Suzanne Vranica and Brian Steinberg’s piece Ads Reach for ‘Reality’ on Wednesday, December 21st, 2005 in MarketPlace page B1
“This sort of viral advertising relies on word-of-mouth to spread its message. It’s a marketing technique that is likely to become even more popular in the months ahead as advertisers seize on the idea that consumers pay more attention to ads that they have to make an effort to find.
I agree and expect the gaming strategy approach to support word of mouth to go well beyond “search and find” formats in the future.
This is not to say that word of mouth is becoming a household tactical option for advertisers but rather as the journalist note simply a subtle marketing technique as noted in their openning:
Glitzy television advertising, long the mainstay of marketing, fell out of vogue this year on Madison Avenue. In it’s place: frill-free commercials. The journalists go on to note later in their piece that: And they (advertisers) are increasingly interested in subtle marketing techniques, such as paid-search Web advertising and product placement in movies and TV shows.
I do hope that tactics such as highlighted in one campaign selected as a Worse case example in 2005 by Omnicom Group’s Ketchum Public Relations for the US Department of Education will cease in 2006 as advertisers turn away from planted stories to generate buzz. In this case, the public relations firm was trying to plug “No Child Left Behind” by paying conservative pundit Armstong Williams. A DOE spokesperson noted that the incident was “stupid, wrong and ill-advised.” As for Mr. Armstrong, his services were no longer needed by Tribune Co.’s Tribune Media Services which dumped him and him column.
TAGS: Word of mouth marketing, word of mouth, best and worst ads of 2005, Ketchum, McKinney + Silver, Suzanne Vranica, Brian Steinberg, The Wall Street Journal
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