FreshNetworks Blog

Another interesting issue raised by Wolfgang Lünenbürger-Reidenbach of Edelman PR was his view that word of mouth is an outcome and not a strategy. He cites the example of viral videos and the fact that usually viewers can remember the video and the concept but not the brand. Unfortunately for Wolfgang, he spoke after a presentation showing a couple of really memorable branded viral spots, but the point still stands.

For me this is perhaps a wider issue with the way we think about word of mouth. Too many people focus on it as a push mechanism. Measurements often focus on the number of people who the campaign pushes out to and not the number of people to whom they then spread word of mouth. We concentrate more on the givers of word of mouth than the receivers. Perhaps something we should build on here – it might reveal some interesting observations.