I’m surprised how quiet the word of mouth industry and social intelligence monitoring firms has been on the recent acquisitions of New Media Strategies (NMS) and Genex by Meredith Corporation. I checked Technorati yesterday and didn’t find any blog posts about the January 10th acquisition announcement even though traditional press releases were sent out and many members of the working press had covered the story.
If you’re not familiar with NMS, Pete Synder and his co-founder Aaron Earls pioneered the strategic practice of online brand monitoring, protection and promotion that paved the way for a number of new firms – including mine – that use information to support customer participation and co-creation. NMS has 70 employees and an awesome client list that includes ABC, Coca-Cola, AT&T, Ford and Sony among many others. If you’re not familiar with Meredith Corporation, here’s a link to a short piece James Glassman wrote about the business.
Perhaps the deal simply means that Meredith is going to build out laterally connected social networks around recognized interests across all of their magazines and using buzz monitoring to guide advertising sales. Who knows. The Morris Communications and Yahoo HotJobs deal that was announced the day after Meredith’s deal is sure to be one business approach Meredith will evaluate.
Regardless, I think the acquisition story is very interesting from the standpoint of combining a customer relationship management firm like Genex with a business that focuses on tracking online social intelligence like NMS. Is this a road map for future acquisitions? Is this the start of a new service model? It is certainly a smart start but the question remains how will Meredith combine the services or the service providers? What I like about these deals from the standpoint of campaign implementation is the potential for creating stronger connections between buzz monitoring and word of mouth campaign activity. I think we’re likely to see a lot of word of mouth services firm start to announce partnerships with buzz monitoring firms to extend the value of both service types. In fact, for BoldMouth, partnering was one of our core strategic objectives in 2006. I believe the partnership route is powerful in part because it automates processes around social intelligence gathering for WOM firms and give buzz monitoring groups avenues to extend the value of their tools beyond simply being great products.
Why has the industry been so quiet? I’d love to you from you! Justin Kirby what do you think? Pete Blackshaw any industry insights that you want to share? John Moore do you believe brands can be more assertive now that social intelligence monitoring tools are pouring into the market or does it matter? How will word of mouth campaigns evolve as a result of buzz monitoring?
TAGS: New Media Strategies, Genex, Meredith Corporation, Word of Mouth, Buzz Monitoring, Pete Synder, Morris Communications, Yahoo, Coca-Cola, Ford, Sony, Justin Kirby, Pete Blackshaw, John Moore, BoldMouth
2 responses so far ↓
johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) // Jan 26, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Todd, nice to reconnect with ya. As for your pointed question … yes, brands can be more assertive now because more tools exist giving companies greater knowledge of who is talking/listening online.
HOWEVER, the fundamental issue remains more of changing company culture than accessing new tools.
Most companies still lack confidence in their products/services to be more transparent in their conversations with customers. New tools can’t change a company’s culture. Dig?
Todd Tweedy // Jan 27, 2007 at 7:28 am
Hey John! Thanks for the comment…
Actually, I think we’re both in agreement. I believe new tools provide new information to companies that help validate why they need to be more customer-facing. Step one is hearing what is said. And, social intelligence monitoring tools gives brands the ability to listen in to what is happening around them. But, as I noted in my interview with The New York Times in the piece — What We Talk About When We Talk About Brands –most enterprises are not ready to hear what customers are saying about their products. Which leads to the big challenge of determining how to interact. I believe many brands have focused on distribution a strategic advantage and not conversation. I have a feeling that is going to change. Thanks again John!
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