Where is the Puck?

As reported by CNN earlier today, Google is making app that would identify people’s faces. This mobile application would allow users to take pictures of people’s faces in order to access their personal information on various sites, including their name, phone number and e-mail address… We have yet to see how Google will sort out legal and privacy implications!? More details.

The future of laptop computers? Amazing technology, watch this video:

“Over the course of a typical week, the average American consumer participates in 121 Word-of-Mouth conversations, in which specific brand names are mentioned 92 times…

WORD-OF-MOUTH CONVERSATION is retaking the throne in the social order… The evidence is becoming abundantly clear: word of mouth (WOM) has now become the most important and effective communications channel.”

(Source: Keller, E., Unleashing the Power of Word of Mouth: Creating Brand Advocacy to Drive Growth, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 47, Issue 4, 2007.)

In my previous post I wrote about Word-of-Mouth being the future of marketing. WOW factor and WOM not only brings you customers for “free”, but those referred customers are even more profitable!

Philipp Schmitt, Bernd Skiera, & Christophe Van den Bulte published the article “Referral Programs and Customer Value” in Journal of Marketing earlier this year. They tracked approximately 10,000 customers of a leading German bank for almost three years and learned that REFERRED CUSTOMERS…

“(1) have a higher contribution margin, though this difference erodes over time
(2) have a higher retention rate, and this difference persists over time; and
(3) are more valuable in both the short and the long run.
The average value of a referred customer is at least 16% higher than that of a nonreferred customer with similar demographics and time of acquisition.”

“I see a future in which marketing is customer driven. Instead of being passive recipients of “hits” from mass media, customer will determine what they will be exposed to, in what form, in what sequence, and from what sources. They will increasingly turn to the varous forms of word of mouth”

The above is the quote from George Silverman’s book: “The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing”, one of the best books ever written on the subject of Word-of-Mouth Marketing. Let me highly recommend Silverman’s book: you will find many useful strategies and tactics how to harness word of mouth. Silverman argues that “the idea that word of mouth can’t be harnesssed is probably the most dangerous and costly marketing oversight”.

One more quote about the importance of Word of Mouth: “The secret to marketing success is no secret at all: Word of mouth is all that matters” (Seth Godin)

Still not sold on the importance of WOW factor and positive word of mouth? Here are more research findings demonstrating that positive word of mouth (i.e. WOW factor) is more common / has higher impact than negative word of mouth:

- “In 15 studies, positive word of mouth (PWOM) is more common than negative word of mouth (NWOM) in every case. The incidence ratio averages 3 to 1” (Source: The relative incidence of positive and negative word of mouth: A multi-category study, East, R., Hammond, K., Wright, M., International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 24, Issue 2, 2007)

- “For familiar brands, we find that the impact of PWOM is generally greater than NWOM“ (Source: Measuring the impact of positive and negative word of mouth on brand purchase probability Robert Easta, Kathy Hammond, and Wendy Lomax, International Journal of Research in Marketing
Volume 25, Issue 3, September 2008, Pages 215-224)

Also, check out my previous post on the Age of WOW! and “Wow Orientation”.

A report from eConsultancy showed that 25% of the budget is focused on digital channels. The number is up from only 20% in 2009, and it is likely to be around 30-32% in 2011.

Source: Marketing Sherpa 2010

Viral Marketing tactics (including Viral Video) is the new marketing trend. Note the big corporate names such as Heineken, Evian, McDonald, T-Mobile… resorting to this new marketing strategy:

Top ten viral videos in January 2011

Top 10 Most-shared Online Videos January 2011:

1. DC Shoes – Ken Block’s Gymkhana Three, Part 2 – Ultimate Playground, L’Autodrome
2. Evian – Roller Babies
3. Icon Films – Motorcycle vs. Car Drift Battle”
4. Danny MacAskill – Way Back Home
5. Trance Urban – The Most Amazing Beat Box Video Ever
6. Heineken – The Entrance
7. McDonald’s – BF&GF TVC
8. DC Shoes – Ken Block’s Gymkhana Two, The Infomercial
9. Lego – The Brick Thief
10. T-Mobile – Welcome Back

Here are my two favourite viral videos: Evian (Roller Babies) and T-Mobile (“Welcome Back”):

Here is one trend that could be added to my top ten e-marketing trends (see my previous post): Augmented Reality.

The total value of mobile augmented reality (AR) applications will approach $1.5 billion in 2015, up from just $1.5 million in 2010 according to research published on Marketing Charts

What is AR? According to Wikipedia, “Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input, such as sound or graphics… As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real-world with a simulated one”.

Simple example would be the yellow “first down” line shown when watching NFL games on TV (The real-world elements are the football field and players, and the virtual element is the yellow line)… Another example of AR in sport would be in tennis: the projected tennis ball path determining if the ball was in or out…It WAS out!

See the top ten AR examples (including Adidas, BMW and RayBan) on DigitalBuzzBlog:
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/top-10-augmented-reality-examples/