Why Wfactor works so well.

BUZZ works…period.
The trick is how to create the BUZZ around a product or service.

As an agency we started marketing into social networks some years back and developed a nation-wide network of housewives which give us permission to market/ place/ integrate the brands within their social networking times. The tryvertising leads to amazing results, both from the perspective of creating a buzz to also creating retail footfalls.
While the activation is predominantly focused on brands where-in the decision makers are predominantly women – the categories can be endless, ranging from the obvious once like f & b products, household products, women specific product to newer domains like families health care and insurance. The lady of the house influences buying decisions, esp. if she is passionate about a specific brand.
The format allows long encounters with the brand… as against a 30 sec TV spot. There is reason to try the product and experience it in the right ambience, discuss its qualities and benefits, ensure peer endorsement and approval. The group is also very vocal and is willing to share usage patterns, competition product reviews and your own product reviews (so much for vanilla packaged focused group research )
Product placement at the retail front and a clever use of redemption schemes normally ensure extended retail involvement and off-takes. Strategically brands can ensure “no white areas” in the premium geographies and all this while having an ability/option of staying far away from the expensive mass media techniques.
Due to the intensity of the interaction, the consumer not only becomes a buyer, but becomes a brand ambassador, creating the ripple effect within peer groups.

While on a different format P&G had enlisted 225,000 teenagers to tell their friends about brands like Herbal Essences and Old Spice. Last year, figuring the strategy could be just as effective with adults, P&G signed up 500,000 volunteers, all mothers, for Vocalpoint, a program in which the moms evangelize about pet food, paper towels and hair color. P&G gives the women marketing materials and coupons, but they are free to say whatever they like (or nothing at all) about the products. The so-called agents are provided with information about the clients' products and in return give detailed feedback about the conversations they have. Read more about this at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1609809,00.html

The interactive freedom.

What really makes this site http://www.mvm.com/en/index.htm stand out is that it goes way beyond only creating / generating a buzz. The content is interactive in the real sense of the word and will draw visitors, ensure that they try out the product – virtually and then buy. It provides an alternate (and may I say better) shopping experience.

While early adaptors of interactive content, like the Subservient Chicken, generated not only buzz, but a good amount of traffic for Burger King – my believe that a lot of “interactive content” pushed in by various brands and agencies is more to do with “me too” buzz rather than looking at an ROI from a good interactive web presence.

My belief is that success has to be found on combination of buzz (to drive traffic) and utility (to ensure ROI). Only buzz to me sounds very much like the “eyeball” game prior to the dotcom meltdown. The buzz needs to be taken over by usefulness or stickiness of the product and MY VIRTUAL MODEL achieves the same in a simple yet exciting manner. Anyone (some of my pals included) who has used this app (if I can call it that), have taken a few seconds to understand and then have stayed online, trying different brands, styles and colors and all on models which are their clones (well almost) – do you want to guess the average time that an individual can spend on this site?

Now imagine the “the long tail” of product line which can be retailed using this model – it is never going to be possible for a traditional retailer to stock the options.

This is the start of the end of brochure-sites on the web.