I spent yesterday with a bunch of my colleagues from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association - folks from Fizz, BzzAgent, Communispace and Converseon. We held a seminar for WOM in DC as part of WOMMA's outreach and training.
The issue of where does WOM live in the galaxy of agency types and professional disciplines came up again. Will it reside in a flurry of "pure plays" just as we saw the emergence of pure play digital agencies (I believe this is a temporary phenomena as we develop expertise in a concentrated way while multi-disciplinary agencies ingest "digital" as a core area/channel/expertise/etc...)? Will Public Relations firms embrace the discipline and commit to what it takes to fully develop expertise and capacity? Will other agency types swoop in and claim WOM knowledge, even, leadership?
TWO THINGS THE AGENCY OF THE FUTURE (the "new" Public Relations firm) NEEDS:
New firms will make a big commitment to defining measurement and valuation in WOM. Let's face it, without credible measurement of word of mouth, no one will be able to fulfill on the claim of leadership. You cannot carve out sizable or growing budgets for programs that your CMO, CCO, or CEO cannot measure and report in a sound bite how it went.
We need credible and simple at the same time. Having read WOMMA's great measurement paper compilation #2, I can tell you that while there is some great thinking, math and statistical gymnastics going on, what we don't have yet is simplicity. It starts with valuation. What is a brand enthusiast worth? Must it be measured in the granular events s/he takes part in? It must be exponentially more valuable than an advertisement. What is the actual WOM event worth?
With this valuation in place, the new firm will deploy multidisciplinary programs to activate and amplify WOM as a core skillset. That statement is loaded with implications. We're talking long term, relationship building programs vs. short term "campaigns." The new firms will buy and use advertising to generate WOM not to achieve significant reach-like impressions (sounds like what we have seen from Crispin). And yes, experts in the firm will be trained in the nuance of community building and conversation and will spend some of their time training clients vs. taking on these tasks themselves (such that the client maintains the relationship with the customer and constituent - most times)
(More on the way - but what do you think is part of the agency of the future?)
You can read the first part of this series here.
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