Top Quotes from Word of Mouth Supergenius Conference
I attended yesterday’s Word of Mouth Supergenius conference, the brainchild of Andy Sernovitz and gaspedal, to have new conversations about what it takes to generate word of mouth. The content was 50/50 for me, as some of it was 101. The day was also very B2C focused but I still garnered a great deal of inspiration about what Fathom needs to do to amp up our work with clients. You can tap into the conference presentations by perusing the AWESOME live coverage at gaspedal. To catch the conversation from attendees, follow the hashtag #supergenius on Twitter.
I met an incredible mix of folks from all walks of life and the discussions I had in between sessions was worth the trip into the city and I’m looking forward to connecting with them online and beyond. But, I think the most interesting thing I can share are my favorite quotes straight from the mouths themselves so here they are . . .
Andy Sernovitz, creator of WOMMA, CEO of gaspedal, torch bearer of Social Media Business Council, blogger at Damn I Wish I’d Thought of That: For Andy, I have two favorites: “Advertising is the price of being boring” and “Every Homer has a Marge.” Andy’s laser focus in his opening remarks was all about making love. That’s right. Beautiful, sweet word of mouth love. Advertising exists to buy your love, as Andy’s no BS remarks state but he’s less concerned with upending the ad industry and more focused on helping companies understand that a lack of love with your brand is a timing issue. Advertising comes first but word of mouth gets the last say (if it is an unknown brand). I would argue that word of mouth can come first and sometimes is the only thing that exists. For those who rely on their personal networks to get information, recommendations and help, an ad can be after the fact to reinforce its existence.
Tony Hsieh, Zappos: “People are bad at predicting happiness.” In other words, “if I get ____, I will be happy.” The beautiful irony of Tony’s discussion gave me hope that there are business leaders who are charging themselves with building more than just a healthy profit margin. Zappos only hires people who want to be inspired, not just motivated, to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Tony is knee deep in studying the science of happiness. Not the fluffy idea of what makes people happy, but what happens to the brain when its on happy. As the “customer service company that happens to sell shoes,” Zappos is engineering a beautiful, and foreign concept, in business and pulling in a boatload of cash money along the way. Side note: Two weeks ago, the longest call time in the company’s history was set. It was 7.5 hours. 7.5 hours! Check out Zappos Insights for more on the customer service revolution they are revving up.
Rohit Bhargava, Senior VP, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence, writes the Influential Marketing Blog and spearheads The Personality Project based on his book “Personality Not Included’: Two favs from Rohit: “The opposite of love is indifference.” and “A great story is entertainment. A shareable story is retold.” Rohit gave us a lot to think about when constructing buzz worthy topics. I like his approach of finding one slice of coolness and focusing on that, even if it’s not your product. If it’s your culture or the way you promote something, tap into that if there is an emotional trigger — belonging, curiosity, exclusivity — that will make a connection with customers. I am also bringing his idea of discussing “predictable failure” instead of attempting to predict success into Fathom. Start with what you know and carve out your strategy from there.
Paull Young, charity: water: “We never ask for money.” 100% of donations go to fund the construction of wells in developing nations. 
Their cause is clean and clear: 1 in 8 people do not have clean, drinkable water. At $20 per person, we can help millions live and fend off disease by giving them access to clean water. The beauty of this charity is that it is so cleanly and tightly communicated that kids in developed countries, like 8 year-old Riley who only ate rice and beans for a month so she could donate grocery money to the cause, pick it up and run with it. I like how Paull ended his session. He talked about what he learned from Tony’s discussion on happiness and how he is now going to look for ways to bring happiness back to his donors and supporters. Those who commit to give and take versus just take, from charities to coupons, will exist for a long time. I suspect charity: water will be around for years. Their goal is to raise 2 billion dollars in under 10 years. It will happen.
Martin Atkins, author of Tour Smart and former Public Image Ltd drummer: “Be the fart in the elevator.” This may not be a direct quote but Atkins was referring to the notion that we are all looking to generate a ginormous atomic explosion in our marketing, when the real success is found in small waves with our most interested fans. There are probably 87 different quotes I could use from Atkins’ talk on how to generate word of mouth offline, but I was laughing too hard throughout his bit to write anything down. I have to say, this was the session that I was looking forward to the most and I was disappointed that it was not a discussion on constructing a holistic online-to-offline strategy. That’s okay. By this time next year, Fathom will be presenting at Supergenius or other conferences on what that looks like.
