Buzz Marketing Ideas

John Scott · 02-14-2006, 06:56 AM

I just did a post on Buzz Marketing and am looking for buzz marketing ideas that have a deeper impact on the Internet.

Anybody got ideas?

**James Trotta** · 02-14-2006, 07:39 AM

I posted a little something about networking or being interesting like Ebay.

wrmineo · 02-14-2006, 07:39 AM

Wow - why is the sky blue?

Your article is great, but I unfortunately don't have any great, ready responses.

But now that you've intrigued me and clouded my thought process for the rest of the day, I'll have to ponder it awhile and hope to be able to better give input later.

For now, I'm off to Barnes and Noble to check out the book you've referenced

John Scott · 02-14-2006, 07:43 AM

It's been clouding my thought processes for a while now.

James, good idea with the news reporters. Just got to do something with newsworthiness in mind.

NeO · 02-14-2006, 12:15 PM

Good article...

And as far as the answer to your question... The square root of Pi`?

Community, Community, Community! That's your buzz... it's hard to keep coming up with things that everyone will find interesting all of the time... Thought provoking though

NeO

Jimmy2 · 02-15-2006, 02:25 PM

I think a good example of word of mouth and buzz marketing working together is Krispie Kreme Donuts. They used buzz marketing with television news about how it costs $2,000.000.00 for a franchise from a word of mouth company that had been around for years. Then they created the hot light, every time the hot light comes on everyone dashes to Krispie Kreme for free hot fresh donuts and that is an on going buzz several times daily. Hmmm just a thought!

haga · 02-16-2006, 01:51 AM

I think buzz marketing may be good for the first impression of all curious consumers

wrmineo · 02-16-2006, 07:37 AM

I think another aspect of buzz marketing is to capitalize and exploit every possible angle on a continual basis. Once a small fire starts, keep fueling the fire and hopefully it will begin burning out of control without much effort; however, keep tabs so that if the winds shift you can adjust and add more excellerant.

John Scott · 02-17-2006, 12:55 AM

I read a good article on buzz marketing a while back, but forgot where I read it. It got me thinking that many situations that businesses encounter could be used to create buzz, but most businesses do not exploit those.

ChrisBrady · 03-04-2006, 09:30 AM

I have some old examples from my days at Fox. The best one was When Terri Rikolta from Michigan happen to stumble upon a "Married with Children" episode. It was the one where Al and his neighbor had to drive to Racine to find Peggy's discontinued bra at the only store in the Midwest that still had some in stock, a bra and peep show store.

She was so incensed at what she saw that with her politician husband’s help she went on a tirade against the filth that we were broadcasting at Fox. She garnered national attention for her cause but it backfired. The following Sunday we got our first 10.0 rating in any program in our short history. LOL.

It did a lot to put us on the map and from then on "Married with Children” became one of our highest rated shows and an anchor for Sunday Night.

We had a big party on Monday!!! Barry Diller, our President at the time said. "Not only did we break the 10.0 rating barrier on Sunday night, but we did it with fewer people on staff than NBC has in their catering department in their NY headquarters."

**James Trotta** · 03-04-2006, 10:03 AM

The smart crazy folk go after advertisers instead of national media attention. For example conservative groups started boycotting any product advertised in some Ms. (the teen version) magazine because the magazine was up front about sex. No media, but the advertisers got scared and Ms. was hurt so badly they were put up for sale...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisBrady

I have some old examples from my days at Fox. The best one was When Terri Rikolta from Michigan happen to stumble upon a "Married with Children" episode. It was the one where Al and his neighbor had to drive to Racine to find Peggy's discontinued bra at the only store in the Midwest that still had some in stock, a bra and peep show store.

She was so incensed at what she saw that with her politician husband’s help she went on a tirade against the filth that we were broadcasting at Fox. She garnered national attention for her cause but it backfired. The following Sunday we got our first 10.0 rating in any program in our short history. LOL.

It did a lot to put us on the map and from then on "Married with Children” became one of our highest rated shows and an anchor for Sunday Night.

We had a big party on Monday!!! Barry Diller, our President at the time said. "Not only did we break the 10.0 rating barrier on Sunday night, but we did it with fewer people on staff than NBC has in their catering department in their NY headquarters."

BWelford · 03-04-2006, 10:41 AM

I hadn't thought about the distinction in your article, John, between buzz marketing and word-of-mouth marketing. I think it's fundamental and important. Of course you can try and make word-of-mouth marketing easier by guest books or free tickets for your friends but you're really trying to get a community to communicate among themselves.

With buzz marketing, you're trying to get a new viral message to pass around like an infection. I think you've got to think of some message where there is already a receptivity for the message. Donald Rumsfeld recently described it as a media vacuum. If there is such a vacuum then the word will spread rapidly. So spread the word that your CEO will give away free domains or twenty dollar bills at the company head office at noon tomorrow and just watch the word spread. It's a kind of pull situation. If the message needs to be pushed, then it probably won't work. You'll have to do old-fashioned media advertizing for that.

John Scott · 03-04-2006, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWelford

If the message needs to be pushed, then it probably won't work. You'll have to do old-fashioned media advertizing for that.

Very well said.

I've been thinking more about this, and I think that word of mouth may actually be better marketing than buzz. Buzz marketing - getting in the news - may not be a sustainable maketing strategy. Word of mouth is sustainable.

I'll look into this more, but off the top of my head I can't think of any company that gets buzzed every month or every two months.

**James Trotta** · 03-05-2006, 07:00 AM

I think some companies manage to make the news regularly (though I'm not sure how much news coverage equals buzz). Ebay comes to mind (they also have awesome word of mouth going on) and professional sports teams also make the news regularly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Very well said.

I've been thinking more about this, and I think that word of mouth may actually be better marketing than buzz. Buzz marketing - getting in the news - may not be a sustainable maketing strategy. Word of mouth is sustainable.

I'll look into this more, but off the top of my head I can't think of any company that gets buzzed every month or every two months.

John Scott · 03-05-2006, 07:30 AM

Is eBay in the news a lot?

Sports teams ... huh. Interesting. I'll have to give that some thought.

**James Trotta** · 03-05-2006, 07:56 AM

Yes, I did a Google news search to check. Again, I'm not sure how much news exposure you need to get a buzz... I mean they don't get on channel 2 news every month...

What about stock exchanges? Those are companies in the news every day. And some more popular stocks like Google make finance news all the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Is eBay in the news a lot?

Sports teams ... huh. Interesting. I'll have to give that some thought.

John Scott · 03-05-2006, 08:04 AM

I'm starting to think that the best buzz is not in contests, gimmicks, give aways or publicity stunts. The best buzz is by being the damn best.

Think about it. Paris Hilton gets buzz for getting out of a car or going to some vacation. She gets buzz by virtue of being her.

BlueFind got a huge amount of buzz from being the first of its kind - high PR, 100% paid submission directory. No gimmicks were involved - we got buzz for doing business as usual.

That's what I'm giving more thought to.

Mong · 03-05-2006, 08:08 AM

Buzz marketing is good or not?
I think not what the second graph is showing.

FeedBack:
Million Dollar Homepage created at least two spikes

and it will create on another nearly after 5 years when this site will go off.