WOM: What will $3.7 billion do to WOMMA?

This year's Word of Mouth Marketing Summit brought together leaders from across the space - brands, agencies, technology companies, individuals - in what will be probably the last intimate WOM lovefest.

The last lovefest?
There was a funny moment onstage during the WOMMIE awards when Peter Waldheim, our acting CEO, was handing out the actual awards and doing the smile-for-photographers thing. First person got a handshake. Second person got an arm clasp. Third one got a big old hug. Someone yelled out "WOM love!" That's one of the things I love about the organization - the same friendliness that we aspire to practice in our best communications and relationship-building with customers permeates the organization.

Why is that over? Simple.

"Marketers are expected to spend more than $1.35 billion this year on word of mouth marketing, making it the fastest growing segment in marketing services, according to a research presentation delivered by Patrick Quinn, President and CEO of PQ Media, at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's third annual Word of Mouth Marketing Summit today."

and

"...the WOM industry is forecasted experience incredible growth, leading to a spend of more than $3.7 billion in 2011"

The "industry" is still being defined and exists now with some overlapping boundaries into digital marketing, public relations, customer research, community management and, even, advertising. The common factor - what WOM is - WOMMA describes as:

• The act of consumers providing information to other consumers.
• Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place.
• It is the art and science of building active, mutually beneficial consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-marketer communications.

And this industry grew 37.7% in 2007 according to PQ Media's study (read Andrea Weckerle's admirable coverage of what was a "rapid fire presentation.) Which brings us to the demise of the lovefest. This coming year will see major marketers - both on the brand and agency side - flooding into the WOM world. More and more CMOs, Communications Officers and, even, CEOs will see these numbers and the power of word of mouth marketing and adopt programs even as we still work on an industry standard measurment model.

Next year, the Summit will be different since a lot more will be seen as at stake. There will be many more marketers who want to understand WOM quickly and apply it to their marketing an communications plans. There will be more businesses like this year's participants, Cranium and the band Sister Hazel, who bake WOM into their culture and business model. There will be so many more people that the informal lovefest will likely become more formal and business-like. that happens when a lot of people recognize the $$$ in play.

I don't know, maybe we can keep the love alive even with the explosive growth and success of our industry. the Summit was great this year.

Comments

[Aurelius Tjin]

Whoa, that's a great deal! I hope the industry gets going and keep flourishing. :)

[Spike]

We're lovers, John. Not haters. And we'll keep it real that way over here in Brains on Fire-land. Hugs all around...

[Michael Rubin, GasPedal]

John,

As my dearly-departed Bubbe used to say in her Yiddishe accent, "Such a problem to have!"

We've been talking about Word of Mouth as an 'industry' from the very first WOMMA Summit back in March 2005. The fact that there's real resources (not just money) now being invested and spent is a *good thing*. It means more and more people will come in and their own mark, add to the conversation, make mistakes (yes, it happens), and otherwise move everything forward. My personal belief is that the more ideas, the merrier.

The names may change, but the fundamentals don't: people love to talk about companies/products/services that treat them well and with respect.

Cheers,
Michael

[Warren Sukernek]

John,

Nice meeting you at the conference. Reading your blog is better than taking notes!

Remember, WOM is love.

[John Bell]

I am actually looking forward to what all this growth brings. If we can just land a decent measurement model we should be off to the races.....

[Will Fleiss]

Should an increased sense of formality come with all this money, it seems that marketers will not stick around WOM for long because it won't work. It is the informal honest expression that allows WOM to thrive, therefore marketing efforts most be able to talk the talk in order to be successful. When in Rome...