The 2008 Strategy & Information Forum kicked off Wednesday morning with a keynote by Andy Sernovitz. Andy is known as the WOMM guy, that's Word of Mouth Marketing. Andy's job as the opening keynote was to set the stage for the next two days, so of course the topics were Web 2.0, CGM, and WOMM.

Andy started off his talk with some examples of great, simple WOM. It's the little things that make all the difference. He talked about Red Envelope and how with great product presentation they turn the conversation to their brand.

There has been a evolution in the marketing business, ads to affiliate to search to WOM. With traditional advertising you pay up front, need to monitor the program and then measure results. With affiliate marketing you only pay for success, but it sometimes doesn't scale well. With search you can reach millions for a very low cost, but there is still overhead and management. With WOM, the work is done by the customer, usually at no cost.

The secret to increasing ROI is to get other people to spread your ads for free.

One of the things that lead to Amazon's early success was the affiliate program. They made it really easy for people to run their ads...and yes the affiliate program is advertising. When the first blogging widgets were created, Amazon was there. This enabled them to reach a whole new audience of advertisers.

With traditional advertising, you run it and it's done. That's the way traditional banners. People never save banners. With WOM it can go on and on. With good WOM the true test is will people keep doing it without paying for it. If a blogger picks up a WOM campaign, that blog post will live forever and chances are the reader impressions are a bit more qualified than a traditional banner.

Andy showed the popular Will it Blend campaign. You have millions of people watching an ad that's over a minute long. Then consumers pass this along.

There are three tenets of WOM economics:
- Starts Cheap
- Gets Cheaper
- Builds Assets

WOM is also recession proof. Happy customers are the best ads. The motivation is not money or an affiliate link, it's love. Love gets people to advertise for free.

New love is incredibly powerful. Think of the out-of-box experience. It begs for a recommendation.

WOM 101:

1. Give people a reason to talk about YOUR stuff
2. Make it easier for that conversation to take place

A classic example is Krispy Kreme, they gave people to talk about, hot doughnuts....unfortunately they lost that thing. You can now find their product in gas stations. Who talks about food you buy in a gas station?

To make it easier, make it portable, make it mobile. Allow people to pass it along. Make it easier to share.

There are two motivations in WOMM, the first is You, the brand.

The second motivation is Me, ad in the talker. The influencer. The person you would call about buying a car, or travel. Who is your 'local' expert.

There are very specific emotions related to WOMM:
- Happiness: when things to right.
- Love: passion for products, think Apple
- Surprise: surprise them with things they don't expect
- Fun: think about the stuff your mom forwards to you
- Smart: people like to be experts, give them the inside scoop
- Pride: take ego and add information and reward, make them VIPs
- Anger: when things go wrong, it's also the most powerful of emotions

The third motivation is US, make them part of the community. It's about belonging. People love to show their relationships with brand statements. Think about the Harley owners club.

The 5 T's
- Talkers: find out which people talk about you, it might not always be your current customers
- Topics: What makes a good press release, does not make a good WOM topic
- Tools: What's in the box? What are you sending people, can you pass it along?
- Taking Part: This is what scares marketers, you need to get involved, respond, fix the problem
- Tracking: spending time interacting leads to new inbound links, use traditional metrics

The final question is, "Would you tell a friend?" Is that you're selling, marketing...something you would tell a friend about? If not, what can you do to fix that?