“For a great time, call Bambi”

A new, “hot” trend in advertising/marketing is buying word-of-mouth buzz. There is a burgeoning industry, of agencies that provide armies of teenagers who go on social networking sites and promote products, movies, celebrities (without revealing they are paid shills).

The age-old ‘media’ of flyers handed out on street. Liquor companies hire teams of “Beautiful People” to descend on popular New York bars at prime time, all loudly ordering and extolling the virtues of some new booze.

One “expose” of these practices on NBC’s DATELINE , with an interview of a young guy running one of the agencies/companies organizing these fake word-of-mouth campaigns, took the position it was a deceptive method of marketing. And maybe it is. But we can also wonder if Tiger Woods really drives around in a Buick mini-van.

Jerry Wilson, author of the book ‘Word Of Mouth Marketing’, long ago made the point that this is a poorly managed opportunity – that most businesses take what they can get, but do little to make it happen, even less to manage it, to handle word-of-mouth marketers as you would a sales force.

Now there are businesses that are manufacturing and buying faux word-of-mouth. Not much measurement yet, to prove efficacy. But interesting nonetheless. At the very least, it suggests more value than you might presently be placing on encouraging the real thing.

Another technique growing in popularity is on the street, manual labor distribution of what we might call “grabbers.”

For example, to promote USA Network’s TV series “Traffic” (about drug cartels), they hired a NY agency (Media Kitchen) to affix stickers with the show name, logo and air date to 50,000 real $1.00 bills and get them into circulation in bars in New York and Los Angeles beginning early January.

More economically, Trump’s show ‘The Apprentice’ was promoted with 5,000 fake $100.00 bills with Trump’s face in place of Ben Franklin’s, handed out on New York City streets two days before the show’s premiere.

In Atlanta, some 25,000 fake hand-written notes, in feminine handwriting, on what appeared to be torn corners of cocktail napkins – “For a great time, call Bambi at 000-000-0000 anytime” – were left in bars, cabs, men’s restrooms in restaurants and clubs. Callers heard a recorded message “from Bambi” promoting a big, new strip club.

What other examples have you seen?

Author Info:  Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's "No B.S." approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice.