Will prompted word-of-mouth become as hot as paid search?

Over drinks one night, a colleague turns to you and says, “Have you seen ‘The Manchurian Candidate?’” He then proceeds to give you a thumbs up. “It’s Jonathan Demme’s best film since ‘Silence of the Lambs.’ Denzel is even better than he was in ‘Training Day.’” 

You immediately whip out your cell phone to dial 777-FILM to snatch a ticket for tonight’s show. Maybe this morning you were thinking about seeing ‘Collateral’ or ‘Open Water’ or maybe even ‘I Robot,’ but not now. You’ve been sold. Not even Roger Ebert could have done better. 

This is the power of word-of-mouth (WOM).  

Now, what if you later found out your colleague had been hired by Paramount to endorse the film and talk to his friends about it. (For the record, Paramount has never done this to my knowledge.) The studio hired your friend because he told them what he reads, what movies he likes and how many friends he has. In exchange for his review, Paramount gave your colleague free movie tickets and a chance to win a convertible.  

Does this selection process and incentive change the value of the original conversation or bolster the strength of WOM?

As WOM becomes an increasingly important way to knit together marketing initiatives, the growing army of street marketers, buzz teams, influential panel creators and various other WOM entrepreneurs must address these questions and figure out the most effective way to catalyze conversations.

Books like ‘The Influentials,’ ‘The Tipping Point,’ and ‘ClueTrain Manifesto’ have become fashionable titles in strategic marketing circles. Numerous companies, Bolt included, are planting their flag in this emerging industry.

BuzzAgent runs elaborate, customized programs that engage panels of consumers to provide feedback to marketers about their products and train consumers on how to build buzz, giving panelists -- according to BuzzAgent's Web site -- “access to rewards that make honey seem dull.”

Tremor, a P&G subsidiary and one of our clients, qualifies its influential youth marketers by asking them a series of questions about their social circle and communication patterns. It then designs programs to get these kids interested in products and, ideally, talking about those products with friends.

At Bolt, we approach “Connectors” and ask them to sample products and respond to ideas, without telling them they are “Connectors.”

All of these program philosophies touch on important and relevant questions in the emerging WOM industry. How do we ascertain whether somebody is as influential as they claim to be? Do rewards alter the quality of endorsement? Do incentives build more buzz? What is the value of a conversation?

At Bolt, we have the unique luxury of identifying our influencers through observing their communication patterns within our community-based Web site. But if you don’t have an observable environment, what is the best way to identify influencers? We don’t provide our influencers with incentives, but struggle to find ways to motivate them without any form of coaching or rewards. Assigning a value to each conversation is handled on a client-by-client basis, and we are learning with each program we implement.

Despite the challenges of this inchoate new marketing segment, demand for successful WOM programs is high. Last week, a marketing executive at one of the most important teen magazines asked me if she could pay Bolt to distribute her magazine free of charge to our Connectors. Her thinking was that just getting the book in the hands of these high school and college kids would increase subscriptions. This represents a departure for an industry that historically tries to work with Internet marketers on a CPA basis. The recognition by traditional media companies that they need WOM partners to market their magazines and TV shows might represent a coming shift in the media segment’s marketing spend.

Not long ago, purist marketers believed that “Paid Search” was heresy. People thought a Search Engine that enabled advertisers to buy keywords was totally defeating the purpose of Search. Overture was just another one of IdeaLab’s crazy schemes. Today Overture is the fastest growing part of Yahoo! and paid search is the fastest growing segment in Internet advertising. If Google is any indication, paid search might be the most profitable form of media in the country. Nobody claims heresy any longer.  

Is WOM the next paid search? Might it become the next blockbuster marketing mechanism? What can we do to preserve its authenticity, and how can we responsibly integrate it into the marketing mix? I'll continue to explore these complex questions in future features.

Aaron Cohen is CEO of Bolt Media.