Word-of-mouth is increasingly being recognised as a key influence in how consumers make decisions about brands. Although social media is one of the primary drivers in the current growth of WOM, it has relevance to all media and marketing. This is according to Ed Keller, a leading expert in the US on WOM, and Chief Executive Officer of Keller Fay Group, who presented his findings at the IPA last week (17th February 2010) on how agencies could utilise WOM in their media plans.
A Word of Mouth metric will be included for the first time in the next TouchPoints survey, the results of which will be coming out in July.
In the US marketing investment in this area is growing rapidly and it is now gaining momentum in the UK. Says Keller, “Brands have become very aware that word-of-mouth is a key driver for their business and we now can see that advertising and word-of-mouth can work together in powerful ways.”
In America, according to Keller’s research*, 77% of WOM takes place face-to-face, 15% over the phone and 6% online (includes emailing, texting, social networking). Moreover he estimates that over three billion brand impressions are made via WOM, across many categories, and applies both to ‘everyday’ brands and ‘hot’ brands.
WOM and advertising should work together says Keller, as further findings (in the US) include:
• 48% of consumer brand conversations refer to marketing or media, with 22 per cent of these including references to advertising campaigns, demonstrating the key role it plays in driving this.
• The most talked about brands are those with the biggest ad spend.
• Less than ten per cent of brand conversations via WOM tend to be negative.
• Marketers need to reach those people who are starting the conversations to be effective —this group is dubbed ‘ ‘Conversation Catalysts’. They are two-and-a-half to eight times more likely than the average to have conversations about the brand, helping advertising messages to go further.
‘Conversation Catalysts’ for a wide variety of product areas will be identified in the next TouchPoints survey with questions designed to give planners the most effective ways to reach them; at what times and through which media.
*Keller’s findings are from Keller Fay’s ‘TalkTrack’; a syndicated research study of consumer word-of-mouth about products,services and brands. Launched in June 2006 it is based on 36,000 online interviews per year with weekly quotas and 350,000 brand conversations per year.
For more information, read Ed Keller's article in this month's
MediaTel.
You can also find out more about TouchPoints 3 on the IPA
blog here.