzz bandwagon and signed up not just with The Influencers but with two additional buzzing businesses, BzzAgent and Matchstick.

The ensuing 14 weeks taught me not only a whole lot about an advertising strategy that's becoming a fact in all of our lives, but also about what I am prepared to do for a free box of cookie bars.

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The allure of free products
Aug. 5: I've received not only a DVD containing the pilot episodes of “Shark” and “Brothers and Sisters,” but also a large package of information to help me talk about them with everyone in the universe — or, at least my universe. There's no script for me to follow; I'm supposed to use my own words to voice my own opinions. And I must disclose to “buzzees” that I found out about the programs by participating in an Influencer campaign, just like Kim and Larisa did with me.

I'll also have to submit reports on all the conversations I have with people about the two shows. I start to worry about the amount of time it will take to talk to people, remember all that was said and fill out the online forms reporting my activities. Would the fact that I didn't like the main actress on one of the shows (the über-skinny Calista Flockhart) affect my ability to buzz about it? We'll see.

Aug. 15: I've now conversed with 20 people about "Shark" and "Brothers and Sisters." I even hosted a little "fall preview" party with my parents. Everyone wants to know how I got the DVD, so remembering to tell them that I'm part of a word-of-mouth marketing campaign is no problem. Some people I've buzzed have even signed on to get their own copies.

Filling out the activity reports isn't as time-consuming as I'd feared, although I do find it hard to keep track of who I've talked to already. And a lot of people agree with me: that actress is too skinny.

Word-of-mouth marketing in action
I've joined a new campaign — this time through BzzAgent — for a sonic toothbrush. (Yes, “Stacey” at the beginning of this story was actually me.) This one is a little harder to bring into conversation since most people don't talk about oral hygiene nearly as often as they do TV shows. My first attempt with one of my supervisors was hardly buzzworthy at all.

“Finished proofreading that document yet?” she asked me.

“Almost.”

“Good. They need it by 3 p.m.”

She was hovering beside my desk, so I decided to fill the silence with some buzz.

“Hey, have you ever tried a sonic toothbrush?”

She gave me a long look before she answered. “No. Does it help you work faster?”

“It just might,” I chirped, my voice unnaturally high. “My teeth feel fabulously clean. And flossing is totally easy now. As a diabetic, it's important for me to keep plaque at bay, and this toothbrush is helping keep my gums healthy.”

For some reason I was feeling nervous even though I was telling her the truth: my teeth really did feel clean.

“And the way I got it was through — ”

“Thanks, but I just want the document by 3,” my supervisor said.

Oddly enough, after the deadline had been met later that day, she came back to continue the conversation.

“My brother is a diabetic. Maybe he should get one of those toothbrushes.”

Again, she was gone before I could tell her about my involvement in this word-of-mouth marketing campaign. I had failed to disclose: the number 1 no-no in the buzz universe. But I was finding disclosure hard to slip into a conversation. Was it really necessary?

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Yes, says Sean Moffitt, president and founder of Agent Wildfire, the company behind The Influencers. “Transparency is essential,” says Moffitt, noting that campaigns perceived as being misrepresentative drew virulent backlash and compromised the advertiser.

For example, in 2002, Sony famously failed to disclose that they hired actors to pose as tourists in New York City and ask passersby to take photos of them using their Sony Ericsson camera phone so unsuspecting consumers could see how easy it was to use.

Fake online blogs, which are made to appear as if written by consumers instead of advertisers, have been created by McDonalds, Sony (again!) and other companies. Most recently, Sunsilk's “Wig Out” video — in which a freaked-out bride cuts off her hair instead of trying to fix it — made a splash on YouTube, until it was discovered that an actress had been hired to do all that wigging.

Now advertising agencies, the Canadian Marketing Association, the Federal Trade Commission and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association recommend that disclosure be used in any marketing strategy.

Apart from disclosure being ethical, it actually makes the campaign more effective, says Dave Balter, the founder of BzzAgent Inc., one of the top word-of-mouth marketers in North America.

He referred to a study by Northeastern University in Boston that showed “word of mouth that is being communicated through disclosure travels nearly twice as far than when people don't disclose.”

It would be kind of fun to play the “six degrees of sonic toothbrush separation” to see how far the conversations I started had spread. According to Moffitt, the average consumer has 56 word-of-mouth conversations a week. And the majority of mine that week were about oral hygiene.

That's me: the life of the party.

Buzz marketing backlash
Sept. 22: Today I experienced my first buzz backlash. My fourth campaign is for a new cookie bar. I got a case of 12 boxes and clear instructions: spread the word and share the samples.

The gang at the office loves to eat, so soon enough everyone was snacking. That's when I made my move to disclose and let them know how I got the bars.

“Hang on,” my supervisor said. “Were you buzzing me about that toothbrush, too? My brother bought one because of what I told him.” She sounded hurt. The rest of the group headed back to their desks (after grabbing a bar for the road).

