Our guest speaker from FreeNYC got me thinking about another way in which word-of-mouth marketing and promotion is used--or maybe a way in which it's been co-opted.
A few years ago, I signed up with a word-of-mouth marketing company called BzzAgent. I filled out a demographic profile and every so often, they will e-mail me when they've got a "campaign" for which I and my friends are likely to be the appropriate target audience.
So far, I've gotten free Fila sneakers, a free membership to BJ's Wholesale Club, a new Ralph Lauren fragrance, and lots of other free products, ranging from books published by Penguin imprints to a new artifical sweetener called Sweet Simplicity to Hershey's Take 5 bars.
In return, of course, the Web site and the advertisers who pay for access to the Web site's BzzAgents want the agents to talk up these new and cool products to friends. Filing Web-based reports about who you Bzz'ed and their reactions earns you points which can be redeeemd for gifts. Interestingly, though, the report form now includes a line about whether the people you Bzz'ed knew you were a BzzAgent -- and BzzAgent won't give you points for talking up products if you haven't disclosed your affiliation with the company.
Of course, there's no way BzzAgent can verify whether you really spoke to the people you say you did... and whether you disclosed your affiliation, either. They have also started to crack down on people who create multiple profiles with each of their different e-mail addresses, in an effort to get more free stuff. In some ways, I guess it's the same old problem as people showing up for an in-person focus group who say they meet the criteria... but really don't. Anyway, as we continue to live our time-shifted TiVo-based lives, this issue of "truth in advertising" seems like it will continue to take on greater importance.
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