Olivier Blanchard, a.k.a. The Brand Builder: “ROI is a buiness metric, not a media metric.” Olivier was one of my favorite presenters because he helped bring some science to the art of conversation. His quest was to help us think from the CEO’s chair. ROI is not ‘Return on Influence’ or ‘Return on Interest’ or anything else except ‘Return on Investment.’ C-levels want to know where the investment will need to come from (their hard/soft costs are already allocated for so your social media budget cannot be invented) and how/when you will achieve clarity on the results. His approach has helped me look at all my typical questions about social media and turn them into business questions. For instance, replace ‘Where can I get more WOM?’ to ‘What are my options for fulfilling our objectives?’” Ultimately, if you are asking anyone to invest time, money and resources into anything, it must align with the a company’s current business strategy and structure or you will tune a C-level right out.
Todd Spencer, President & CEO of Doe - Anderson: “How would you treat a friend?” Todd’s presentation was a story about how Maker’s Mark is a true word of mouth company. They do not just implement WOM campaigns, they live and breath word of mouth. Earlier this year they decided to introduce a new product for the second time in the company’s history (based on the request from customers). Pre-launch they invited 150 bloggers and influencers in to try out Maker’s 46. 111 showed up to taste test and the result was articles, videos and tons of chatter that ran thousands of comments deep all over the web. From 1958-1966, it took the company 8 years to sell 25,000 cases. When Maker’s 46 was released, it took 8 weeks. Enough said.
There were no huge revelations for me or life altering discoveries at Supergenius. But, I believe that’s right in line with how our world needs to operate. The days of constructing a “WOW! Did you see that?!” ad campaign and then watching the dollars stream in are over. The Old Spice spokesman guy, Isaiah Mustafa, was talked about at least 5 times yesterday as a great example of successful viral. Yet, how interesting is it that sales for Old Spice are down 7%? You can Daddy Warbucks your customers all you want but be warned that buying their love can only get you so far.
Written by: Suzi Craig
Email the author: suzi@fathom.net
Great post Suzi, I enjoyed reading it!
It’s an interesting time for a lot of brands as they try to discover new ways to break through the clutter, how they can best reach and serve their audiences, and a lot of the time, how can they do all of this (and more) without big advertising budgets.
I couldn’t help but think of a personal experience. I had the amazing opportunity of working with the Krispy Kreme brand when it was launched here in Connecticut. Talk about a true passion brand that relied on zero advertising and mostly on word of mouth and a public relations strategy to generate that excitement and chatter. To me, it’s always been the world of public relations that helps a brand truly connect with their audience and it seems like a lot of the presenters at this conference touched on a lot of tried-and-true PR tactics. For example, Maker’s Mark inviting bloggers to test product, Zappos and their amazing customer service, etc. All are brand touch points focused on positive experiences that ultimately inspire their audiences to do what they want most: talk about them!
Good stuff! See you around,
Derek
Really good point Derek — the missing link is PR. And I see the approach in PR these days is along the lines of the Brian Solis’ of the world: http://www.briansolis.com. If you haven’t read his book Engage, do it now. He was at this conference as well (I didn’t sit in on his session because I’ve heard him before).
The new PR is not controlling the message, it’s connecting the dots to get the right people in your conversation, just like you said. We’re all trying to make something interesting happen — the trick is playing matchmaker and instigator to make it happen!
Suzi,
Thanks for this great recap and for offering your takeaways on the conference. I’ll be sharing your post in a tweet not only because I found it highly engaging to read, but because I love your choice to focus on quotes and key takeaways rather than trying to capture the conference verbatim. This is, in my humble opinion, the way to write a recap post. Thanks for a great read!
R
Rohit –
Thanks so much for your feedback. As much as I can, I try to bring the mojo of a real world experience to those who were unable to be there. It’s so hard to replicate an in-person experience through an online channel. I struggle with connecting the dots but am intent on bridging that gap as much as possible.
I’m glad you found it interesting enough to share. You totally just made my day!
Many thanks.
Thanks good topic ..
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