Word of Mouth Marketing

Speaking of viral marketing, it seems that cell phones are not on the verge of being telemarketed to after all.

Emails that we’re getting from friends and family telling us to register cell phones with the National Do Not Call Registry before January 1, 2005 to prevent numbers from being provided to telemarketers aren’t entirely true.

There is however, a 411 directory assistance service for cell phone numbers being created. You can read more about it here.

Update:  much of the current debate on word of mouth marketing seems to center on "transparency" or, how much you should disclose to the consumer that is being marketed to.

During the recent election cycle, we executed a viral campaign for a national non-profit. Part of the plan called for outreach to bloggers. For our firm, this meant full upfront disclosure or identifying ourselves as working on behalf of the client. The client received much needed exposure but as important, didn’t get negative feedback.

A more interesting question about on line "transparency": is it ok to seed Internet discussions? We all know about best practices’ but I continue to hear contacts justify the practice.

As you probably know, this past weekend’s New York Times article on BzzAgent has caused quite a stir. I think that adrants nails it with the following comments:

Debate Over WOM Advertising Rages

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