Bzzz…

Posted on June 22nd, 2006 by Jennifer and currently 1 commenting.

Warning: LONG BLOG POST AHEAD!

I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Beantown where I attended BzzAgent‘s first ever Masters in Buzz Administration workshop. First of all, I have to thank Dave, Jono, Michele, Kristen, Tim, Joe… the whole BzzAgent team… for putting on a very fun and informative day and bringing together an interesting group of people – including my table-mates from Ogilvy PR (Hi Rohit!) and Mullen (Hi Suzanne!). All in all, I have to say “Great job, guys!”

Dave Balter started out the day with an introduction to BzzAgent and with the goal of teaching the agency representatives not only how to develop a program on the BzzAgent network, but how to apply the BzzAgent philosophy and tools to other networks. Lofty goal! I’ll say that I think it was partially accomplished. It was a great and very thorough overview of the BzzAgent system and philosophy, and there were certainly lessons to be taken to other arenas… but overall it remained a BzzAgent sales tool. (I’m not saying it shouldn’t be… it was their day, and they did a very good job with it. I’m just saying that the additional goal of further applying their philosophy outside of their network wasn’t quite reached.)

I’ll focus on what I think was interesting and well done from the day :

• First of all… this was the beginning of a new strategy for Bzz Agent. Until this point, they have usually worked directly with the client, and BzzAgent usually develops any Bzz materials and tools in house. Moving forward, however, BzzAgent’s goal is to bring agencies into the mix. They want creative shops, who know their clients and campaigns better than anyone, to have the opportunity to create the tools used in a BzzCampaign. This is a change that is likely to be more cost effective for the client, more consistent with the overall campaign strategy and will free up BzzAgent to focus on the Bzz. I think that’s great for them to decide to play to the strategic strengths of all parties involved.
• Dr. Walter Carl from Northeastern University spoke on the metrics of WOM – specifically in terms of the BzzAgent model. I’m a big research nerd, so I always enjoy hearing him speak. He’s good at addressing focused issues without ignoring larger applications and implications.
• 3 very active BzzAgents came to speak with us to share their particular stories and motivations. I myself am a BzzAgent (a kind of lazy BzzAgent, to be honest, but a BzzAgent nonetheless!), so it was really interesting to hear people who really love it talk about why in the world someone would voluntarily do this.
• Artist Seth Minkin was on hand creating personalized Bee portraits of each of us – a way cooler party favor than a balloon giraffe! And it was intended to illustrate the point that every product you use has some sort of genuine, personal story attached to it… so Bzzing isn’t about creating some wild tale or tagline… it’s just about sharing your real brand experiences.
• Here’s mine: it reads “I love improv theatre, and no matter how crazy things get, I know I’ll never perspire on stage.” It features me on stage… and my deodorant.

• At the end of the day we got to make our own BzzCampaign on the fly. It was a lot of vaguely silly brainstorming, but it really did a good job of bringing everything we had discussed all day into a concrete, executable format. And it was fun!

Now, if you’re a regular reader of our blog, you’ll know that our philosophy doesn’t always jive with the BzzAgent philosophy. And I think that’s important… particularly in a growing space like Word of Mouth Marketing. There has to be a dialogue. And I feel that I found an interesting common ground in the meeting yesterday. BzzAgent speaks about Word of Mouth Marketing as something that can be bought, just like air time or space in a publication. And in their model, it can be. And frankly, because of their segmentation and the volunteer structure – the Agents are usually bzzing about things that they are genuinely excited about… so it’s not disingenous, even if the original contact with the product is an artificial stimulus.

If a company is willing to invest in spurring on WOM… BzzAgent is certainly a great way to get some instant gratification and very quantifiable results (their analytics and metrics structure is pretty darn impressive). BUT (you knew there was a but… right?) a BzzAgent campaign is a little limited. Like any other media channel, after your X week media buy, your ad isn’t running anymore… so that exponential jump in awareness dies down. There may be some residual excitement from true evangelists… but the BzzAgent WOMM as Media Channel model provides only a finite resource. Building a true ambassador program, on the other hand, is harder and slower. It doesn’t show the same kind of explosive “right now!” results that are possible with a nearly 200,000 member network (congrats, by the way!), but instead the results will continue to grow steadily for as long as a company is willing to live up to the relationship they form with their advocates.

It seems to me that there is plenty of space in the WOMM arena for quick, BzzAgent surgical strikes as well as more long-term investments in organic community growth. Both can be completely genuine, and there are distinct benefits to both… it just depends on the ultimate goal of the company in question.

So there ya go. That’s my BzzAgent Beantown Blog. Thanks guys!

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