While that particular word-of-mouth marketing effort had been successful, and I meant everything I had said about the product, my failure to disclose resulted in my supervisor questioning my conversational motives. And my coworkers were now acting a bit twitchy when topics turned to product recommendations.

Some of my closest friends have asked me to stop talking about the fall shows. And the toothbrush. And the vacation planning website that gives you honest opinions about destinations all over the world (I signed up for that one just recently). They didn't need “the sell,” they said (although they were happy to take the coupons and free samples).

Huh.

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I hadn't thought of what I was doing as selling. I was just sharing my opinion, wasn't I? I asked my husband. “But before, you used to wait for someone to ask for it,” he answered.

While the companies encourage me to be honest in my opinions, I receive “reward points” for each report I submit (whether positive or negative). The points can be cashed in for small items, like travel mugs, or donated to charity. So if I tried to tone it down, my ability to earn points (and be viewed as a top-rated agent) would diminish.

Separating life from advertisements
On a sunny afternoon my friend Tamara and I enjoyed tea on her patio.

“I don't know which preschool to choose for next year,” she said, referring to her three-year-old son.

My internal buzzing-opportunity alarm bell rang: “too many choices” is a perfect lead-in for the vacation-planning website. I bit my tongue.“What do you think?” Tamara asked, mistaking my silence as deep thoughts about early childhood education.

“You know what's best for Lucas. Here, try these cookie bars,” I said, grabbing some from the handy supply in my purse.

Maybe I'd been pushing the word-of-mouth marketing envelope, trying to link regular conversations to courtroom drama shows and the reduced need to floss. Had I crossed the line?

But in order to earn more points I need to have something to report, which means I have to take my buzzing to the next level: mere acquaintances and perfect strangers.

Oct. 12: There were four of us jammed into the bus shelter while waiting for the bus during a chilly downpour. Two were young punks donning headphones, but the older woman to my right appeared friendly enough.

“Doesn't this type of weather make you want to take a holiday?” I asked, fully prepared to tell her all about the cool vacation website. She gave me a smile and said, “No speak the English.”

Instead of asking an attractive man on the elevator for the time, I asked him if he had tried a sonic toothbrush. He had five more floors to go, so what did I have to lose? He stared at the floor numbers and ignored me.

Approaching people I didn't know took me so far out of my comfort zone I felt I should be carrying my passport. It was one thing to share a smile or comment on the weather, but to recommend products and services out of the blue, no matter how much I liked using them, just didn't feel right. Public spaces would be safe once again — I was going to stick to buzzing the ones I know and love. Or just eating the cookie bars myself.

Nov. 6: This week I passed on a campaign for whole grain cereal. I just couldn't see myself talking about fibre in a positive way. My friends wouldn't believe me, no matter how hard I tried.

I've been buzzing for 14 weeks now — a veteran. My campaigns (some of which ran over a two-month period) total five: four products and one service. And I've talked to approximately 176,000 people about these items, give or take. But some of the conversations I'm having with close friends and family have become a trifle strained.

'I came over to talk to you, not a spokesperson'
It was after my third unsuccessful cookie-bar trial attempt when my friend Joanne finally came right out and said it.

“I came over to talk to you, not a spokesperson,” she said. “Zip it or I'm outta here.”

Then we started talking, for real. Apparently my “helpful” suggestions weren't ringing true. Sure, I'd told her about great stuff before (we've known each other a long time), but it was without a need to get all my facts straight and explain why I was talking to her about it in the first place.

“It's just not like you,” said Joanne. “But I did appreciate the toothbrush coupon.”

I've learned a lot about buzz marketing and about me. Being a buzz agent was fun (especially when I got to try new products), but it definitely felt awkward sometimes.

Typically, the kind of people buzz marketing companies are after are “key influencers” — those who identify trends and spread the word about them. Buzzing comes so naturally to these people that their friends and family expect to hear about new stuff, simply because that's the way they've always behaved. I know now that I'm more of a trend follower than a trendsetter.

When I confessed my discomfort in buzzing to Kim and Larisa, the friends who got me into this mess, they told me I could be trying too hard.

“I file only one or two reports a week,” said Kim. “If you don't like doing it, don't,” added Larisa.

That's when I discovered my mistake: I was taking this too seriously. Instead of just spreading the word about cool products, I had turned it into a job. While I'll miss the free stuff, word-of-mouth buzz is better left for others to do.

Has my experience made me more cynical of conversations in which products are mentioned?

Not really. All our lives we've had to deal with one another's opinions, whether we agree with them or not. It's just now that word-of-mouth marketing is more popular, we can expect to hear a lot more of them.

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This article was first printed in the April 2008 issue of Homemakers Magazine. Click to subscribe online and don't miss an issue.