Ripple Effect – a new book on word-of-mouth by empowerment

Martin Oetting – sorry, Dr. Martin Oetting, as of a short while ago (congratulations!), just published a reference to his newly released thesis: ripple effect (How Empowered Involvement Drives Word of Mouth). The link leads to a page with a small „social media release“, which includes a PDF with a short summary (in German), a video interview, etc.

The key question triggering this whole study was: „how can marketing leverage word-of-mouth for products and brands?“

The answer, in short: empowered involvement, by offering choice and meaning, leveraging consumer competence, allowing for real impact by the target audience. The long answer: buy the book 😉

Here is the video interview with Dr. Martin Oetting (in German):

„Where the hell is Matt“ was a hoax, admits Matt.

Everybody must have seen one of the „where the hell is Matt“ Videos. The guy travelling around the world, dancing in some of the most remote places on this planet.

Recently, speculations have been increasing about the whole thing being a fake. Well, now Matt answers to this accusations, admitting that it was, indeed, a viral marketing campaign, that he’s an actor (he played a corpse on CSI Miami), and that all the other people in the videos are robots.

But see for yourself, it’s groundbreaking news:


(via metafilter)

😉

Top 10 Viral Videos of 2008

The Guardian has just announced the top 10 viral videos of this year, as picked by GoViral. I guess this is the first of many „best of 2008“ posts that I’ll find and link to in the next 3 weeks. Shortly followed by posts about „Trends for 2009″… Anyway, here it is:

1. Wassup anno 2008
Disclaimer: Budweiser’s parent company, Anheuser Busch, which originally licensed the concept for five years from Stone, was not involved in the production of the ad

2. SFW XXX Party Invitation
Diesel’s naughty montage of 1980s porn films using cartoon animation to cover up explicit scenes, just, for its 30th anniversary

3. Kobe Bryant jumps over an Aston Martin
Nike’s clever „did he or didn’t he“ actually clear a car. Probably not, but it got people talking, and watching

4. Extreme Street Football
Electronic Arts trickery masterpiece featuring kids with football skills – and parkour and capoeira – using a football like you ain’t never seen

5. Take it to the next level
Guy Ritchie directs this shot-in-first-person tale of a teen footballer’s hardcore ups and downs from being discovered to losing teeth to playing for a national team

6. Tiger Woods 09 – Walk on Water
When a fan of EA’s golf game pointed out a flaw that Tiger Woods could play a „Jesus Shot“ from on water, the game manufacturer’s response was this viral featuring the man himself

7. Bean Counter
One of those Mac vs PC ads where Apple prods Microsoft over spending loads on advertising Vista when it should be fixing it

8. Samsung Omnia i900 Unboxing
Samsung spoof of the tech-fan trend of filming opening the box of a new gadget for the first time

9. Fate – Leave Nothing
Emotive Nike fare of lifelong rivalry of two NFL players featuring version of sound track from the Good the Bad and the Ugly

10. Adam and Eve
Insurance company ad featuring a gay Adam and frustrated Eve that found life online after being banned from TV