Introduction

Much has been written about word of mouth marketing and the role of influencers in modern communications, most notably by Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point (2000).

At the heart of the argument is that some individuals within a target audience are more influential than others. This is a concept that is often referred to as the "law of the few" or explained via the 80/20 Principle, which is the idea that in any situation roughly 80 percent of the 'work' will be done by 20 percent of the participants.

The emergence of web 2.0 has provided a fertile platform for so-called influencers to flourish - with the likes of Martin Lewis and his Money Saving Expert site a good example of an established web commentator unconnected to any brand having a significant influence over consumer decision making and word of mouth.

What is often overlooked, are how traditional channel campaigns can amplify the online effects of these conversations. As media planners, we rightly focus on measuring a quantifiable return on advertising investment for our clients. However, the fact that the primary outcome of investing in most media is the creation of word of mouth is often ignored, something that can be actively redressed through smarter planning.

Recent changes to the TGI dataset (the research currency which the media planning community thrives on) have enabled planners to isolate the most influential sub-groups within target audiences based on Gladwell's segmentation. The data is represented by category, so an influencer group's consumption behaviour can be isolated and targeted to maximise word of mouth creation.

The premise is that if you can prime the influencers before the rest of your target market, then they will help amplify your communication as the campaign rolls out.

Channel 4 | Skins

This was the strategic imperative behind the launch of Channel 4's Skins, where the highly influential were identified and "hot-housed" through online blogs and other social networking channels before the wider-spread offline activity.

This was a neat execution for a target group that was critically already embracing the new technology channels utilised.

Social Networking

As the use of social websites achieves mass usage, there is an opportunity to integrate campaigns further. According to Comscore, 80% of internet users accessed a social networking site in December 2008, and in addition, there is a willingness to adopt new behaviours. This is evidenced by Facebook who have over 15 million users worldwide accessing their site on mobile devices.

With a growing consumer demand for conversational media, the trick is to adjust the way we look at how traditional media stimulates these conversations by reaching more influencers earlier in the campaign. The work undertaken by Arena BLM for the launch of Westfield London recognised this by partnering with Grazia Magazine, delivering the bullseye influencer audience during the launch stage. In turn this demonstrated that by using a combination of PR and advertising through traditional channels, we were able to ensure their flagship shopping destination directly appealed to those at the top of their target market.

Mass Channels

Ensuring mass channels are capable of delivering the most important audience first, requires a closer look at how a channel is deployed. As an example, the implementation of TV can be re-designed to ensure more influencers are targeted, and more are reached at the start of a campaign. This is possible as each programme can be assessed as to its level of exposure to the most important influencers in a category.

e.g. a flight of TVRs may look like Fig.1. (with the programmes high in the influencers delivered equally across the campaign period.)

Fig.2 shows how for the same budget, the programme mix can be enriched with influencer programmes and front weighted to ensure amplification of word of mouth.

This is a strategy that can be adopted for media channels where there is an abundance of individual placements, and where the destination is a key discriminator of audience. e.g. TV programmes, online websites, and to some extent press titles.

With media continuing to fragment and advertisers expecting more return for their existing budgets, this approach allows advertisers to truly harness the power of word of mouth through their current channels. Not only does it allow better targeting to their most important audiences, but it also fuels the web based conversations that are now a part of a truly integrated campaigns.

A thought piece by Martin Greenbank, Performance Director

© 2009 Arena BLM