“We’re going to create buzz!”
Whenever I hear that in a meeting, I cringe. A just-before-you-go-for-battle cringe.
Other variations:
“We’re gonna have word-of-mouth marketing!”
“We’re gonna do viral marketing!”
The worst one I ever heard was from this marketing consulting company. One of the consultants announced boldly, “we’re gonna viral it!”
No, she didn’t say that! “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch what you said. Could you repeat that?”
“We’re gonna viral it!” she repeated, looking straight at me like an evil Chinese teacher staring at an inattentive 8-year-old.
“Since when did viral become a verb?” I whispered sarcastically to my neighbour.
Not surprisingly, her marketing plan was hardly viral or buzzworthy or word-of-mouthy. The only viral thing about it was that it made me cough. Giving out prizes to encourage people to visit and contribute to a website? Ho ho ho. Makes me want to sneeze as well.
I’ve sat through so many such meetings that words like “buzz” have become a signal of potential cluelessness.
So when I first heard about this book, Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff by Mark Hughes, I was rather sceptical.
But the reviews I read seemed really promising (ah, reviews are like word-of-mouth), so I gave it a try.
It didn’t take long before I read about pushing the “six buttons of buzz” to start conversations:
- The taboo (sex, lies, bathroom humor)
- The unusual
- The outrageous
- The hilarious
- The remarkable
- The secrets (both kept and revealed)
I could tell if an idea would be buzzworthy or not, but I couldn’t articulate it very well. This list will be useful if I ever have to sit through another one of those meetings again.
The book also has a useful chapter on getting media attention. The most-frequently written news stories:
- The David-and-Goliath story
- The unusual or outrageous story
- The controversy story
- The celebrity story
- What’s already hot in the media
And some tips I like on advertising:
- Balance media diet
- Use clutter-free media
- Take off the shine (polish)
And something about discovering creativity:
- Be courageous - demand creativity of yourself
- Define the Problem… dump the strategy
- Understand your customers firsthand
- Swing the bat often
- Pay attention to names and words
- Create content, not ads
Great book to read, especially if you wanna understand buzz.
I had no idea buzzmarketing was that infectious, but I might just try getting my sweaty palms on the book.
Comment by XR — November 27, 2006 @ 2:47 pm
Thanks for this useful review. I think I better go and read it then, since I am probably guilty of the most heinous sins described above.
Having said that, I would take generating controversy and attention-grabbing stories with a pinch of salt. Sustainability and durability is something that is equally if not more important than indulging in momentary flights of fancy. That is where something beyond Buzz - I call it Relationship - comes into play.
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Comment by Walter — November 28, 2006 @ 10:11 pm
sustainability would depend on the quality of the product itself. of course, some products have such remarkable quality that the quality itself is buzzworthy (is this a truism?). oh, very poor quality can cause buzz too. the type that your competitors want.
Comment by tinkertailor — November 28, 2006 @ 11:49 pm
And well, there’s always being the ‘first’. Buzz is generated that way, doesnt matter if you’re second or the last, you become easily forgettable. (Useful point I heard lately).
Comment by XR — December 1, 2006 @ 12:08 am
being first is important if you want buzz, but just because you’re first doesn’t mean there will be buzz.
Comment by tinkertailor — December 2, 2006 @ 12:20 am
Don’t call it viral
I enjoyed Tinkertailor’s earlier post on how ‘viral marketing’ has become contrived and misused in discussions. Even if you call it viral, creating buzz with a product or service that has little substance, will probably fizzle out the campaign. I…
Trackback by VANTAN.ORG: The Daily Weblog — February 2, 2007 @ 5:29 am