Buzz

The Guardian have a really interesting article about the ethics and success of various word of mouth campaigns. This is all in the context that a report by Deutsche Bank in 2004 found that ‘just 18% of television campaigns in the US actually generated a positive return on investment. In the long term this figure rose, but only to 45%, suggesting that most TV advertising is little more than a fun way for a company to waste its money.’

Sneaky campaigns such as one for a Premiership football club where actors pretended to be fans and told other fans that they’d been sacked by work for receiving all the latest insider news on the club, feel ethically wrong and consumers feel duped.

However, more overt campaigns such as Nike’s Run London generate positive word of mouth. The Guardian concludes that:

“In the end, having entered this new age of sponsored stooges and media manipulation, one could be forgiven for thinking that no one can be trusted any more. Certainly this is how the sponsors and manipulators often see things. “I think we live in a society in which you should take everything you see, read or hear with a bit of a pinch of salt,” shrugs Goodkind, speaking for much of his profession, “because nothing is what it seems.”