this is my happy place
As part of our active membership of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) Social Media Council, it’s our duty to discuss, debate and disclose details and information about the issues facing the industry today.
Effective immediately, we’ll be contributing a monthly column to the IAB UK Social blog pages and that kicks off today with this blog post covering off the ASA’s new remit, Tiger Woods’ sponsorship with Nike and acceptance of modern day commercially arranged endorsements.
Diving into day two of our month long 10th birthday celebrations, we’re going to answer one of the longest-standing questions that we get asked almost weekly (if not daily)…
Exactly what is Word of Mouth?
Our creative team has been beavering away on a handy little infographic for your viewing pleasure –
Download the PDF from slideshare (recommended)
We’ll be getting a couple of these framed and put up in the office very shortly, in the meantime – if you’d like your very own version of this poster, leave a comment and we’ll get in touch when we start printing.
In the meantime take a look and let us know what you think, share and share alike 🙂
“Word of Mouth: The Most Powerful Force in the World!”
See you back here tomorrow, for more Birthday shenanigans…
So here I am at 1000heads (or ‘a thousand heads’ – depending who you ask) and I’ve been charged with becoming a regular contributor to the this here 1000heads blog page.
Does it have a name?
No.
Is it front page?
Yes.
Excellent.
About that whole 1000heads thing, we’re the Word of Mouth people don’t you know. We teach brands and people, big or small, how to talk to other brands or people, big or small. By using that most ancient and naked form of communication, word of mouth.
Astonishingly simple when you write it down like that but in the main, relatively difficult to achieve by comparison. Or so you’d think…
One of my personal favourite word of mouth (or WOM) thingy wotsits of late is that of In-N-Out Burger.
Who exactly?
The WOM hasn’t really worked here has it? Well it kind of has, but locally. The thing with In-N-Out, is that it’s a Western US-exclusive burger bar. The menu is made up burgers, cheeseburgers and fries… and that’s it. Yes there’s the usual array of soft drinks, fizzy and milky in equal measure, but in the main the overall offering available for your delectation is somewhat lacking,
Or so you might think.
In-N-Out have a ‘secret menu’ (not so secret that it’s not on their own website – but still), that is only available if you know what to ask for. Animal Fries for instance. Can you see it on the menu? I can’t. The 4×4? Nope, not there either…
In INO’s own words (on the secret menu page):
“Ok, you’ve heard the rumors, wondered what was on it, maybe even felt a little left out of the loop. But in reality, we don’t have any secrets at all. It’s just the way some of our customers like their burgers prepared, and we’re all about making our customers happy. So here are some of the most popular items on our not-so-secret menu…”
Yes they’re up front(ish) about it, but notice how they only give away ‘some’ of the most popular items on the secret menu. There be gold in them there hills. Oh yes…
There’s something inherently cool about being ‘in the club’ and ‘in the know’ – and reaching those lofty pinnacles of whispers on the beaches of Los Angeles betwixt one surfer and another is – as I stated earlier – no easy task.
But one small chain of burger bars in the US has managed to do just that.
Now tell me you’re not hungry…