The buzz terms "viral" and "WOM" have been doing the digital circuit for quite some time now. However in the past six months or so the personality of these fraternal twins has started to develop giving a clearer distinction between the two: Viral is a content driven free spirit, while it’s high maintenance sister WOM is a more controlled, product testing creature. So while they both aim to get people talking they tend to go about it in different ways.
Viral is a show off. The viral works best with engaging content, be it an edgy original video; a useful or jaw-dropping email or a cheeky microsite. The content is then dropped on sites that are synonymous with entertainment. The users then act as spread agents, forwarding to friends, posting on social networking pages and the like.
However for the viral effect to work the content has to be compelling enough for people to want to pass it own. Bearing in mind that the user has an ulterior motive too: s/he wants to build kudos with their peers: if the content will damage their online reputation in anyway then they may not want to be associated to it.
From an advertisers point of view, there are some laws of engagement to be observed to help protect, not just your reputation, but your audience’ too. Firstly, be transparent: let everyone know that it’s you behind this brilliant piece of content. Then let go: try content that is slightly outside of your comfort zone; or resonates in some way with your audience (Nike do this really well). And as imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, be prepared for the audience to play around with your creation. You’re in their space and they will feel the need, nay right, to tweak it, mash it, or spoof it. Finally remember with a viral, once it’s out there, there is not much you can do to stop it. Free spirit will out. However you can track it’s spread, which is the ROI part.
A good viral will travel the internet at just under the speed of light. So it’s important to know where you seeded it, how long it was there among the other equally engaging content before anyone picked it up; and how many eyeballs (approximately) have seen it, how long they played it for, forwarded on or shared on a social page. Vivkai’s partnership with GoViral means our clients can embark on a viral campaign with seeding, tracking and measurement taken care of, while enjoying our preferred partner rates and quality service level agreements.
As with Viral, the WOM campaigns requires the advertiser to put something in the hands of the users to spark conversation. In contrast to Viral, WOM campaigns rely on users to create that ‘something’. It’s a more rigorous approach, that involves identifying influential online users, recruiting them to test a product or service and giving them the platform to then write recommendations for or against their experience, using video, photos or blogs. The advertiser can moderate content and in some cases can intercept the flow of conversations, but does have to maintain a realistic distance from the blogger so reviews keep their credibility and don’t come across as paid for advertorials.
The upside of the product being tested by prolific and respected users, is that their comments will be spread by friends, with up to three degrees of separation, in their social virtual worlds. This will then increase their appearance on search results, which in turn increase the bloggers popularity. Readers can then tag the articles, post to social syndication sites like reddit, stumble upon, digg or del.ic.ious, and forward to friends.
Depending on the weight of the initial recommendation readers will either pass on positive or negative comments during offline/one-to-one conversations. Typically offline WOM spurs online review searches. And so the cycle continues. Although there is no real measure for offline WOM, online can be measured by tracking the volume of conversations taking place across the net. ROI is then determined by cost per conversation and of course any uplifts in sales.
As with it’s sibling, WOM has a number of similar rules about advertiser netiquette that should be observed. So much so that the US Federal Trading Commission has put some official laws in place for WOM campaigns, that brands and product reviewers have to follow. Although there are no equivalent laws in Europe at the moment, (it will only be a matter of time before other regions catch up), the FTC have offered some guidelines that are actually worth bearing in mind, from a best practice stance:
1. Readers should know that the blogger has been recruited to test the product and write the review.
MY POV: It will make a difference to how the reader will judge the article, but it doesn’t automatically mean that they won’t take the review seriously. After all they are buying into the reputation of the blogger, not the brand they are writing about.
2. Make sure your product tester doesn’t make any unsubstantiated or false claims. The FTC provides an example of a beauty lotion that the tester has been offered to try. The blogger gives it a good recommendation and says that it helped cure their acne. However if the product isn’t specifically designed to do that, and hasn’t been scientifically tested to cure acne, then the advertiser has an obligation to ensure that the kind of information is not included in the testers review.
MY POV: As the brands reputation is at stake when unsubstantiated claims are made, it is good practice to ensure that blogs are sense checked before being released into the ether. As a reader looking for an independent review we may be more susceptible to ‘added benefits’ type comments as it will be seen as the extra piece of information that you would not have gained from a magazine journalist or through the brands website. The question is: by removing any incidental information from a review, are we removing the authenticity of the users overall experience with the product/brand?
To include WOM as part of your digital media solution, Vivkai have media partners like Trnd and Buzz that specialise in WOM campaigns, and will manage the recruitment, distribution of products for testing, hosting of specific user blog sites and search engine optimisation. They will also monitor conversation threads and report on the level of positive vs. negative comments.
Overall the twins are still growing and coming into their own. They have chosen quite distinct paths, which will cross from time to time. Their journey to the user can be hastned with some subtle on and offlline PR along the way. However they do serve difference purposes and if used correctly, as part of the overall digital strategy, can add favourable weight to brand consideration, as well as giving something back to the coveted content junky audience.
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