Andy Sernovitz tells us about the organization's attempt to raise money for charity strictly by word of mouth.
Andy Sernovitz is CEO of WOMMA, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. WOMMA is a non-profit association that is building a word-of-mouth marketing industry based on ethics, measurable ROI and best practices. Nearly 250 companies have joined the organization. Learn more about how you can master word of mouth at womma.org.
Brad Berens: WOMMA is auctioning off 20 passes to its January event in order to raise $20,000 for a cluster of charities including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, Heifer International, American Red Cross, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. How did this auction come about, and how has the reception been thus far?
Andy Sernovitz: Frankly, it's an experiment. We wanted to do something different, and something special. Our first goal is clearly to raise money for charity. Doing the right thing is always a priority here. Our second goal was to provide a test case for word of mouth marketing.
There has been a lot of interesting research on why people relay a WOM message. The top reasons are usually about higher motives -- a cause, feeling smart, being an insider, et cetera. So, we picked some of our favorite causes and tried to start a word of mouth conversation.
The fact that we're talking now is evidence enough that it's going well!
Berens: Can you give us a progress report on the auctions so far? (Note: this interview is being conducted on the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan 3 and the morning of Jan 4.)
Sernovitz: The auctions are just starting to get traction as people get back from the holidays. I expect that it will follow the usual pattern that auctions and conferences share -- everything will heat up at the last minute.
More interesting is the spread of the discussion around the web.
We posted the announcement on our blog on December 28. On the same day, we called or emailed 50 or so bloggers that we regularly correspond with. We got lucky with some early major posts by Robert Scoble, Jackie Huba and the Office Weblog. A few posts have been happening each day since then, with increasing impact. This seems to be a slow build instead of a big blog frenzy.
We have also spread the word by emailing our members and the conference attendees, which keeps the message out there.
Berens: As you mentioned, parts of the blogosphere seem to have embraced the auction. When doing cause-based marketing -- regardless of whether it's WOM or not -- what are the best practices for doing it right, and also for avoiding the appearance of wrapping yourself in the flag of the moment for your own marketing purposes?
Sernovitz: That's the magic question (two questions, actually).
- For cause marketing to be authentic, you can't make compromises. We're giving 100 percent of the proceeds away. We're doing 20 passes instead of just one or two. Hopefully, those things signal that we're serious about the charity side. There would be significantly more skepticism if it was just a token pass, or if we held back some of the funds for our costs. (For the record, our out-of-pocket expenses for each conference pass are about $400.)
- For blogger outreach, authenticity is also the key. You can't send a press release to bloggers and expect respect (or coverage). You can't just call and pitch. And you can't throw out self-serving promotions. Bloggers are the best truth-tellers and bullshit-smellers. Treat them with care and love.
We have a long-term relationship with a core group of bloggers who we try to keep in the loop with everything we do. We don't bother them with routine announcements or standard PR. Instead, we make sure that we involve them in the discussion. It's no accident that we reached out to bloggers with this story before we did a press release or even emailed our own announcement lists. As you build trust over time, you open up lines of communication that are ready to light up when you do something special.
Berens: Robert Scoble, Jackie Huba and the Office Weblog are three different flavors of blog. Scoble writes from within Microsoft, Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell are consultants and customer evangelists and the Office Weblog is about Microsoft Office (among other things) and is part of Weblogs, Inc. Are there different rules of engagement among these flavors? And what about truly independent bloggers who aren't part of a company, consultancy or network?
Sernovitz: If you believe that working with bloggers is about respect, transparency and open communications (as we do), then there really isn't a "strategy" for "dealing" with them. Bloggers of all sorts are real people and straight talkers. So you talk straight and have real conversations. If you're genuine, you'll get respect (and you'll get written about). If you're a good conversationalist, you'll see more of that conversation written about. It's not a different strategy for different blogger categories. It's about connecting with them as individuals.
Berens: Sticking with rules of engagement for a moment... How should WOM marketers engage with conventional media, as opposed to blogs?
Sernovitz: Phrases like "rules of engagement" are derived from military lingo and imply that there is some sort of battle between bloggers, the media and marketing. It's important for marketers to let go and stop fighting. It's not a battle; it's a collective discussion that should result in a better outcome for everyone involved.
To answer your question, PR and WOM are different faces of the same thing. The best PR pros have always understood that PR is about building deep, trusting relationships with reporters. It's not press releases or silly stunts. It's about earning the respect of journalists, which in turn leads them to turn to you as a source, and take you seriously when you have news to share, which means that it's basically the same thing.
Berens: Good luck with the auction, and please let us know what the results are. Any final thoughts to share on this?
Sernovitz: Marketing is easy. All you need to do is earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. They will do the rest.
Brad Berens is executive editor for iMedia Communications.